12/12/2007

The holiday season is a good time to prove your value to your radio station.  That plus having a track record of proving your value to the station could lead to big things.

I spent a good part of 1979 as Assistant to the Chief Engineer, Randy Custer at that time at WAAM in Ann Arbor. I was also doing weekends on-air.  I was a combination promotions, remote techie, cart machine and miscellaneous repair dude along with the oh-so-important on-air weekends and fill-in jock. Our Operations Manager and morning host was Jack Hood who had actually hired me earlier that year.

This was way before the days of automation that we have today.  Jack had a special “Voices of Christmas Past” package on 7” reel to reel tapes that ran for 24 hours on Christmas Day… at least when we got done with it!  We copied the entire package plus station Ids, spots, liners and promos to 10” reel to reel tapes.  There was a stack of 24 tapes when we got done and the board operator merely had to shuttle back and forth between reel decks once an hour on Christmas.  We made a big deal out of promoting and selling it. It was a great package.

Jack did some of the work himself, but he asked for my help and I ended up doing the bulk of the “grunt” work, literally “living” in the Production studio overnight.  You wouldn’t think this would be the case, but it was actually exciting for me!  I was “building” a whole day of broadcast using equipment in use at the time.   I was not “officially” a full time employee, but was working full time hours with all the people taking vacations and the large number of remotes I set up (at least once a week for “Fat Bob” Taylor alone, who was doing middays).

The staff holiday party was almost missed by me because I was so busy at the station.  I was late, but Jack rolled out the red carpet for me and made sure I was served a full meal. The first week of December, Jack offered me the full time position of Production Director and his 6-10 PM Monday-Friday host.    Naturally, I accepted!


I had some spots on the air that I had produced, so he was already familiar with my work.  But I feel like jumping in with both feet and finishing the work for the holiday programming ahead of time played a part in landing my promotion.  No matter how “good” you are, or THINK you are, that is really only a small part of your success.

“Getting stuff done” has been a pre-occupation that I carry with me today.  Sometimes – not always but SOMETIMES – hard work and dedication DOES pay off.   Even when it doesn’t you have a sense of accomplishment when a project is completed.

Figuring that out for myself, and being lucky to work for people like Jack led to where I am today.  Jack tapped into my youthful enthusiasm and tossed in a few words of encouragement as any good manager will do.  Sometimes you run into bad managers and in that case, just make the best of the situation.  Get the most of you can possibly get out of a situation, personally, and make plans to leave as soon as possible.

People who are struggling, getting discouraged or impatient just need to keep the brain securely in place, keep on working and put in their best effort at all times, no matter how bad the situation is. 

I had already been in radio a few years prior to landing at that station, so it didn’t happen overnight.  

Jack was also a programming genius, although he would deny it in his later years.  We were hoping to meet at Specs Howard for lunch just prior to his untimely passing a few years ago.  He wanted to give radio "another shot."

Besides Ann Arbor, he had radio stints in Flint, Bay City, Louisville KY, and at one point at WJR.  He would also be a pioneer in a wildly successful video tape rental business.

As far as radio, his “reward” to me 29 years ago for MY work and dedication will never be forgotten.  His morning show will always be a “voice” in my Christmas’s Past. 

Hope you’re having a good holiday season!
Bob Burnham

“Thanks for taking so much of your time the other day…”

Sometimes I get handwritten cards that begin that way, as one of the “techie dudes” at the Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts, and I know the others on staff get a lot more that I get about the same thing, usually after landing at a job they never expected to get.    

Revisiting people of the past also seems also like an exercise many of us go through every so often.  Sometimes those people from way back even become active in your life again.  But there’s nothing like the present and those I get to hang with today.

Almost two years ago, I was surprised with an award I was given at a radio convention I normally attend.  The convention chairman and I go back a lot of years.  

 As I am now, I was a dealer of “old-time” programs, and published a newsletter during the 1970s (no cracks, I was in HIGH SCHOOL at the time!) called News & Reviews.  

This old friends’ profession was that of a graphic artist. He was just a tiny bit older than myself, and well established and respected in his field.  I was a newbie, or a hobbyist, or an entry-level broadcast person ready bid a fond farewell to my teenage years.  

Yet I could string a few words together than made sense and what I listened to on radio or tape, or record made for lots of written content.  I had developed both fans as well as people who hated me.  Some would even call me on the phone using a creative collection of profanity, call me names or make threats.  Ahh, such is the life of a writer who speaks his mind!  

