[continued from yesterday's post; series started 05/09]
One thing I enjoyed about working for a bigger station in a bigger market was the people that crossed your path. They were more interesting...out there in the sticks at KOBS, no one crossed your path except the next guy on the air and the Kobs family.
One night I was on in the middle of my shift and was by myself at KTRM. Suddenly this guy walks into the studio with some records in his hand. He was a country artist trying to get some airplay for his recordings whenever he could - this was the days before streaming, Spotify, etc. when getting your song on the radio was the best way to promote your material or be heard by someone that could give you your big break in the business. So this guy wanted me to play his music right then and there, but I had the presence of mind to say no, telling him to leave me a copy so that I could give it to the music director. He was disappointed, but thanked me and walked out without getting nasty about it.
Another time I got a phone call about 3:30 a.m. or so on the hot line from a Jody Powell. Now the hot line was an unlisted number that very few people knew about. He wanted to talk to Keven Brennan, our news director. After a short and pleasant conversation about where Kevin might be (asleep) I pressed him for details so that I could leave him a message. That's when he revealed that he was President Carter's press secretary, obviously catching on to the fact that I had no idea, even after hearing the name. I was impressed, but asked myself after hanging up, "Don't these people sleep?" Kevin came in around 5:00 to prepare his news, and when I gave him the message he seemed to be neither surprised nor excited.
No comments:
Post a Comment