Feeling old tonite, 32 year in media

[Rick Myers]

Turning 50 this year, lost my mother in September, Dad's in assited living with Alzhiemer's and doesn't have a clue as to who I am... and I've been thinking...

Today I cut HD video on a laptop. There's 48 tracks of digital audio into my PC at my desk. A client across town or across country needs a pre-viz file and some hi-res stills, those Internets get it there yesterday.

But:

I have 'edited' videotape on pair of RCA VTR Quads (2" tape).

I have 'cued-up' vinyl 'records' and played spots from cart machines.

I have cut on 3/4" U-Matic machines with an accuracy of +/- 3 frames.

I have directed newscasts where the 'video' was a 16mm film with a 5 second pre-roll.

I have switched live tv on a cuts-only switcher.

I have developed 35mm stills in the back of a C-130 at 31,000 feet.

I have used a menu board for sports scores on-air.

I have seen a weatherman have a stroke on-air.

I have seen an anchor bust into laughter when someone taped a Playboy centerfold on his prompter.

I have had more than a minute of 'dead air.' I still dream about it regularly.

AND I FEEL OLD.

(Thanks for letting me rant.)

[Esra Star]

1. Why were you developing stills in the back of a C-130??

[Rick Myers]

6. I was a B-cast Information specialist

We had an F-4E 'crash' on landing after an intercept (The Russian Dimomede Island base was 175 miles away), and I had ALL the 35mm pix from the time the plane skidded to a stop until the crew climbed out and ran to us. They were past bingo fuel and their nosegear hit the 'barrier' on the end of the runway. The barrier was similar to carrier cables. They came down on 8 LIVE missles but none were detonated.

I had to take the pix to Elmendorf, since we had a portable developing rig, I did them in the plane on the way to Anchorage.


also did pix when EOD blew the damaged missiles, and another shot of a Yak in the sky, WAY inside the US airspace. This was late 1976.

[Esra Star]

11. Thanks for that, I got the gist.......

but I only understood half of it.
It all sounds a bit action-man. I hope you stop to smell the roses occasionally.
Cheers

[Radio_Lady]

26. What happened to the weatherman who had the stroke?

There was a young news guy at WTVJ named Frank (I don't recall his last name). He had a heart attack and died very young while I was there.

One of the original weathermen at WTVJ, Bob Weaver, just passed recently in his 80s. The man I worked with in that photo, Chuck Zink, died last year on this date 1/04/05, at 80 years of age.

[Rick Myers]

28. This kid was okay, but...

In the online boards folks were claiming he was drunk! Meanwhile, he was rushed to the Cleveland Clinic and I'm happy to say he is fine today and back on the air. He was about 43 years old, and was Life-Flighted while people spread rumors he was drunk on the air. Welcome to the 21st century.

[Radio_Lady]

33. Thanks for the information. Just curious, I guess...

Life Flight saved my husband in Massachusetts in 1995. He fell off a 35 ft. ladder while trimming the top branches of a tree. Broke his left arm so badly they first thought they would have to amputate it, but he survived a 10 hour operation and 18 days in the hospital -- he's fine now. Those medics are amazing.

Good night and good luck.

[Bullwinkle925]

2. Ahhhhh -

to be 50 again. It's okay - just another one of life's milestones that passes in 24 hrs. time.
I'm 57 now and still have the half-assed brain of an 18 yr. old.

:hippie:

[Rick Myers]

13. Yeah, I have THAT 18-year old brain!!!

But I have 90-year old knees, a 70 year old digestive system and ringin in my ears!!!

[Radio_Lady]

24. Can we all stop long enough to appreciate the fine form of a 16-year-old?

1955 at the Venetian Pool, Coral Gables, Florida

That's when I had 16 year old knees, a 16 year old digestive system and the only ringing in my ears was when my boyfriend telephoned me!

[Rick Myers]

29. WOWZA!!!!

What a lovely woman! We went to Florida EVERY year in the 60's!!! Great memories, a young guy hung up on James Bond, Johnny Carson and then the Watergate hearings!!! My parents had NO idea what to do with me!

That's a GREAT photo!!!

[Radio_Lady]

35. Thanks for the memories, Rick. See you around the DU!

I grew up in North Miami, Florida -- kind of a blue collar town where most of the residents were Italian Catholic. My father was an attorney, Vice Mayor, and a councilman. He had an office downtown in the Seybold Building, and later on West Dixie Highway in North Miami. Mom was his legal secretary for as long as he worked. I moved to New York City in 1962 after graduating from the University of Miami. One of my former jobs was as a commercial production assistant on the "Tonight" show from New York, working with Johnny's brother, the director Dick Carson. I had to help edit the "bad" words out of the tape so it could be "bicycled" to JFK and flown to the West Coast for airing the next night. How OLD is that?