But there were bright moments as well.  In 10th grade I had published an underground newspaper simply called “Rock Review” that one of my favorite teachers quietly ran on the school “ditto” machine.  Once I even wrote a feature about Dick Purtan who was then doing mornings on WXYZ-AM, and sent a copy to Mr. Purtan.  Much to my surprise, a week or so later, I received a hand-typed note of thanks from Dick Purtan himself on WXYZ/ABC letterhead. There was an aside from Dick to give “his best” to my long-haired ultra-cool English teacher I had at that time.  

Much later (after my school days) during the latter years of the 1970s, that afore-mentioned Cincinnati graphic artist / radio fan and I plus another friend would soon team up to publish one of the largest circulating old-time radio magazines of its type.  During the mid 1980s he would also start a radio convention in Cincinnati, which is still going strong.  


Only this year, I stumbled on an interview he did early this year in a national publication, crediting me by name as the very first “old-time” radio person he was in contact with.  It is a cool thing to be remembered and acknowledged.  It is never necessary, but it is appreciated.

Back in the day, we called our publication “Collector’s Corner,” which was never a newsletter or newspaper. It was always a magazine and we soon absorbed some of our competition. “National Radio Trader” became a logo that became part of ours.  Typesetting services were expensive back in the days before computers, but WE HAD a graphic artist who gladly took old radio tapes as “payment” plus we had our trusty IBM Selectric and Smith Corona typewriters with “film” ribbons that reproduced well.

My co-editor had a business called Nostalgia Warehouse (which I would absorb into my own in later years) and I had a similar business that I had started in high school.  

It is no surprise that all of us have remained friends to this day.  What is sometimes a surprise – a pleasant one – when one or more of us gets a chance to remember each other to an audience that might not have been around when we were publishing magazines and getting accolades just because we knew how to write and manage each other.

I have “artfully” NOT mentioned most of the names here since you wouldn’t know them anyway. They do know who they are, although they may not realize the impact they made on my life and to a degree, still do.

But again, there is still nothing like the people of the present – those who may wonder what led to us knowing what know.  They may actually be surprised that someone like me will so readily stop on a dime to help someone regardless of what we may have been in the middle of.  

My colleagues today may have the same attitude, but simply arrived at that mentality in a different way. But they are, in fact, my teachers of today, yet they may also be my students on a different day.  Obviously, we don’t need anyone to sneak into the office during lunch breaks to “publish” our thoughts. No "ditto" publications these days with the purple ink!

Instead, we publish it on a blog site. 

As for the Collector’s Corner-National Radio Trader “Art Director,” today he has a computer too, and is not afraid to use it.     But he has not forgotten those people who gave him content when the typewriters were still on our desks, or who sent him that missing I Love a Mystery episode.

Dick Kernen’s on-going star-studded roster of success stories that came from Specs Howard never cease to amaze me!   With Uncle Dick’s blog in full swing, I realized I myself wouldn’t be where I am today had I not rubbed elbows with or at least taken serious notes from those TYPE of people.

By the way, if you don’t know Mr. Kernen, he’s an important dude at Specs Howard that I get to work in the same building with.  You can read his latest comments here:  www.unclekernen.com/ but don’t forget to finish reading mine!
There are some Specs Howard graduates on my list as well, but many had their roots in the business long before the school existed.  Many of the names are familiar, and very obvious choices.  Others are not so familiar – except maybe to me, or the people who were part of that era.  This list is also not all-inclusive.  I tried to focus on those who left the most positive impression on my mind – looking back today retrospectively.

For anyone who wonders how I know what I know today about radio and related areas, here’s the collection of people who lit the spark of interest and/or passed on their wisdom.

Specs Howard is also staffed by these TYPE of people, so you don’t have to spend your whole life being in the right place at the right time to get started!
                                                       - Bob Burnham

Radio legends I grew up LISTENING to:

Warren Pierce – on the “original” WCAR 1130 AM, long before his arrival at WJR
Ernie Harwell – Detroit Tigers Baseball – WJR, WXYT
The entire 1970s WXYZ-AM line-up before their switch to talk radio:

Dick Purtan – mornings
Johnny Randall – middays
Joe Sasso - afternoons
Dave Lockhart – overnights

Mike Whorf - WJR
Ted Richards - CKLW
Johnny Williams - CKLW
Scott Miller - CKLW
Andy Stoffa   WQRS

Overnight talk show hosts of the 1970s:
Bill Corsair – WCAU Philadelphia
Larry Glick – WBZ Boston

People I actually worked with who were important to me…
From WSHJ Southfield
Bob Sneddon
Lee Knyte
Don Phillips
Fred Sharp
Shelly Sherman

