Mi Profesor Jaime Jarrin

Job hunting is a slow process.    This year is slower than ever.

We dream of having lots of time on our hands during times we’re working only to suddenly find we have too much.

The job search might take me a while, but I can assure you my ability to speak Spanish is going to be greatly improved.

I’ve tried for years to become fluent.    Little kids do it all the time, so why not me?

Baseball is my summer (fall, spring and winter too) passion.  So I decided to combine the two, baseball and Spanish to   see if it helps.

My teacher is Jaime Jarrin.

He is a Hall Of Famer yet most baseball fans outside of Los Angeles have never heard of him.

Many Los Angeles Fans don’t know him either.  Jaime broadcasts the Dodgers in Spanish.  It’s something he’s done since 1959.

The Dodger broadcast booth must be a great place to work. Vin Scully started when they were still  the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Learning Spanish should be simple.   I’m using Rosetta Stone, Learn Spanish Like Crazy and Spanish broadcasts of LA Dodger games.

Each night I record the game then listen later in evening.  Jaime, Pepe Yniguez and Fernando Valenzuela make up the broadcast team.

It helps when the game is televised.   I can see the action and listen to the commentary.

Little by little I can tell the improvement.   Now it is easy to understand almost all of the play by play.   Occasionally the comments are difficult to get but I can always stop the ‘tape’ and listen again.

Jarrin is good.  Real good.  No wonder he’s is a Baseball Hall Of Famer.

The Dodgers should consider using him on the English broadcasts too, certainly on television.  He knows the game and tells interesting stories.

Adding him to television would help the Dodgers broaden the appeal for the telecasts and bring a new audience to their games.

Most of all, it would allow Dodger fans to hear a great broadcaster.

Pepe and Fernando deserve a shot at TV too.  The whole team is that good.

Gracias Jaime.

Oh, and my scouting report on the Dodgers?  Watch out.  This team can play.

Missing In Action

Memorial services generally make for boring radio.

Michael Jackson’s is more entertainment than memorial service.

The program handed to guests cleverly omitted the typical listing of speakers and guests.   The audience had to watch to see who would perform.

The drama made for great television.   But where was radio?

It was Jackson that almost single handedly revived Top 40 as it morphed to CHR.   Would stations like KIIS and WHTZ exist today had Michael  not come along at the right moment?

KRTH and KFI were among the stations with full coverage.  Los Angeles stations should be expected to broadcast what is so far the biggest event of the year in LA.  Sorry Lakers.

WCBS FM appeared to be in regular format.  So were WOGL,  and even WOMG Detroit home of Motown Records.

Television owned the event.

Brian Williams is anchoring for NBC in full wall to wall coverage that once would have been reserved for a space launch.

It’s hard to envision Walter Cronkite doing the same.  CBS Evening News didn’t even lead with Elvis the night he died.

Every cable channel broadcast their version of the service as did the lettered networks.

Radio, the medium that first pounded Jackson Five songs into our collective heads, and later provided a platform for Micheal’s reinvention was no where to be found.

Capitol Gold in London announced they’d play Jackson requests.  But there was no coverage of the Memorial Service.

4QK Brisbane rolled into their regular Breakfast Show.

KFI was the only News Talk station doing any sort of coverage.  But again anything at Staple Center is a local story.

Jackson whether you loved him for the music or despised him for the pedophile accusations was a giant.

Radio helped make that giant only to let Television, Twitter, You Tube and others own the story at the end.

It’s radio’s role to play the hits, whether music or cultural hits.

Michael Jackson was both.

Radio missed the party.

Another Day When The Music Died

We were having dinner with friends when word came of  Elvis Presley’s death.

‘Beyond stunned’ was our reaction.

This was after all ‘The King’.  People like that don’t just up and die.

As I recall we quickly finished dinner and did what all radio geeks do in times of trouble.   We headed to the radio station.

The air staff was already gathering and beginning to get a handle on the enormity of the story.  Elvis dead.

