CHAPTER 3 THE HISTORY OF RADIO RANDY : SURE, I'LL WORK THE OVERNIGHT SHIFT
I was not snatched from
obscurity due to my
minor notoriety around Rushford Central School, or my half a dozen or so
appearances on Teen time on WLSV in Wellsville. No surprise. But it did
solidify for desire to work in radio.
With the help of Mr. Shaner(guidance counselor) I decided on the
State University of NY at Geneseo for my college education. Primarily a "teachers’
school" they did have, according to some an excellent communications
department. Talking on the radio is communicating right? So naturally a degree
in communications would be a great way to build a career in broadcasting, or so
I thought.
With support from my mom and dad, I enrolled at SUNY/Geneseo. I
moved into Onondaga Hall dorm, met my roommates and began attending classes in
the communication curriculum. As I slowly became accustomed to living with two roommates
in the tiny dorm room, I also began searching out the college radio station
scene to get some hands-on experience. WGSU, an over the air FM station and NPR
affiliate was fully staffed and did not seem interesting to me. It was mostly
block programming and kind of highbrow for me. I wanted to play rock n roll
records on the radio. Then I found the "other" college station. It
was a carrier current station that was only broadcast on campus. Transmitters
in each building on campus broadcast the signal on the wiring in the building.
It was student run and operated much like a real commercial station. The number
of students working on the station was large and there were not any slots
available to get some airtime. I was determined to get some "hands
on" experience and was growing impatient with my required courses of
study. Most days the station only operated until midnight and then signed off.
So naturally I went to the station manager and asked if I could come in at
midnight, keep the station on the air for a few hours every night. Sure, he
said, but what about going to class the next morning? I will deal with it I
said.
The net effect of working at midnight for a couple of hours on the
radio and trying to attend 8am classes was not good. Well, I was able to
sharpen my on-air skills, but of course my classwork suffered. It did not
really matter. College was just going to be to slow for me, in terms of getting
on the radio. Plus, I found the required classes to be boring and seemingly
useless in my endeavor to get a job in radio. Once class in particular,
Interpersonal Communication, was taught by a professor named Goetzinger, was
just a huge waste of time in my view. The only thing he ever said that stuck
with me was a lengthy discussion one cold winter morning, of how tough it was
to have a beard and constantly having food and snot get caught in it.
No surprise then that once the
Fall Semester grades came in, they were lackluster, and I had a serious talk
with my folks. College is just not for me I told them. My dad sternly looked at
me and said, well what do you plan to do? Several my friends had joined the
service recently and I decided that maybe that was the best option at this
point. So, I went to see the USAF recruiter to explore my options. Maybe I
could get into Armed Forces Radio and use that as a launching pad.
The waiting list for AFRS was
long and my recruiter said it was a slim chance I could get in. How about Law
Enforcement? He said he could offer a guaranteed entry into that career field
if I enlisted soon. I talked it over with my folks and decided I would put my
radio plans on hold and join up with an eye toward switching to a career in Law
Enforcement after the service. Hey, it still involved talking on the radio,
right?
My decision to join the USAF
turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made and while it did not immediately
get me closer to being on the radio, it did give me some incredible experiences
and lead me to a guy who became a lifelong best friend.
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