Glad to make your acquaintance! Oh, hope you don't feel so OLD now!

Grandpa and me in London, England -- May 2006


1958 Oldsmobile in NYC

[Divernan]

41. I had some memorable (if ya know what I mean) times in a car like this

when it was new and I was 17! Or as Old Blue Eyes used to sing, "When I was seventeen, It was a very good year. . . . "

[Bullwinkle925]

46. Well - knees and digestive system notwithstanding - you'll have to

curb your rock concert attendance!!

:P

[JohnnyLib2]

3. Hell, young'un, take the AARP discount

and keep running. You have kept up WAY more than most of us!

[Radio_Lady]

22. Good advice! I used to think about the fact that everything I learned in

TV-Radio-Film classes at U.C.L.A. and the University of Miami... is now obsolete.

But then I read that when any doctor graduates from Medical School, everything he/she knows is obsolete on the day of graduation -- that's how fast health technology is racing forward.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. One Gets Old Fast These Days

Every day or so I get to tell my 7-year-old about yet-something-else-that-we-didn't-have-when-I-was-his-age... today he was curious about shoes with laces - of course, he and all of his classmates have velcro.

Too much gol-durned progress, I say.

[Radio_Lady]

23. Manny, what's funny is that the older you get, the greater the urge to go back to Velcro!

[Radio_Lady]

5. Rick, sorry about your losses. I'm a media brat, too, and started in TV when I was 17 and in

college. Here's the photo to prove it:



Curious as to where you worked... I was at WTVJ-TV and WIOD-AM, Miami, Florida and then WEEI, WMEX and WHDH (all AM stations in Boston).

I was one of the first women to do talk radio in Miami and Boston. I dated Larry King (but didn't marry him...) and then took over his radio show when he was arrested on a criminal charge.

Still have an audio gig (unpaid volunteer) at Oregon Public Broadcasting. I'm 17 years older than you (67)!

Stay cool! I love my mp3 player! Remember audio recording on vinyl (when I was a child) and all the iterations from then to now.

Have a great 2007!

"'Bye bye for a while, and keep a smile." (Usual send-off on Popeye Playhouse TV show.)

[Rick Myers]

8. That's GREAT stuff!!!

I did a movie host thing for AFRTS in 76-78!!! Classic creativity!!!

I worked in Ft. Lauderdale as PD/MD of WKPX-FM from 87-91!!! Was onair AGANIST Randi Rhodes at WSHE (She's ONLY rock 'n roll!) and then on her talk show at WIOD!!!!

Did you know Larry @ WIOD??? He's a legend there!!! (good call not marrying him!!!)

Dis some lib talk in 2000 and again in 2004 for an AM combo in Youngstown, OH. (My hometown, currently in Minneapolis on and off since 95)

Love the sign off!!!

[Radio_Lady]

12. Yes, Larry was on WIOD, Miami in when he was arrested. I was his unpaid screener and took over his

11PM to 5 AM radio show for several nights a week while they interviewed for a male host. Meanwhile, we patched together with other radio hosts on WATS lines and I was heard by Bruce Lee at WEEI-AM. That led to an interview and a job offer. I started on WEEI on May 15, 1972.



"How many people know that the popular cable talk show host Larry King from “Larry King Live” was arrested for larceny on December 20, 1971? Well, it’s true, but the charges were dropped."

[Rick Myers]

21. WATS lines! OMG!!!

How did we EVER make anything work???

Wow! You've had an exciting career!!!

[Radio_Lady]

25. My 8 year old granddaughter wanted to know if I ever did the old

trick of using two tin cans with a string... used like a walkie-talkie.

I told her I might have, but I didn't remember. There are some things you just don't admit to...

In peace,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[Atman]

7. I turn 48 in April...and I only feel old when I read "I feel old" posts

I'm going to snowboard down some of the sickest terrain in the West in a few weeks, and started negotiating a deal to trade some design work for a heli-boarding trip.

Dude, I could post a similar list...

I cut my finger tip off with an X-Acto blade doing late-night paste-ups at an ad agency (Paste-up? X-acto?)

