College radio talent

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@shoreham.net>]

I have to agree with Don Kelley, despite the fact that I am a
college radio product, initially (WJUL 91.5 Lowell).  I also
appreciate Roy's defense of college products.  I think that the
issue is, if you're a college product amidst a top ten market, you
had better save your pennies and go buy a sturdy set of luggage and
a reliable set of cans.  Time to hit the road and get a paying radio
gig *somewhere*.  Tape everything, listen to your tapes and pray
that you think you really suck as you listen to checks.  Badly.
Once you lose that critical sense, time to go camping, light a safe
fire and watch your tapes melt.  If, on the other hand, you are
focusing only on today's shift, then getting better gigs, shifts,
money, opportunity (note results not gut feeling), it may be time to
toss a tape into the smaller, more exclusive ponds and see w'happns.

About a year after starting with WJUL, I wandered up the stairs to
WCAP (980 Lowell) about 1981 and offered to tech Sox, tech taped
programs, Sunday morning stuff, you name it.  Saturday 8-mid, and
when the Sunday 8-noon opened up, I grabbed that, too. Didn't crack
the mic for one full year despite the fact that I was all over WJUL.
Different universe.  Worked that way onto the mic a few times at
WHDH (850 Boston).  Everything short of emptying the poop tank on
the mobile studio.  I can attest that those speakers on the roof of
the unit each must have weighed 100#.  Rain. Topsfield Fair.  A few
here may recall the famed wooded cart racks with tiny metal handles
used to carry about 75 pounds.  Two of those into a beat up 1975
Mustang II back to Stuart street at 10 pm on a Saturday, parking in
the garage and lugging multiple trips back..... Ah the thrill of the
big-time.  All for the hope of a crack at the mic someday.  I do not
believe that any new jocks today have it as hard as those of even a
few years ago. The sense of entitlement to the big chair is just too
obvious.  Oh, by the way, one memory I'll never lose is one dark
afternoon at the Topsfield, mid 80s, atop the mobile bus trying to
maneuver the mammoth speakers down as the fairgrounds were about
empty, and Mike Addams returned to give me a hand and to secure the
mobile studio.  That encouraged me to think that good guys can make
it, too.

Bill O'Neill