This picture of me was taken in the summer of 1995 at KCFV 89.5 Ferguson, MO. I was in the last few months of my second tour of duty at the station where I started my career. It's hard to believe it's been 15 years since that career ended.
One of the reasons why I wanted to get into the broadcast industry as an air talent was that I felt that my knowledge of how signals propagate would be helpful to the industry. I believe that more DXers should be working in the broadcast industry, as their knowledge of signal propagation is useful to the station they would work for should they get a report of reception from a listener far outside the station's coverage area. KCFV, as a 100-watt station, has a limited coverage area, but I've seen reports of 10-watt FM stations being heard several hundred miles away via E-layer skip. I distinctly remember reading a report of 10-watt KWUR 90.3 Clayton, MO (on the Washington University campus) being heard at Rehoboth Beach, DE back in 1983. The broadcaster's idea that "DXers are worthless" is pure malarkey. The DX community should be valued as much to any broadcaster as the local audience.
I also wanted to get into radio because I wanted to give back to the Saint Louis community; a community that gave me a chance to make an honest effort to become a productive citizen, and break down unnecessary barriers along the way. The latter was a very difficult task. So many broadcasters (especially corporate broadcasters) wanted to keep these barriers up; I found their reasons to be illegitimate. I'll go into that later.
If anyone were to ask me if I wanted to go back into broadcast radio, the answer will be a clear "NO". I'll list countless reasons why, but here are the primary reasons why I won't return to the broadcast airwaves.
1) The policy of "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know" is an antiquated employment policy. To me, this policy fosters codependency and is psychologically unhealthy. This policy is a Nineteenth Century policy, and has no place in the economy of the Twenty-First Century. This is a policy that favors the less qualified friends and cronies of station management over more qualified people who are NOT known to station management. I tried to get people I knew from previous stations (most notably from my KCFV days) to put in good words for me when I was looking for broadcast employment in Saint Louis during the 1990s. Either they failed to put those good words in for me or that their words fell on deaf ears with their supervisors. This policy is just one artificial barrier that should be permanently brought down. It is a form of discrimination.
2) Local radio stations are in the wrong hands. All of the good owners are gone now. I had the pleasure of working briefly for the late Chuck Norman at WGNU (which is now off the air) and spent 22 months working for Bob Howe at the old Fun Radio 95.5. I do not believe a corporate owner is a good owner; many refuse to hire local talent. When I was doing mornings at WSIE, one of the news readers I worked with asked me why I hated a certain company so much, and I recalled the time in 2000 when I asked the Program Director of one of that company's Saint Louis stations (which was programming Oldies at the time) what he was looking for in an air talent. Before he could get back to me, he lost his job. I also applied twice for work at their Contemporary Hit Radio station in 1998 and 2000, and never heard anything back. I was never informed about any upcoming openings at any of the corporate-owned stations between the time I left KCFV in August 1995 and throwing in the towel on finding commercial broadcast work in April 2001. If we still had commercial Saint Louis radio stations in the hands of a Saint Louis-based owner today, I might still be working in radio today. Today's corporate owners are extremely conservative in their hiring policies and their internal/external politics. I also DO NOT like corporate radio programmers' negative attitudes, especially toward homegrown talent, of which I am considered. Even some community radio stations have embraced the toxic corporate mentality; KDHX 88.1 in Saint Louis is a prime example. I tried to get a Mainstream Jazz program on the station in 2015; the toxic environment at KDHX has been well-documented in the local media.
3) I cannot see myself doing most of today's formats, nor do I wish to emulate others. When I was younger, I thought I could do any music-oriented format under the sun. As time went on, I learned that my style of presentation would not match a Contemporary Hit Radio or Hot Adult Contemporary format. It might have matched a straight Adult Contemporary format, Country, Album-Oriented Rock, Alternative, or even a Classical music format. I did two youth-oriented formats in my 20s and 30s, College Alternative (KCFV) and Pre-Teen (Fun Radio 95.5). Today, I can't see myself doing an intangible music formats like Adult Hits (the "Jack" format) or Classic Hits (which should have NEVER included hits that charted after 1989 in the first place). The only youth-oriented format I would even see myself doing today would be Contemporary Christian. The format I was best at? Mainstream Jazz, which was the last format I worked under. I also prided myself on just BEING MYSELF. I refused to emulate, or copy, other air talent. I also refused to be a "shock jock", resorting to sexual innuendo, racist, ableist language, and extreme right wing rhetoric, as it would make me a poor role model for our country's youth. I also believe mocking anyone perceived as "different" is offensive.
