Tom Pattison Book excerpt (Battling Cancer One Day At A Time

Chapter 2 (First Draft): Why did I decide on a radio career

Tom Pattison (circa 1978) WTON Radio in Staunton, Virginia

I do a lot of day dreaming as I battle my inoperable and incurable stage IV colorectal cancer.  I love listening to radio “air checks” of some of my favorite disc jockeys growing up. Names like; Rob Sherwood (KDWB/KSTP.WYOO), Larry Lujak (WLS),  True Don Bleu (KDWB), Scott Victor Christenson (WEAQ in Eau Claire).

Those are the guys I listened to in high school, college, and while attending Brown Institute of Broadcasting in Minneapolis.

It was when I was a senior at Durand High School when I first started thinking of becoming a radio broadcaster.  Listening to DJ’s on the radio were bigger than life to me.  While becoming a disc jockey was a dream, the reality of going to college ended when I was accepted at UW-Eau Claire. 

My mom and dad both graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and always hoped that I would follow in their footsteps. 

I was extremely shy back in my high school days and I remember the idea of attending Wisconsin thoroughly intimidated me.  I thought I could overcome that shyness enough to be successful by attending UW-Eau Claire. The school was named Wisconsin State University – Eau Claire during the 1960s.

Two attempts to “make it through” college at Eau Claire ended in disappointment. My major was sociology.  Heck, I didn’t even have the slightest idea of what I would do with a sociology degree.  I remember sociology was “big” back in the turbulent ‘60s.

It was at this time that my interest in a radio career became real for me.  I researched schools that were known for developing “broadcast” talent. I soon found out that Brown Institute of Broadcasting, located on Lake Street in Minneapolis, was considered the top non-college broadcast school in the country.

I was accepted on my first application in 1973. The “shy guy” from little Durand found out on arrival that the vast majority of Brown students were extremely talented, with big egos.  Most were younger than me and many had the attitude that they knew more than their instructors.

My attitude totally changed an arrival at Brown. My goal was to work harder than anyone else in my class.  Most of the guys were spending most of the day showing off to the girls (and there were quite a few) in the class. My focus was to learn radio and make something out of my life.

When I was a senior in high school, one night I played “DJ” in my bedroom I had my tape recorder and record player.   I had scripted some of what I had heard KDWB’s Rob Sherwood saying leading up to a song on the radio.  It is called “talking up the ramp” of a record, prior to the lyrics starting.  I still remember two of the 45s I had that night – Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) and Evil Ways (Santana). Mt brother John, whose bedroom was across the hall from mine, thought what I was doing was hilarious and played the tape to some of his friends at school. Maybe I wasn’t that good?!

At Brown, they had four or five mock radio studios and you were assigned to one. It was the station you worked at while attending Brown. My “station” was hypothetically located in Plover, Wisconsin. The news, the commercials were all involving Plover.

The DJ worked two hour airshafts daily. The first hour of each day was in an actual “classroom.”  Our instructor would play scoped “airchecks” of members of his class each morning.  The very first time my air check was played to the class ended with instructor, Roy Finden (who was also the weekend weatherman at KSTP TV 5 Minneapolis/St. Paul, telling the class, “I hoped you were listening to Tom “ramp up” on his records. He does it better than half the guys on the radio at stations here in the Twin Cities.”  It was at that moment that I realized that maybe I could be successful.

One of the segments of my Brown education was writing, producing and editing a 60 second commercial. It was made up of two man (or woman) teams. My partner was Ernie Antonelli who had an incredible radio voice.  I wrote, produced and edited the commercial. Ernie was the voice.

Our “client” was Davanni’s Pizza that was opening for the first time in Minneapolis.  Ernie worked their as a part-timer while going to Brown.  Davanni’s actually used our project as its commercial on Twin Cities radio.  Not because of me, but due to Ernie’s incredible voice!

Ernie worked many years on Twin Cities radio stations. He would later move to Los Angles where he did “voice overs” for commercials and other media related projects.

Compared to Ernie’s voice, mine was more like Elmer Fudds!

Brown Institute had an outstanding reputation for finding graduates radio related jobs following graduation.  I had interviews in Wichita, Kansas, Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Ashland, Wisconsin.

I got the job in Ashland were I was an account executive (salesman) during the day and had a 5 hour air shift (5 to 10 p.m.) and also broadcast high school basketball.  I was known as the “Radio Voice of the Indianhead Conference.”

WATW was located in the basement of an apartment complex on the West end of Ashland’s downtown district. I lived in a 2^nd floor unit of the apartment building. Due to that, the station increased my salary to be the building’s janitor. More money? You bet.  I had hit the big time!