Listeners jammed the phone lines.  Many were crying.  Age didn’t matter.   It covered the entire spectrum from young to old.

This was at 14FEC Harrisburg.  We had a pretty good staff and  a good PD in Dene Hallam.

The team worked throughout the night finding special Elvis songs, audio cuts and anything that would help tell the story.

The same was happening at WHN where Ed Salamon flew into action.  They provided us with a ton of material that night.

Elvis was passed his prime.   But he still had huge appeal with the country audience.

For many of us it felt somewhat like the day JFK died.  The response was that big.

The phones rang though out the night.  I did overnights then and that night was busier any morning drive show I ever did.

We put callers on the air to talk about Elvis and generally grieve.   We grieved  right along with them.

That was one of the toughest nights I’ve ever encountered on radio.  But it showed just how much radio means to the audience.

Radio has a unique ability to comfort while informing and entertaining.

There were other days in recent years  where people needed radio’s shoulder.  The Space Shuttle explosion, the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, and of course 911.

This time when the ‘King Of Pop’ died the dial seemed rather quiet.  A few great stations went right into action like CBS FM and KRTH.   But so many others seemed caught at the end of the work day without anything of substance to offer.

People first got the news from Twitter or on line.  Much of their interaction was not with a local dj but instead others of like mind in the social networks.

The news happens so fast and word is around the world in an instant.  Radio can’t wait hours or days to decide its response.

It needs to be the medium of ‘right now’ otherwise it has no purpose anymore.

My Summer Vacation; The Old And New

The temperatures are topping 100 degrees.

I’ve had to stay inside away from the other kids after having sinus surgery.

It was ok.  Not how you’d prefer to spend your time off but,  not the worst way either.  At least my breathing is already improved.

The doctor says my voice might even change finally.  I’ve been waiting for that since age 13.  It’s tough to get good radio work when you sound like me.

So I’ve been catching up on the news using WIFI and shortwave.

The North Koreans are threatening to destroy all of the US.   I wonder if they know how big a place this really is and have calculated enough bombs to do the job?   Their one warhead might not cut it.

Voice Of Korea is an interesting station that begins each day’s news with the latest doings of ‘Dear Leader’.   After all of the announcements of state dinners, and the latest revolutionary accomplishments they get down to the hard news.  The stuff where they talk about how they’ll blow us apart.   Nice guys.

They are a complete throwback to Soviet sounding radio of the 1960s.  There must be a special manual they used to get the language just right.

Meanwhile across the other side of the planet another tyrant is struggling to keep the lid on against modern technology.

They’re not having such an easy time.

The two styles are fascinating to watch as both North Korea and Iran try to stay out of the 21st Century.  How they will do is anyone’s guess.  Mine is they won’t stop progress.

‘Dear Leader’ has a better chance in Korea than the Clerics do in Iran.   Once the social networking revolution takes hold, the old revolution is in serious trouble.

If those ‘tech’ savvy South Koreans ever figure out how to wire North Korea, it will be game over for the old guard.

Texting Is Mightier Than The Sword

The remarkable events occurring in Iran continue to demonstrate the power of social networks.

Twitter has rescheduled a major maintenance session set for tonight in order to allow the flow of information to continue from Iran.  They made the decision because of requests from inside the country.

Iranian citizens would have been silenced only a few short months ago.  But now with Twitter they continue to communicate to the world.

Despite their best efforts the Iranian Government is unable to stop the flow of information.

Can any rogue government last long once the people have cell phones and internet access?   Dictators around the world certainly must be taking notice.

Accuracy is certainly one concern with so much material coming out.  Misinformation and rumor is another.   But news organizations seem able to sift through the material to give a balanced picture of things.

Perhaps instead of using bombs and bullets to bring democracy to these countries we should drop millions of cell phones.   There appears to be no stopping the momentum once the people can communicate with each other.

The pen, or text message is mightier than the sword.

Check the blogs on Huffington Post and The Atlantic for minute by minute updates.

A Little Twit Calls Out A Tyrant

The way the world uses media can change on a dime.