At WBRB Mt. Clemens:
Bob Stone
Larry O’Brien

Some of the talent line-up at WAAM Ann Arbor when I was part of it:
Jack Hood
Art Versnick
“Fat Bob” Taylor
Fred Heller
Dave Dugan
Paul Chapman
Jeff Defran
Ken Kal
Mike Radzik

From WCAR 1090 during the 1990s:
Jack Bailey
Susan McGraw
Jerome Lott
Scott Greenberg
Richard Piet
Dave Shank

My stint as Chief Engineer for the Cumulus Ann Arbor group.
Lucy Ann Lance
John O’Leary
Dennis Fithian
Mark Thompson


From many side projects from the 1990s to present:
Lowell Homburger

Engineering:
Tom Fitzek
Ed Cole
Dr. Frank Berry
Bill Mullen
Bernie Segal and Al Rosner of (then) Jules Cohen Associates
---------------------------------------
Whether they still walk this planet or not, thanks to everyone here, as well as the numerous people who were also there as well who didn’t make the list.

And of course, we’ll save the cool people I work with at the school today for another time.

This topic has been on my mind for a couple weeks and I can’t shake it. The nature of the way I am and what I write about is decidedly upbeat.  Even when things look bleak, “There’s No Need to Fear, Underdog is here” to cast a word of encouragement and hope. That would be me.

To quote Humphery Bogart, a legendary actor of the past, “It ain’t never so bad that it can’t be worse.”  He said that in “The African Queen…”  at least the radio version.

Here in Michigan, there are lots of stories of people losing jobs, leaving the state, businesses failing and people with crushed spirits having to re-invent their lives. I have relatives who are gravely ill, and I also seem to see the end of a pet’s life once every year or two (or so it seems).  But all is not lost, I promise!  

There are a couple of different thoughts (and types of)  endings. 

People say at the end of someone’s’ life you celebrate the time they were on earth.  Well, maybe so.  But they’re still gone.  They’re still DEAD!

But... we’re still ALIVE and far from at the end of doing what we have to do:  Have fun!  And what better way is there to have fun than to work on projects that are related to what we love to do for fun?

With my work, completing a project usually signifies Mission Accomplished.  My work is done, now it’s time to REALLY play.  In other words, one thing ends, another quickly begins, with ANOTHER PROJECT!

That is the way life is:  A cycle of phases.  Changes.  A problem begins but it also ends one way or another.  A new career begins, and the old one is already in the past, if it ever existed in the first place.

There is usually joy upon the birth of a child and sadness at the end of the “big” journey.  That seems way too deep of a topic that I normally like to deal with here.  Yet many people I have known and gathered some wisdom from have already completed that really “big” project.  

If it weren’t for those people making the most of their “project,” I would be dumber than I am now, and so would all the people they knew.

The whole key is to enjoy the REEALLY big “project,” while it’s underway.  For the most part, everything I do, I do because I WANT to.  I realize there are certain things I HAVE TO DO to keep doing what I WANT to do, but there is “Room For Manipulation.”

So I began this “radio” and electronics “thing” for the same reason everyone does:  It seemed fun, but none of us know how good we can be or how far it will take us.   I like to take things apart and see how they are designed inside, so I am a little different than people who just like to enjoy or experience the end result.... so my journey was REALLY an interesting one (maybe strange is a better word).

"So what do you have to do to make your voice magically travel through thin air… from one place to another?   And furthermore, how does one make the CONTENT of that 'magic' turn into something entertaining?"  

Those are questions I had at a very young age.  My parents couldn’t explain it to me, so I had to figure it out for myself....I'm still working on that one!

But that is what “The Life of Bob,” amounts to, in a capsule! I have had the best “teachers” help in the figuring-out process.  I’m still figuring, and I still have the best teachers… different now than in the past, but still the best!

The chain of events that allowed radio to become reality also had a beginning.  The ending has not really arrived.  One of the offshoots obviously is that just about everyone has a cell phone and you can talk to them wirelessly, no matter where they are.  

Radio seems almost old fashioned, but it’s not at its end either.  That is as long as there are enough people around interested in CREATING quality content, and enough of us at the supporting end as well.

This returns us to the original topic.  The hardest part of making a change for the better is ending one phase and starting a new one.  There are some changes that happen because of circumstances.  They’re out of your control, but how you handle them can impact the rest of your life.

Other desired changes happen ONLY because you make them happen.  Even though you need the money, you finally quit that fast food gig to focus on what you really want to do…. or you DO have to KEEP the fast food gig, but survive on very little sleep to pursue your dream.  Some people never QUITE make it, but it’s only because they gave up too soon, or they couldn’t find their “niche” (and the one they really wanted might have been a little out of their talent range.  It’s pretty competitive out there, in case you hadn’t noticed!). 

