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