The events around the election in Iran is a startling example of just how things have changed.

Most of the the world’s major networks have been tossed out of the country.

Reporters have been arrested, their cameras confiscated.   Yet word of riots and unrest continue to get out of the country.

Twitter is the reason.

Iran has closed down most all of the social networking sites.  Somehow, Twitter continues to operate.

Much of the news reports are not from the networks but from bloggers and apparently Iran has many of them.

Network reporters still in the country are shooting scenes with their cellphones.

Twitter is the ultimate weapon in creating democracy.  No wonder North Korea keeps cellphones and the internet out.

The Voice Of The Iranian Revolution can be heard in the US at 1:30-2:30 GMT on 7235 and 9495 shortwave.

The BBC World Service available on XM/Sirius and via the web will likely have the best coverage from overseas.

There is no telling how things will play out in Iran.  But every indication is the Revolution is back on and this time the people are in charge.

The Vast Wasteland

Last night we sat huddled in the darkness with two cats as a ferocious super cell thunderstorm passed over head.

The television was turned off because the lightening hits were so close and frequent.

A large tornado was reported just five miles away.   The hail hitting our roof is said to have reached baseball size in some parts of town.

A black transistor radio was our only link to the world and reports of the storm.

It provided very little information.

The big AM news talker kept running Clark Howard.  The only updates came during regularly scheduled news on the hour and half hour.

It is the only local station on AM that would likely have any information at all.

The FM was hardly better.   KUT the public station at UT Austin did a few reports between songs.   Same for a well known country station.  But all of that was once every fifteen minutes or so.  Meanwhile tornadoes are dropping from the sky.

Television coverage was excellent.  Too bad the lightening prevented us from watching.

The local channels did wall to wall coverage dropping programming and commercials to bring complete updates with their fancy Doppler radars.

People who read this blog know I go on this rant from time to time.  You know the one about how stations ignored covering hurricanes in favor of playing Sean Hannity and baseball games.

Severe weather is a time that radio can help more than any other medium. It’s portable.  Radios can run on batteries in the darkness.  Yet the industry continues to walk away from this enormous opportunity to make radio matter.

Maybe Jim Humes beat the idea into my head at WVBC the same way the North Koreans brainwash their citizens.  I don’t know.   But I do know that my stomach feels pretty sick when I’m sitting in the dark knowing all of these stations are running on auto pilot.

Radio, no matter what the current studio technology must operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity.   Every owner or better said, ‘trustee’ of a license is responsible to their community’s well being.

Ten years or so ago a hurricane ripped through the Texas coast causing our Corpus Christi studios to be evacuated.  Instead of signing off,we provided coverage to the stations from Austin thus keeping the community informed of the situation.

Today’s technology makes it even easier than ever to provide information from distant locations.  I simply can’t understand how large corporations do not have emergency contingency plans in place to serve every community during times of crisis.

It’s not hard.

Every storm that wrecks a community while the radio sleeps is a missed opportunity to once again make this powerful medium important.

Where War Is Peace

The propagation for shortwave signals was very good during my morning walk this week.    At times it is difficult to pull out stations from Australia,  Korea and Japan during the early morning hours here.

The Voice Of Korea was loud and clear on 11710 KHZ  on the small hand radio I to use while walking.

Most days I opt for a little news from China, or the Voice Of America.

Recent activity on the Korean Peninsula had me trying  for the sometimes elusive signal of The Voice Of Korea.

Glenn Hauser is the world’s leading authority on shortwave radio and  gave me some tips via email as to the best frequencies to try.

Glenn’s World Of Radio is heard world wide and available on the internet. It is loaded with great information about programming and frequency changes.

Shortwave stations change frequency often.  It is difficult to keep up with the best place to hear a particular station.

Glenn knows more shortwave than any human alive.  He’s helped me more than he knows during the past twenty five years or so.

The Voice Of Korea is really only the voice of North Korea.  They tend to forget there is another country that also calls itself Korea.

