Reply #110: Wow! I hope he wins it! In my almost 50 year broadcasting career, I might have had cause

[Radio_Lady]

to sue at least three employers if the laws had been as they are today.

Ford Foundation, New York City -- (1968) This group let me go because I was seven months pregnant and took a slight fall on their shiny, slippery parquet floor. I wasn't hurt at all, but I was whisked out the door immediately. To be truthful, I worked for a woman manager whose name was Siobhan McKenna who I didn't like much from the beginning. I was just a temporary secretary there but they made the job for a longer term. I was making some suggestions to her, mostly clerical stuff as she was doing grant requests. The job was really kind of borning, but I think she might have felt I was competing with her in some way and was after her job! That was not true. While I wanted to work as long as possible, I definitely wanted to stay at home for a few months and then get reemployed in broadcasting. I had been working continuously in local stations since 1962 when I graduated college, with NBC, 30 Rockefeller Center, NYC in the "Tonight Show" unit. After that, I worked at WPIX as On-Air Promotion Supervisor for a woman named Phyllis who let me go for some spurious reason. In those days, they replaced people without the employee having ANY recourse. Big corporations still find their newer hooks to hang you on, I'm afraid. In my case, it was a slip and fall that did me in.

WEEI Radio, Boston, Massachusetts (owned and operated by CBS at the time) (1972 to ???) I was hired largely due to affirmative action. They had heard that I was looking for work, and was covering for Larry King's overnight show at WIOD in Miami 11 PM to 5 AM (!) a couple nights a week for NO PAY. At that time, I was divorced and the sole support for two babies.

Larry and I had had one date in the late 50s when I was on a TV kid's show and he was a young disk jockey at WAHR. In a very strange twist of fate, he called out for coffee and donuts one night and I brought them over to the station. He didn't remember me, but told me to sit down and answer the incoming calls to keep the people awake. Larry's midnight to dawn program when he was arrested in December 1971 a few days before Christmas. The next day, I called Biggie Nevins, the Program Manager who said, "I have heard you on my air, but told me I wouldn't be able to be considered for the overnight shift because of my two young kids." But, he gave me work at $50 a night a few nights a week, which put some food on the table. Later that spring, I got a call from Bruce Lee, who had done a show with me using live WATS lines. Daniel K. Griffin, the PM at WEEI, was looking for a woman to do 10 AM to 2 PM and would I like to interview? They flew me up to Boston, interviewed me for eight hours (!) and offered me the job.

So, I became the first woman talkmaster in Boston to do a daily four-hour call-in show. I did well there, but then Dan Griffin left to take a management job at WCBS New York as I recall. The new Program Manager, Mike Ludlum, didn't really like me personally and there were rumors he was looking around for another host. Then, CBS changed format to all news, and although I had done news when I took over Larry King's program, I really wanted to be a personality which is more in tune with my strengths. I applied for the newscaster job, but didn't even garner an interview. This was in the days when there were very few women newscasters, too. Later, I did return to WEEI as their movie critic, seeing four or so movies a week and coming in to the studio to record the reviews. That was fine for my schedule.

WMEX Radio, Boston, Massachusetts (1970s sometime) The station was privately owned by Mack Richmond as I recall. He was an older man who took a liking to me. My Program Manager was Pat Whitley. I believe Pat had designs on my job himself, as he was a funny guy with a big personality. He did a successful restaurant rating show on days when I was on vacation or sick. Regrettably, I also had an extreme stress reaction to hour after hour of arguing five days a week, four hours a day 10AM to 2PM with a their largely conservative midday audience. At that time, the listeners consisting of mostly Irish Catholic stay-at-home women and salesmen on the road who listen in their cars. BUT no cellphones! They had to stop on the highway at a phone booth to call!

Furthermore, my lead-in at WMEX was Avi Nelson, a conservative talk show host with an amazing ability to give his smug opinions of me during his shift 6AM to 10AM. One day, I felt steam coming out of my ears as I listened to him driving in to the station. He said I should be at home with my two children baking cookies instead of being on the air! I strode into the studio, sat down next to him, flipped on the microphone, and blasted him. It was kind of a Hillary Clinton moment as I jabbed my finger in his shoulder and in my most authoritative voice told him, "Don't you ever, EVER mention my personal situation during the morning hours in that way. I have every right to have this job and have been trained in broadcasting with a degree in Communications and have been working in the job since January 1957. What are YOUR credentials?" (At that time, I think he may have been a lawyer or a politician, but don't remember.)

Anyway, the audience loved the dust-up between us. The Program Manager was away, and the mice were at play. For the rest of that week, we glared at each other and dealt with the rants from the people who called in. They took sides, of course, as we took each other to task in our separate time slots.

The overnight ratings went through the roof, of course. (People just love a good hang-it-all-out squabble, don't they?) When the Program Manager returned, we were cautioned never do that again. (Remember, this was AM radio, no computers, and few radios allowed in offices.) Finally, I developed the worst flu I ever had in my third year on the air, and the bronchitis lasted for weeks. So there might have been some concern on the part of my doctor that I was overdoing it. It all came to a head when I found out that the men were making much bigger salaries than I was, and to boot, the other talk show hosts had either a company owned car or a car allowance! I gave them six weeks to pull my income up to the level of the men, but it didn't happen and I quit.

All in all, the women in broadcasting who are now my age or older (or deceased) were all broadcasting pioneers -- Barbara Walters, Betty Rollins, Pauline Fredericks, Betty Furness are a few who come to mind. In radio, Sally Jessy Raphael was still in Palm Beach, Florida -- I was a guest on her program there once.

Anyway, forgive the outpouring here, but Dan Rather deserves whatever he gets. Now his suit on top of Don Imus? It's the revenge of the old men of radio! More power to them!