Looking back on my childhood it seemed inevitable I’d get into broadcasting as an adult. My parents tell me (I barely remember) I used to interview people on my father’s Webcor tape recorder–an unusual luxury in our tiny apartment in Brooklyn and nearly as tiny apartment in Queens.
That’s a picture of the exact model we had, including the blinking green eye which showed volume! Thank you Internet.
I became a disk jockey. That was not my first choice. I wanted to be a booth announcer.
Strange choice, right?
Back in the fifties all the booth work was done live. I’m not sure what about it appealed to me, but it did. They seemed official and grown-up.
Here’s an example of what I lusted after from one of the last network radio shows. I wanted to be the guy who comes in at eight seconds and says, “The CBS Radio Network presents The Stan Freberg Show.”
Unfortunately, my voice was much too thin and light for that kind of work. As I’ve grown older my voice has gotten deeper. When I entered radio it was high pitched.
It still seems like it would be fun. It’s just a job that doesn’t exist anymore.