Jenny and I spent our last semester in high school as interns at WJTR-FM in Atlanta. As interns Jenny and I were bounced from one department to another. It was fun, and we both learned a lot. Jenny enjoyed the sales department the most. She enjoyed the freedom to schedule her day and spend time away from the office. I found that I loved working in the production department. The idea of being able to use my creativity and sense of humor just got my juices going. Still, I wasn't allowed to do much. Basically, I was the "go for" for two weeks. Still, I paid close attention to everything happening in that department, learning to operate all the equipment, and the dos and don'ts of writing commercials. It was a fantastic nine weeks, and I learned quite a bit about how a radio station operated.
By the end of the semester, Jenny and I were going steady. We were both eighteen at the time, and we were both passionate about radio. The decision, however, to marry was thrust upon us because of a passion of a different kind; Jenny became pregnant.
It was difficult initially as we struggled to cope on our two meager salaries. We both secured jobs at WJTR, a twenty-thousand-watt FM station serving Metropolitan Atlanta, and its suburbs. Jenny was an associate salesperson, and I was hired as the overnight weekend DJ. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Chad Jamison, and while I hated the hours and only mildly enjoyed being a DJ, I knew it was basically a bullshit job. The job entailed mostly playing music, giving the time and weather, and reading the events on our local community calendar. Of course, I had to intersperse all this with the commercials, IDs, and PSAs. I worked Friday and Saturday from midnight to eight a.m. The hardest part of this job was staying awake but there was one huge benefit, I could use a production studio to practice. But being a part-time DJ didn't bring in nearly enough money. So, I needed to find a second job.
The economy was in a downturn, so finding any work was proving difficult. And I was getting a little desperate, especially with Jenny now stuck at home with our daughter, Tiffany. We'd been existing on handouts from our parents since Tiffany's arrival, and I hated that. Thankfully, I landed a full-time position at a local hardware store. The store was owned by a married couple, John and Helen Mickleson. They were a lovely couple, and they treated me like a son. John also had a woodworking shop in the back of the store where he turned out custom-made furniture. Over the two years I worked there, John taught me a lot about carpentry, electrical, and even a little about plumbing. But my passion remained radio.
WJTR, at that time, was a top-40 station, so we had a limited number of songs we were permitted to play, which made the overnight shift even more boring. Computer automation hadn't become widespread yet, so the station needed DJs on duty twenty-four hours a day. But I knew my weekend job wasn't going to last long. I read Broadcasting Magazine religiously, and I knew it was only a matter of time before WJTR brought computer automation to the station. When they made the conversion, I would be out of a job. So, during my overnight schedule, I worked even harder, refining my production and commercial writing skills.
My shift ended at 8am, but from 6am to 8am, we used network programs that came via satellite. So, all I had to do during the network programs was take meter readings every half hour. The rest of the time, I was free to polish my skills. I used the commercials currently playing on the air as my model. I'd just produce a different version of what was already playing. At first, my efforts were miserable. But as time passed, I improved. And when I let my creativity and wit have total reign, I felt I was as good as any of the production staff. Finally, I picked three commercials which I thought were pretty good and took them to the station manager. He loved all three and immediately played them for the sponsors who wanted my version to replace what was on the air.
The station manager wasn't about to offer me a job based on three commercials, so he told me I could work as a fill-in until I proved myself. This created a difficult situation for me as all three of the commercials I had produced replaced ones done by Jason Stills. He was one of the full-time employees in the production department. He and I never got along because when I was a DJ, I complained a few times about his commercials. He would periodically record over the splice in the tape of a cartridge or record on defective cartridges. Those were big no-nos. He was fired a week after my commercials replaced his when he accidentally erased an agency commercial. With Jason gone, I was hired to work in production part-time.
Since I was now working four hours a day at the radio station, I had to cut back my hours at the hardware store. John and Helen were very kind about it, even though John seemed a little disappointed by my decision. They had no children, and I think John had some thoughts of me taking over the store. But as I said, radio was my passion. Still, I maintained a close relationship with John and Helen over the years, even inviting them to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner each year. And that relationship would help me out years later.
I'm sorry I've wandered into the weeds with this story, but I think you can see my passion for radio. Over the twenty years, Jenny pursued her career in sales, and I continued my career in production. But deep down, I always wanted to own a radio station. I even discussed it several times with Jenny, but she had no interest at all. As she put it, "Why would I want to go from the number one station in Atlanta to some Podunk station in the sticks." So, I tucked that ambition into the back of my mind and continued my career at Hamett Communications. And that brings us up to today.
