Re: [IRCA] The sky fell last night! - Local radio remains

["John Callarman" <JohnCallarman@xxxxxxx>]

Russ Edmunds writes: 
"Having loans to pay off, I had to work outside of broadcasting, and as things played out, I never did. I can't believe too much in that scenario has changed other than the relative numbers of dollars involved."

Russ's comments are valid and all too accurate. I recall the Springfield, Ill., station owner who reminded members of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association during a panel discussion on local news operations that radio management can always hire someone for the "psychic pay," which translates as "the thrill of being on the air." 

In 1970, I was hired as news director at WMIX in Mt. Vernon, Ill., at a pay scale that was a little lower than I was making in Cambridge, Mass., but considerably higher than what I could have made in Dallas-Fort Worth. The station owner was a martinet, but he was on his death bed, and, to protect my wife's teaching job, I stuck it out. The new owner, after the old fellow died, cleaned out the staff, except for me, for he had done some research and recognized the respect with which I was held. However, his idea of the proper pay scale was more psychic than monetary, and in the remaining nine years I spent at WMIX, I received one pay raise. (I did get a per-game stipend for football and basketball play-by-play and one local grocer felt I was the only one on the staff he could trust with his ads, so I got the commission on a fairly healthy grocery contract) but I was limited in my opportunities because I continued to protect Janice's teaching job. In 1972, the local newspaper offered me the city editor job at about $700 a year less than I was making at WMIX. Nine years later, the newspaper offered me the same job at $3,000 more than I was making at the radio station (including the pbp stipend and the commission on the grocery spots) and there were regular raises plus an occasional performance bonus at the newspaper. Even so, the local newspaper editorship did not pay as much as Janice was making as a fifth-grade teacher. Still, we lived comfortably but frugally, saved enough so that teacher retirement, Social Security and a tiny pension from the three years the newspaper was owned by a chain that had a retirement program has kept us from hitting any thing but the interest on our nest egg, even with extensive travel around the nation and around the world.

Lucky us.

I lost count of the number of news directors WMIX hired after I left. I've not been in Mt. Vernon to hear what the station is doing now, under the same ownership, for the past six and a half years, so I don't know if its major money-makers, the 15-minute newscasts at 8 a.m., 11 a.m. and 12 noon, are still being aired. 

And, Russ, if you had managed to get enough local experience to get a decent job in a major market, you'd have been subject to the whims and the fancies of management which made its decisions on about 25-percent ratings, 25-percent talent and 50-percent some unexplainable psychic phenomena. (Unless you were a First-Class Licensed engineer or a crackerjack ad salesman.)

John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Retired Newspaper Editor, DX-oyente, Krum TX (AKA Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon)
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