I published a bi-monthly full color magazine WITHOUT Macintosh computers, laying out and designing a 64 page newsstand magazine -- and creating all the mechanicals and type setting -- with paper, wax and rubylithe overlays (ten points to young-uns who know WTF rubylithe is!).

My first VCR was a big two-piece Hitachi unit. To "record" you had to buy a big-ass shoulder-held tv camera and hang the recording half of the VCR over your other shoulder, and carry about thirty pounds of gear. With a wired remote, it was only $1000.

Kelly Slater used to hang around my office after school, and would help stuff subscription envelopes for me.

And on and on and on...

You're as young as you feel, man! Congrats on turning 50. My best bud turned 50 last year, and he's a mountain bikes, hikes, teaches karate. Don't let the age thing get you down. It's just a freakin' number. When the parts start failing and falling off, that's when I'll worry. Sorry to hear about your dad. My grandmother had Alzheimer's pretty bad, and it scares me because some claim it is hereditary. So I'm going to live it up as long as I can, just in case!

.

[Rick Myers]

9. Evry once in a while I still get out the x-acto knike

Love paste-up, and, before I do anything on the computer, I still use pencils and pens!!!

[Atman]

10. I still sketch everything out first...even web site layouts!

Who said computers would be the end of paper? I bought a Wacom tablet, but never use it...I draw with brush-tip pens and scan my art in.

I think I still have that waxer in the attic, too.
.

[Radio_Lady]

15. Cool memories! I worked with McCann-Erickson ad agency and

loved the paste-up phase (I was a young copywriter on the Revlon cosmetic account). That was back in NYC in the 60s.

Once had a job with John Diebold, who predicted "The Cashless Society..." Well, it's almost here, what with all the credit cards.

Bravo to you both! If you're still healthy and alive, you have the best gift of all. Use it to the best advantage... and watch out for Exacto knives!

In peace,

Radio Lady listens... in Oregon

[Oeditpus Rex]

43. I once left blood on the page

Lopped off a fingertip while cropping a halftone (and simultaneously rinsing a roll of Tri-X). A drop of blood got on the edge of the art and I didn't notice it in paste-up. Left a tiny bit of raggedness at the upper right.

Oy — paper dummies, pica poles, proportion wheels and hot wax under your fingernails. We used a Compugraphic ACM 9000 and a Compuwriter Jr. to set type in those days. (Wrote on Smith-Corona manuals, of course.) A couple of years later — after the tedium of correction lines, etc. — we graduated to MDT 350s and an MDR patched into the ACM 9000. Imagine — writing and editing on the same terminal, even though they had no hard drives but worked from 5 1/4-inch disks that had to be walked from the MDT to the MDR. (Not to mention the 5-inch monitor.) But you had to be careful about the Replace File function, because if the cursor wasn't at the bottom of the story it'd erase everything below it.

And I loved every minute of it. :7

[KittyWampus]

14. Wow! That was great poetry. Have you ever run a tape on air backwards?

I did :D

[Rick Myers]

17. OH YEAH!!! Hilarious story

I was about 22, working nights at an AM while finishing college. From 11 to midnight was a tape every night. I used to like to listen to WMMS outta Cleveland on the EBS reciever!!! Had some herb, slapped up the tape, quick cue, dump out for a quick ID, hit the tape and back to WMMS, The Buzzard!!! 10 minutes later, my girlfriend enters the lobby from the elevator. Thru the window, she's pointing to her ears. I walk out to hear the lobby full of some show running BACKWARD. At least 10 minutes. NEVER a call, never heard about it!!!

[Wiley50]

16. Have you ever been doing a 15 min radio evening news

and realized that someone had set fire to the bottom of the four foot newswire printout you were reading from?

Those were the good old days?

In some ways

[Rick Myers]

18. Someone did that to my cousin at an AM we worked at...

Lit his copy on fire!!! He's big-time now!!! He just patted it out and continued...

[Hardrada]

19. You've got a ways to go to catch up to me. I'm 62

and was a college radio announcer and used large Ampex reel tape programming and also LP programs too. And we loved to program long Mahler symphonies so we could go do something else. I still write history and fiction pen longhand first and use WORD on our PC later. I think one sometimes keeps steaming along from sheer spite or, possibly, intense curiousity about what's next!

[Radio_Lady]

20. Got five years on you, Hardrada! See former post... but I married

an electrical engineer who became a software engineer.

He dragged me kicking and screaming on to word processors in 1981. I took a class at the Boston Center for Adult Education and I was THRILLED with WordPerfect! Later, I switched to MS Word. I hardly use longhand writing anymore.

