Re: WCAP needs help!!!

[ASchinella@aol.com]

I think it depends on what these small stations decide to let their engineers
do. If they allow you to fill the time which is good for advancing your
career, it is worth it. If they just want you to sit there and put tapes on or
just make sure the satellite is on, well... 

After DJing off and on for years, mostly overnights at WUNH in 1983 and doing
some clubs and parties since then, I started doing an on-air weekly public
affairs shows (and some fill-in music slots) at a small community FM here in
Boston (WMFO 91.5 FM). I got a part time board op job at a lease time, foreign
language AM 5K-er(WUNR) last year and I was so excited to finally be paid to
work in radio! One of the benies was that I could do my own talk show and
music fill during any open time during my shift. I started doing a weekly talk
show, on Sunday mornings for an hour and did various music stuff in the
afternoon (and got a pretty good mention in a Boston Phoenix piece on the
pathetic state of talk radio). After about six months, they offered me the
full time overnight board op position. It was a substantial pay cut but I
said, what the hey. It also allowed me the chance to expand my show to two
hours on Sunday nights and the response was good from the listeners. Then, a
month later, the station decided that none of the staff could do anymore on-
air stuff. I was really pissed but, hey, it is their station. 

Since then, I have spent the last year trying to move up onto another station
and I haven't gotten anywhere, mostly because people in the business here know
what a joke the station I work at is. I think that that is probably the only
downside to doing this type of thing. Although, that dip Darlene McCarthy
started at WCAP so... Not only that, but with syndication and consolidation,
format changes and all the stuff those of us who aren't owners are going
through, there aren't many chances to move up. It isn't like baseball, where
you prove yourself at single and double A ball and then move up to triple A
and the majors. If you have money and can lease the time, especially in the
talk format, well then you will almost always have a show, but otherwise, it
seems like a lost cause. And this is going on nationwide and I have heard it
from tons of people working to move up. In the years since getting into doing
talk, instead of DJing music, I have sent out over 400 tapes and resumes to
PDs at news/talk stations all over the nation, not cold-sending, but responses
to advertised positions, and have gotten nowhere. The unfortunate thing is
that everyone who heard my show, both guests and listeners, said that it was
one of the better ones in town. I always thought that I wasn't getting hired
because I come from the left of center political end on most issues. Now, with
consultants changing the nature of talk, for the worse in my opinion, I wonder
if I am not getting hired because I don't do the Stern thing. 

That is why I have turned to trying to bring my ideas directly in the
political arena by running campaigns instead. In some ways, even in losing
efforts, it is a lot more gratifying although I miss doing air. A lot. If I
lived in Lowell or southern NH, I might consider going to work at WCAP. I like
some of their satellite stuff and anytime I have needed information or
anything from them, they have always been really cool. They seem like good
people.

BTW Hilley, I was born and raised in Concord, NH. We always called it "City in
a Coma!" Some kid made a bundle printing up T shirts with that printed on it.
Next time I am in town (not that often), I will check out your show. 

Tony

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