A Higher Education

Coming from the School of Hard Knocks has its advantages. There is also a downside: gaps in knowledge. Take my old radio career. I was not a rube. I picked up a lot on the job, but I always felt something was missing. In 1983 I was trained by someone who himself had learned on the job—no formal broadcast education. He was opinionated and ill-informed in a lot of ways. His attitudes and beliefs rubbed off on me, this impressionable 17 year old. Most of my real education came from the trade journals of the day, including: Billboard, Radio World, Broadcasting and countless other specialty publications; just like I had learned how to hear with a critical ear  from Stereo Review, Audio, Mix and EQ magazines.  For a while after graduation I interned at a very small recording studio supplemental to my disk jockey work. I assumed college would be redundant. After all, I was enrolled in the University of Life majoring in my own cherry-picked curriculum.

By 1989 I was at radio home number 2.  At this time the station hired a hot-shot station manager that was going to turn around our failing enterprise. The owners had, by this point, exhausted two other managers who had big dreams too. The station had been for sale since 1987 and I was ready to throw in the towel. The new guy was different. He had a real college education with a degree in communications—the only associate of mine ever with that distinction. Thankfully he filled in a few gaps in my understanding by patiently working with me. My on-air performance grew to the point that I no longer resembled the nervous  teen of only 6 years previous. I finally matured and sounded pro. In 1990 the station sold. The new owner never appreciated the best manager that station ever had, eventually demoting and firing him. By 1991 my role diminished, so I left as well.

By 1992 I was working with my favorite manager again, still learning from him. Regrettably, the station was on a weak signal in a very small town so all efforts were basically in vain. A year later radio home number four had become a memory.

Today, the public library and the Internet have become my university. Many of the remaining gaps are quickly filling; too little, too late. Now it’s all academic.

Stay tuned.