Oh, maybe just for Post-It notes!

In peace,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[Hardrada]

45. My wife was using computers first and I still recall typing Basic

commands and tearing off the individual sheets before they folded up like an accordion. I got into the school radio program since I loved classical music and also was interested in a young woman who was a programmer but that never worked out. I was the oldest radio announcer at one of our Homecomings when they had us sign in. I wonder who the really oldest one is since our school started its radio station in 1922! (Before my time).

[Wilms]

27. .

[Rick Myers]

31. I still have a full set of carts from

WYFM, Your Alternative (hippie-dippy radio), Earth News, liners, WYFM Youngstown/Sharon, circa 1974. Priceless.

[Wilms]

32. Oh, yeah! Earth News! n/t

[northofdenali]

30. Rick, how can you feel old when I'm 2 years older than you,

and shit, I'm only 18?!!!!

We all get there occasionally - even those in their 20s and 30s. I'm sure it'll pass :hug:

[Divernan]

36. Hey, North of Denali - my son's starting at KTOO Juneau as a news reporter

this month - moving up from Seattle. So I'm headed up the inland passage next summer to visit.
Looking forward to my first float plane ride.

[northofdenali]

38. When you get here, if you decide to visit farther than Juneau -

(we have a DU'er there, BTW, just post the dates in the AK forum), I know there are DU'ers in both Anchorage and Wasilla, and I'm in the still-hairy frontier of Fairbanks - AND I know the Haul Road by motorcycle, motorhome and SUV!!

You are always welcome!

[Rick Myers]

42. My memory of Fairbanks...

WIND! Windy all the damn time! Got evaced from Galena to Fairbanks in 1977, Yukon River flodded.

[northofdenali]

44. You gotta be kidding, Rick!! Wind is fairly SCARCE here!

You sure it wasn't Healy or Delta Junction? Fairbanks does get wind, and when we do it's miserable, because we are NOT used to it!! We sit in kind of a bowl, so the wind goes over and not into us. It's one of the reasons our climate, in the middle of Alaska, is considered very dry.

Were you at Galena AFS? Friends actually did a "concert" there for the airmen once. Guess you also got to visit the grand metropolis of King Salmon?

I noticed in another post that you were at Elmendorf. When I was USAF, I BEGGED for Eielson (outside Fairbanks) or Elmendorf............. and drew Patrick Air Force Base, which is about 8 miles from the house my mom still lives in, and where I was raised.

Go figure the military, eh?

[Rick Myers]

47. Yup, Galena AFS, AK 5049BCS, Detachment OLGD to 5072ABS

43rd Tac Fighters, AAC

Yeah, I was in Fairbanks twice, once for about 6 days, and all I recall is wind! Wind, and seeing the movie "Midway" at the base theatre! I really liked Anchorage!!! King Salmon and Clear sucked, but were still better than Point Hope!!!

Galena (the village) was different after the flood. Built higher up on a ridge between Galena APT and the Campion Radar Site. If you'd have been stationed there you could have snowmobiled to Fairbanks! We had a couple guys who did it, right on the river at 80mph!!! Never did that trip!!!

Patrick was a pretty nice place, had a good friend spend 2 years there, a guy I enlisted with and still keep in touch. He loved it. In the 80's I lived in Ft. Lauderdale for over 4 years, and I NEVER adapted to the heat. Been in Minneapolis off and on now for 11 years.

[Divernan]

34. OK, younguns! I learned to set type AND do sound effects/horses' hooves

etc (from a cart full of sound effects' gimcracks) and cut and splice newsreel film (my fave was Jackie Kennedy reviewing a mounted drill by Canadian mounties) when I was a double major/Journalism & Speech(broadcasting) at Marquette.

[Radio_Lady]

37. Horses hooves = rhythmic sound = coconut shells on a hard surface!

I remember touring KDKA-AM in 1953 (I must have been about 14 years old) when my first cousin and I met in Pittsburgh, PA. The name of the man who toured with me was young Merrill Panett (not sure of the spelling).

Later, I did sound on the radio station in college at U. of Miami.

Golly, gee... what memories!

[Divernan]

39. Ba-da-bump, ba-da-bump, ba-da-bump, bump, bump! HiYo Silver!

Awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

[Divernan]

40. I got backstage tour of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood at WQED

Fred had a wicked sense of humor and in rehearsals used to crack up the cameramen by having Lady Elaine Fairchild grab the lens and talk seductively to the cameramen in her raspy puppet voice!