Unfortunately for me I got started on my new job over the Christmas break, when, as anyone in news knows, there is no news! I didn't know this, of course, and was scrambling to come up with something to broadcast. I had five minutes to fill on the AM station each hour for three hours in the morning, once at noon, and three more times in the evening. I had a 90-second news block to fill on the FM side, too, each of those hours. I filled it with Christmas tree safety tips from the fire department (don't burn your house down), and other public service type stories. I was scrambling to do the best I could at this new job and I was failing.
When things picked up I made it my mission to be sure I always had enough “real” news, and I think I did good job of it. Eventually the AM station went to a news/talk format with Sally Jesse Raphael, Tom Snyder, Rush Limbaugh and the like. However, I was given a 3 ½ hour morning show that I would do live of all news and features. I would record the short news break for the FM “rock” station, and just concentrate on my live broadcast.
I started at 5:30 a.m., so I had to get there at 4 a.m. or earlier to prepare. I had to call all the local police departments in SoMD for overnight news, and capture ABC network news stories that I could play on tape throughout the morning. I had to finish up my stories from my own news gathering and edit in the voice clips from interviews. Most of the morning's broadcast was network features (ABC news each half-hour live), various sports features live from the satellite, too), my local news, the ABC news I recorded (not included in their live broadcasts), a daily live 10-minute interview with a local official or news maker, and finally, the last half-hour the People's Market.
This was a swap-shop type show where the public would call in with the stuff the wanted to sell, buy or trade. When I had first heard this show done by others in the past I was blown away by how popular it was. There was hardly a morning when people weren't waiting to call in. When I took it over, I hardly ever had to stop and fill either. This was the only broadcast where the on-air person had help. The nice office manager – I feel bad because I can't remember her name – would actually answer the two phone lines and be sure that the caller was for the people's market and then put them on hold. I would then get to them one at a time, with an old push-button, blinking-light, multi-line phone set. I would then write down what they had said, with a phone number, so that if people called in later to get the phone number we would have it.
When I started mangers wanted to get rid of the People's Market, which had been on at 9 a.m. for years. (My show was over at 9 a.m.) But I talked them out of it and was only able to do it by talking the office manager into coming in an half-hour early, at 8:30 a.m., to keep the show within my on-air time. At 9 a.m. we were now running a network talk show – I don't remember which one.
One of my highlights was being able to represent St. Mary's County as the “local celebrity” in the state Special Olympics. They local Special Olympics organizers were kind enough to ask me after I had given them some publicity on the air. I got to march with them as they entered the stadium during the opening ceremonies of the state games. It was neat.
However, the show was killing me. I had to get up too early, and stay up too late, with no help. The second time I overslept – right through an alarm clock and the FM DJ calling my house – I decided I couldn't continue like that, so I quit. I hated to do it, but I had to. If an alarm clock and a ringing phone don't wake me up, something is wrong.
Shortly before this a rival AM station in St. Mary's County went off the air. I don't remember the call letters, but it was high up on the AM spectrum, and it was owned by a blind man. The news director there – I don't remember his name – had moved to WSMD (98.3) in Mechanicsville when this AM station closed, which was also famous for their daily broadcast of the obituaries. (WPTX began doing so when this station closed.) We had remained in touch and still saw each other at many of the same news events.
He was able to get me a job at a small resurrected AM station owned by Roy Robertson, the same person who owned WSMD. The station, WMOM (1560?), was very low wattage. The broadcast facility, though, had all new equipment. It was going to be a Charles County-oriented station, with, again, mostly satellite shows during the broadcast day. I would be the only one to work there full-time. My job was going to be as news director. I was to get local, Charles County news to broadcast on WMOM, and to help the WSMD news director by feeding him those stories so he wouldn't have so much work to do himself.
The WMOM building had a trailer home literally attached to it, and I was offered the chance to live there. But it was so old, rundown and, to me, unsanitary, I said no and continued to live in Leonardtown. (I was making the same amount of money).
It was quickly determined that the station wasn't going to make money. The WSMD news director left for better things and I was offered his job, which I took. At first it was great. I only had to do brief, hourly newscasts in the morning, and record news for the noon and afternoon hours. I didn't have to work as many hours, or produce my own show, except for a one-hour interview recorded each week to play back on Sundays.
The morning team on WSMD, called “Dapper Dean and Donahue,” at that time was doing well. They had followed John Price, who had worked there for a brief time after he left WMDM, too. I don't know what happened to the morning team. I know that Brian Donahue (not sure of the spelling) had been fired from the station once before and come back. His first firing had been rough, having come right after he had proposed to his fiancée. Dean (I don't remember his last name) started to teach classes on the side on learning how to be a DJ.
Things seemed to be going well. I had built relationships with local news makers, I was getting sleep, and, although still making little money, was generally happy.
But I should have known better. Roy Robertson started letting people go (or maybe he never stops). I remember one DJ who was forced to go by the name of “Jack Daniels,” along with his girlfriend who worked there in sales. I remembered that I liked the two of them a lot and was sad to see them leave. I don't know what happened to them. “Jack” was not too happy because another DJ in DC was going by the same name at that time and it was confusing.
The morning team was also let go, and I was soon to follow. The reason I was given had to do with a new license for another radio station in SoMD. The owner of that license (or part-owner, I'm not sure) wasn't willing to sell it unless he got a job – my job. He was in the news business in St. Mary's County, working for one of the smaller papers there. So, he got my job, and I was out – and pissed. Having made no money, I had no savings. Unemployment was only a small help.
Eventually I got a job in Ocean City as the editor of a weekly newspaper, the Maryland Coast Dispatch, which I held for almost three years, leaving in 1995. It turns out that news isn't really my thing either, although I think I did a very good job at it. Hours were way better, pay was very much better, but I was out of radio, which I still miss to this day. I've never tried to get back into radio, mainly because of the low pay and unstable work.
Most of the past decade or so I have been a computer and telephone systems administrator, traveling the hemisphere. I'm doing okay, but often wish I was back in 1991-2 working at WMDM part-time with those people, where I was poor, but happy and having fun.
When I left SoMD for the Eastern Shore, I wrote a letter to the editor of the local county newspapers outlining my most memorable things about Southern Maryland. I never saw it, but heard that it was published and was well-received. I have not been back there since, but hope that one day I will do so. I did enjoy my time there very much.
I hope this wasn't to boring for those who made their way through it. :-) My email is
bjmagee@hotmail.com.
(end part 3 of 4)
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