The programming is textbook Communist and sounds like the stuff from propaganda films of the 1950s.   That is what is so frightening.

This week North Korea launched a couple of test missiles and two underground nuclear explosions.  Those were bigger than the blast that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

The programming from North Korea gives you get the idea how isolated their population is.   Language of revolution, American Imperialists, and the Great Leader is enough to make you take pause.

Their scripts read like pages of George Orwell’s 1984.  The book that included great lines like ‘War Is Peace’, and ‘Big Brother’s Watching’.

Listen to the radio in the United States and you find our population is isolated too.

The big stories on local radio that day had little to do with the nuclear threat.

Instead the concerns were a wreck on the interstate,  overfilled pet shelters and the death of Mike Tyson’s daughter.  Something  about the American Idol winner was included,too.

All legitimate stories, but like the Voice Of North Korean’s copy it was missing important details.

Nothing that I heard locally came close to mentioning the tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world.

There was nothing about the UN Security Council Meeting later that day.

We have many more resources to get our news than in North Korea.

But do we leave ourselves vulnerable by choosing only the stories we want to hear, that might research well rather than what we might need to know?

Which group is more prepared for the future?  The one where the government gives them the news, or the one that ignores it all together?

Getting Back To Fun, Again

Have you ever really given thought as to how you became interested in radio?

The first time many of us heard radio was a frantic man playing records between commercials and jingles.  Oh, the jingles.

Jack Sterling of WCBS was the first personality I remember.  He would have been well into his career at the time.  I was five.

Radio was music.  But for me it was much much more.

People ask me today about the fantastic record collection I must have at home.

Sorry.  I don’t have one CD or record at home.  No collection.

I don’t have a stereo system with big speakers and fancy components.   A small  portable radio preferably with AM and Shortwave is my choice.

The AOR 7030 is overkill for most radio users.  It is an outstanding radio and when coupled with the Quantum Loop Antenna built by Gerry Thomas it is a DX machine.

It’s DXing that helps me make that connection today.

XEB 1220 Mexico City is one of my favorite stations.

So is Radio Rebelde out of Cuba for their baseball coverage during the winter.

Radio has a way of connecting me to the outside world.  I still love listening to the trucking shows overnight and of course George Norry and the cast of thousands on Coast To Coast.

For me radio was and is personality, and connection.  Perhaps for you it’s the music.

Whatever got you into this business is what you should focus on now.

Why do you love radio?  What is it about radio that drew you in the first time?

Go back there.

Then try to use that memory to get that feeling back again.

Emails are coming from people I’ve never met this week. Their passion for radio, not necessarily the ‘radio business’ is impressive.

People who love radio really love it.

We belong to a special club.  I feel bad for the rest of the world that doesn’t hear the magic and feel the connection.

Use that passion and get back to finding something in radio that really makes it fun again.

The economy, owners, budgets and all can take the fun out of it.  But don’t let the magic you felt die.

Postcard From The Beach

A funny thing happened on my way to work one day.

Like so many others I found myself ‘on the beach’.

Getting the news was hard.  It came directly from a longtime friend who also happened to be CEO.

I think his day was worse than mine.

From the conversation it was clear my shortcomings are numerous.

Or maybe that’s the part I think I heard.  I find in those times what they say and what you hear might have different meanings.

Much of it was  a blur.

And so there it was.  Over.

One minute you’re part of a team.  The next you’re on waivers.

There was nothing else to do, but go.

I’m not sure whether I was more shaken or disappointed as I left.

Something changed though somewhere between that office on the 14th floor and turning my car on to sixth street.

I changed.

A great feeling came over me.  One minute I am engulfed by deep sadness and anger and then I’m at total peace the next.

I’ve heard others say the same thing.

A woman working for a large radio group described her hurt after her unexpected firing.  But then feeling extreme joy as her car left the parking lot.

This is not my first time through the car wash.

It never is easy to hear the news.  But I’ve found how you respond to it is the key to how you’ll land.

Like so many others who are out of work from media positions, my job prospects look a little slim.

