Radio Daze!

   SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24TH.

            RADIO DAZE!

   I suspect most of you know me from
my many years at WYOU TV or, perhaps,
from the programs I'm currently hosting
of Electric City Television.
   But a lot of my 55 plus years on the
air were spent on radio.
   The last of those radio days, other than
an occasional call to our local Talk
station, were spent in a small building
along a rural road on top of a mountain
in Plymouth Township.
    WMJW was built by an old friend
who I introduced to the radio business.
He was in my wedding party. And, when
he finally gathered enough resources to
open his own station, he called me in to
act as his Assistant Manager and News
Director. I left a well established
station to accept the challenge which
included a promise of management
opportunities at his second station
when that was eventually created.
      A lot of old adages proved
themselves to be true when I took on
that job. First, "If it sounds too good
to be true, it probably is." Second,
"Never work for a friend."
      Within a year our small FM
station won more news awards than
any other station in the state. Our
music format was drawing some
faithful listeners. But every time one
of our salespeople promised to bring
in some money if we altered things
just a bit.......things were altered.
      I invested seven years into the
enterprise which, towards the end,
resulted in an occasional bounced
paycheck, a threatened layoff, and
the dismissal of some of my news
staff while I was away on vacation.
     Good thing this guy was my
friend! Another old adage.."With
friends like that, who needs"...well
you know the rest.
      The next opportunity that
showed itself was a full time job
in television. I thought about it
for about 3 minutes and decided
to leave what truly turned out to
be my "Radio daze!"
      My wife and I drove by that
old building on the rural mountain
road yesterday. It's padlocked now.
My old buddy sold it for about a
million dollars (literally). I haven't
heard from him since I left and I
suppose that proves that No News
Is Good News!
       Hope all your News is good!