4) Radio is no longer a career; it's nothing more than a part-time job. When I first got into broadcast radio, I expected to make this my full-time career. I expected to make a living wage and work up to 40 hours a week. My hours peaked during the late summer and early autumn of 1997, when I was working up to 60 hours a week at just 15 cents above minimum wage. Some folks still claim that you can make a career out of radio; I won't fall for that propaganda anymore. Deregulation has allowed radio to degrade to nothing more than a part-time job.
5) Radio is an anti-family business; flexibility on location should NEVER be required. In 1990, I sought the help of the Employment Clearinghouse of the National Association of Broadcasters in seeking employment in the industry. I specifically asked them to send my resume to stations in three markets: northwest Georgia, where I was living at the time, Saint Louis, MO, where most of my family lived at the time, and the Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA area, where I had relatives. The NAB wanted to pull me away from my family. The ECH sent my resumes to two cities where I had no friends or relatives (Des Moines, IA and Santa Rosa, CA) and one where I only had distant relatives (Minneapolis/Saint Paul, MN). The NAB ECH wouldn't even send my resume to any station in the South. I even tried looking for on-air work in the small towns near Atlanta or part-time studio engineering work in Atlanta proper, but was turned away. When I returned to Saint Louis in the summer of 1992, I vowed that I would never work in radio outside the Saint Louis region again. I was only open to working in a small town near Saint Louis, such as Litchfield, IL or Washington, MO. The radio worker should have a say in where they want to work from DAY ONE. Radio programmers should consider an applicant's family situation in selecting who they hire.
6) I will not be part of a business that's pro-discrimination. The biggest lies, from my perspective, are "an equal opportunity employer", found on broadcast job applications, and "minorities especially encouraged to apply", which I've heard on advertising for employment opportunities at different stations, especially in smaller markets. I don't think any broadcaster has the right to claim that they are "an equal opportunity employer" if they won't even consider hiring a qualified person with even the slightest hint of a disability. When they say "minorities especially encouraged to apply", they really mean ethnic minorities. They need to tell the audience up front that "minorities" mean able-bodied, neurotypical ethnic minorities. In the 22 years I was in radio on both the commercial and non-commercial levels, I never saw a wheelchair rolling around a radio station's studios or offices. The broadcast industry's practice of institutional and systemic ableism (discrimination on the basis of disability, even if that person is employable) sickens and disgusts me. There is no legitimate reason for discrimination against the disabled, homegrown air talent, or DXers, in broadcast employment. I also do not like the illegal practice of blacklisting, or blackballing. Support of the rights of people with disabilities to work in the broadcast industry, allowing more people to start their careers in their hometown, even if it's a market ranked 11th or lower, and even one's religious background should not keep someone from pursuing a career in any area of the media.
7) Hard work, without ratings, should mean something. I worked very hard for 22 years in radio without caring about ratings. I see the ratings system as stifling innovation in programming and employment policies. The ratings system is also another excuse for discrimination in broadcast employment. If my hard work really meant something, it should have gotten me in the door of some of the larger stations. That became out of reach for me after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law. Hard work without ratings should have maximum meaning, as in allowing someone to achieve his/her full commercial potential.
8) Broadcasters should NOT hire high school or college dropouts. This is a sore point with me. I don't care how "talented" they are, one should have at least an Associate's degree in a communications-related field before they can go on the air commercially in a market ranked #125 or higher. If one wants to work at a smaller market commercial or a community radio station, then that person should have at least a high school diploma or GED. Honestly, high school and college dropouts are also poor examples for our youth.
9) Commercial (especially corporate) broadcasters should count non-commercial or not-for-profit radio experience as actual work experience. Commercial, especially corporate, broadcasters are cutting themselves off from a large pool of qualified air talent by not counting non-commercial and not-for-profit radio experience as actual work experience. Most of the stations I worked for were non-commercial educational radio stations. College radio and working for a National Public Radio member station should count as actual work experience. I also worked for a not-for-profit Christian radio ministry; this should also count as actual work experience. Counting such experience should be required of all broadcasters.
10) College broadcasting programs should be teaching their students about the realities of today's industry. When I was taking broadcasting classes in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the things I was never taught is that the chances of making a living wage in radio are extremely slim. I fell for the propaganda that I could make a living in radio. They also need to be taught that deregulation has severely reduced the opportunities for one to enter ANY area of the broadcast industry, regardless of whether it's in on-air, production, engineering or even information technology (IT). With fewer owners now than there were prior to 1996, the chances of even entering any area of the broadcast industry are very slim. I was also never taught about the practice of ableism in broadcast hiring.
I squarely blame Deregulation for ending my broadcasting career. Anyone who says blaming Deregulation for ending a career as "preposterous" is grossly misinformed and 100% wrong. I would still be in radio today had the industry NEVER been deregulated. Radio, you had your chance...and you blew it.
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