Internal Affairs

A long, long time ago, the way into the radio world was through internships.  You could receive experience, college credit, and even pay if you were really lucky.  I never got paid for my internships, but I did turn one into a job.

The first station I interned for was WICN, Public Radio for Central New England.  I spent one semester there, but I cannot remember much of what I did.  It was mostly paperwork at a desk.  I fought the urge to nap while listening to the classical music eminating from the on-air studio.  Don't get me wrong - I enjoy Beethoven and Bach, but it was hard to stay awake in that environment after spending most of the day in class.

Then, there was WVBF in Boston.  I pulled CDs for Sunny Joe White in the evenings.  He was allegedly a recovering addict.  On my first night there, he handed me a hundred dollar bill to pick up a package for him.  I was relieved to find it was his dinner.

I gave up that internship after a short time because I had the opportunity to go to WZLX in Boston.  I worked with many talented people:  Annalisa, Mike Coleman, Anne Cody, Chuck Nowlin and others.  At first, I just called people randomly out of the phonebook to ask them survey questions.  Later, I answered the request line, got prize winners, and did promotional events.  The best part was being on some morning show bits where I portrayed Chelsea Clinton and Suzanne Somers.

The last internship was at KZOK in Seattle.  I spent a few afternoons a week, recording commercials from reels of tape onto carts, which were like 8-track tapes.  Within a couple of months, I became the afternoon producer for Steve Slaton.  When he was hired as the progam director of the station, he made me his assistant.  And I stayed the Assistant Program Director of KZOK until the end of 2008.  More about that in another post on another day...