Radio and communications and entertainment careers in general can also be elusive.  

The hardest part is finding the starting point.  After you graduate from Specs Howard, however, there are people on staff dedicated to helping you find that foot-in-the-door, and once you’re in, we still like to keep track of your career progress.

Yes, there is an END to getting coffee for the people having the REAL fun, and doing all the manual labor of setting up a promotional event, but sometimes it takes a while.  But always allow “Room for Manipulation.”  Even if you do nothing but manual labor at your Producer or Promotions job, take those extra wedding DJ gigs on the side!  If there is a weekend job that you have to drive four hours to get to, TAKE IT!  Even if it means you LOSE MONEY in the process.  Nobody cares about that, who is in a hiring position.  The fact that you went out of your way to help them fill a shift, and did it with spirit and enthusiasm is going to only help YOU.

Don’t worry.  When your time arrives to shine, you will, just by staying positive, patient and dedicated.  That elusive job may just “appear” if you work at your craft long enough.


THIS WEEK IN MY LIFE...
I’m off to join the Friends Of Radio in New Jersey for their 32nd convention.  The “Beginning” is Wednesday and the wrap-up of the main festivities occurs Saturday.  It’s always an interesting time to see friends who knew me back in MY "Beginning." 

-Bob

 


 

Traveling – It’s part of the gig

August 5, 2007

There was a time in my life that I did very little traveling, and had little interest in doing so.  Everything I thought that I ever wanted to do – or experience – was right here in the home base.

With that mentality, I managed to work in broadcasting my whole life without ever leaving the state.  I don’t regret that status, but like many things, as we progress in our careers and life, we learn to experience more.

The task and business of old-time radio show collecting, marketing and restoring has been part of my life since I was able to operate a tape machine. I developed many friendships around the country through correspondence, phone calls and later e-mails.  This is the source of some of my best and longest-lasting friendships.

I had to travel to finally meet them in person and did so through attendance at many conventions where I represented myself as a dealer of various cool stuff.  Needless to say, travel cemented those many lifelong relationships – both at a business level as well personal.

I traveled to both coasts to these various events.  Eventually, I got the idea it might be cool to travel just for fun.  I experienced horseback riding for the first time, the humid tropics of the southern states, New York and parts of the east coast and more.  In California, it really seemed like another world to me that I actually liked quite a lot.  I would’ve moved out there if there was a reason to do so. 

Traveling:  It really is a cool thing to do!  But it took me a while to figure it out.

Eventually, I was called upon to travel to do various on-site technical projects.  I spent almost a month away from home constructing a radio station from scratch in North Carolina, and various projects elsewhere.  I found that even though all my “stuff” back home wasn’t at my fingertips, the rewards professionally, personally and of course, financially made for a fulfilling experience. 

For me, traveling became “part of the gig.”

In broadcasting, especially early in ones’ career, not only traveling, but physically moving the home base is typical and expected.

If one focuses their interest strictly on one facet of the business, it is likely a move (or several) will be necessary.

In my case, I changed from on-air and production to the technical aspects of broadcasting.  My career “travels” never strayed farther from the Detroit area than Jackson, Michigan.    If that is what you desire, you’ll have to get used to the fact you will not always have the prime job role you hoped to make a career of.  If you are pursuing radio, thinking beyond the traditional roles and determining what kind of tasks you can perform that will be valuable to the employer are the keys to getting the gig.

If you don’t want to do that for whatever reason, and think you’re “better” than the next person, no matter how good you “think” you are, you’ll never be as good (or wise) as you will be in five years – or maybe just one or two.

There is no short-cut to getting experience in the industry, from both a personal stand-point, perfecting your skills, as well as providing yourself to the industry.

Today I provide a fair amount of contract and sub-contracted services, which temporarily take me to other parts of the country.  Most of what I do for these people is very specialty-oriented.  Having the skills and knowledge to provide those services only comes from years in the business.

On the other hand, if you are dead-set on being a morning show host and nothing else, be ready to travel from sea to shining sea in pursuit of that goal.  

Be ready to work in very small markets, making very little money while honing your skills.  If an opportunity arises that isn’t QUITE what you had in mind but close, you’re making what could be a real big mistake by not checking it out in detail.  Don’t be fussy about what you can get, especially early in your career.

When the time arises, be ready to hit the road... or the air (as in flying) if you really want to hit the air (as in broadcasting).