Currently, Jenny is the regional sales manager for radio, and I was the regional production supervisor for radio. Jenny was angling to get the Vice President of radio sales position, and I was confident that would be appointed Vice President of radio production. However, three men, Burt Jones, Simon Sanders, and Todd Wankler, were poised to turn my life upside down.
Burt Jones was the Executive Vice President of radio and Simon Sanders was my boss and the current Vice President of Radio Production. Todd Wankler was a relatively new arrival from our San Francisco sister station KJTW-FM and had been installed as my assistant even though I hadn't asked for one, nor did I want one, especially not Todd.
Todd annoyed me from the very beginning as a "kiss ass." Supposedly, he was the golden boy in San Francisco. Nevertheless, I thought it was telling that the station readily shipped him to Atlanta. He complained bitterly when he first arrived about how shitty the east coast was and how wonderful everything was in California. I eventually found out that he got shipped out because he was the cause of three divorces at the station.
As much as I disliked him, I had to admit Todd was a very good production man when he put his mind to it. However, that was far too infrequent for me. He only wanted to work on the major accounts, so he was constantly fobbing off smaller accounts to other people in production. Since Todd was the assistant production manager, most people didn't dare tell him no. But I was the production manager, and I passed out the work, so I resented what he was doing and put a stop to it.
Todd was a real lady's man. He was six foot two with broad shoulders and wavy black hair. The dress code in the production department was pretty laid back. Collared shirts and slacks were the dress of the day for men. Women could wear slacks or a skirt with a blouse. Todd always wore a suit and tie, which was pretty stupid as he always wound up taking the jacket and tie off sometime during the day. After Todd arrived, I noticed that many of the women started wearing dresses and using more makeup. I finally had to send out a memo on the inappropriate cleavage that was being displayed.
My wife always dressed up, but all the salespeople did. They frequently had to meet with clients from large companies, and a professional look was expected. And nothing my wife wore was ever inappropriate.
Todd was lazy and quick to blame others for his mistakes. His only true interest was trying to charm the female members of the staff, spending a fair amount of time flirting with any good-looking female employee, including my wife. And when I complained to Jenny, she just blew me off and defended Todd. I let the subject drop but kept my eye on my assistant.
When I discovered one day that Todd was changing my production schedule and bumping his favorites to the head of the line, I was furious. We have a lot of commercials that are time sensitive. It could be a one day special, and the commercial had to run the day before. When I discovered we almost missed getting several of these time sensitive spots done, I wanted to know why. After discussing the issue with several of my production people, I learned that Todd had bumped them down on the schedule. However, when I complained to my boss and suggested that Todd be fired, he refused. Simon explained that old man Hamett liked Todd and when the San Francisco station wanted to let him go, he brought him to Atlanta. He told people that Todd reminded him of himself when he was younger.
Knowing that the Hamett family was very religious, I was shocked. "Mr. Hamett screwed married women when he was young?"
"No," Simon said and then chuckled. "At least I pretty sure he never did that. I think he just views Todd as a hard charging young man, working hard to get ahead. In fact, now that I think about it, I doubt the people at KJTR told Mr. Hamett about Todd's involvement with married women. The management out there probably feared if they threw Todd under the bus, Mr. Hamett might toss them under as well."
I was stuck with Todd, and I wasn't happy about it. So, I had a "Sunday come to Jesus" meeting with him. After that, I thought he would toe the mark. But unbeknownst to me, he started doing it again behind my back. But now he was more selective in who he bounced to the head of the production line.
Anyone with a senior position to mine was accorded this special treatment. And Todd included my wife, probably as his way of sticking it to me. I finally caught on to his meddling and was ready to lower the boom on Todd regardless of what Mr. Hamett thought. Todd had blown off a spot which had to start running the following day. And while the spot was for a relatively small company, they were part of a much larger conglomerate that did a lot of business with us. I had to stay late and do the commercials myself. In my mind, he was so going to get fired. But that was when everything turned to shit for me.
As I said, Burt Jones, Simon Sanders, and Todd Wankler turned my world upside down. But the blame for what happened to me doesn't lie with any of those three. What started it all was that Simon died suddenly of a heart attack Sunday night. Everyone was shocked, and the production department descended into chaos for half a day. Simon had left a long list of commercials that needed to be produced, but no one knew all the details of what the sponsors wanted. As his assistant, I stepped in, prepared the details on each sponsor, and got everything back on track. Very quickly the production department began operating efficiently again. After stepping up to ensure the production department didn't miss a beat, I was sure I was a "shoe in" for the Vice President position. But then the second "shoe dropped." On Friday, Burt Jones announced that he was retiring immediately. Simon's death had shaken him, and he decided to spend more time with his family. When his retirement memo was sent out, he announced that he had nominated Jenny to take his place. By Monday, the Executive Committee approved her promotion.