And yet so far at least several interesting projects have come my way.

So it occurs to me the journey to the next opportunity might not include a traditional ‘job’.  That is an interesting and exciting idea.

We’ll see how it plays out.

On to the future!

The Job Paradigm

I knew it would happen, just not as quickly as it did.

They asked me at a baseball gathering the other night, “what do you do?”

For a minute I didn’t have an answer.  I am no longer with my last employer and haven’t been out there long enough to feel separated from them.

It also felt weird saying I don’t have a job.  After all, don’t we generally define ourselves either by what we do or where we work?   At the moment I have neither.

But later after thinking it through it occurred to me I do have work.  In fact right now there appears to me lots of it.  The only difference is none of the work is attached to a permanent job.

So now my answer is simple, “I’m a Radio Programming, and Media Specialist”.

That’s far better than saying something about being unemployed.

It’s also the truth because most of what is coming to me so far is project work.  That stuff looks like it can be enough to sustain an income for a while.

Interestingly now when I tell people what I do, they seem more interested.   The questions about my work and interests are deeper and more engaged.

Best of all it has already led to additional project ideas.

We as workers must take a different view of ourselves and the workplace today.  An actual job might not be in your future.  But finding the right work to satisfy you and provide an income could be standing right in front of you.

Don’t get hung up on needing a job.  Think of the things you do well and like, then look around and see how you can help others by providing that type of work to them.

There’s a big shift taking place in the workplace, you gotta roll with it.

Helping Each Other

Being without work used to be like having ‘cooties’.

You thought young girls said only boys have them.  No, the unemployed are afflicted too.

A dramatic shift seems to have taken place.  People are actually nice to you when they know you don’t have a job.

Encouraging emails have come from people I’ve never met. I’m actually blown away with the helpfulness coming my way.

It seems most of my friends are looking for work.  You might think I have a bunch of loser friends.  But this group would make up a ‘who’s who’ of radio people.

One told me yesterday he’s been out for two years.  Please don’t tell my wife it will take that long to land.  She’s already going crazy with me in the house for a week.

The great thing is everyone is willing to help others.  It would be best if we could all find work, so it makes sense to be helpful.

This blog was originally set up as a way to talk about radio to program directors.  But now it really is about our collective journey to the next job.

So please feel free to add your comments and suggestions.  Not just for me, but for anyone who stops by and needs a little encouragement.

If you know of a position, any position leave it on the comment section.  Someone might read it and appreciate your help.

Ya Gotta Believe

Dan Miller is on of my favorite ‘gurus’.  He is author of two best selling books, ‘48 Days To The Work You Love’ and ‘No More Mondays’.

Essentially Dan is about helping people find work from their passion.  Not finding a job, but taking what you love to do, and doing it independently of an employer.

Each week Dan creates a 48 minute podcast where he answers questions and discusses ideas with his listeners.

This program is a wealth of information and maybe more importantly inspiration.  There are tons of useful ideas in each program especially for the ‘free agents’ among us looking for the next thing.

We all have interests and skills.  The trick is putting the two together in a way that generates income.

That is Dan’s genious.   He has a real knack for making suggestions that work.  The success stories are endless.

Lately as I converse with more and more people who are in the same employment situation as me, it becomes clear there is a lot of frustration.

These are talented people and most have had jobs with serious responsibility.  It is very difficult for them to be idle for long.

But instead of feeling hurt or angry that you were turned out, you need to change your mindset.  Dan would tell you they handed you an opportunity when they put the severance check in your hand.

I’d like to think there is a great job waiting right around the corner.   Hey, I have tons of experience and a great track record.  But it might not be that easy this time.

This is not the time to be mad at the system, the industry, the government or whatever.  It is the time to re-think what you love to do, and how you might do it in a different way.

Dan’s program has given me about seven or eight ideas.  All I really need is one to work.

The website is www.48days.com.   It’s well worth a look.

As former Met Tug McGraw told us “Ya Gotta Believe!”.