WKRW in Cartersville.
Just one call letter away from greatness.* And no Turkey Drop.
My time as Circulation Manager was deeply frustrating. Any creative talents I had were ignored and ridiculed.**
In a rare moment, I followed another opportunity while still employed and not being booted or being under threat of a boot. I could have rocked on at the paper for who knows how long, as long as I understood I would never be promoted or given a more creative role.
The couple that owned WKRW were Don (pictured above) and Ollene Kordecki. Not only were they radio station owners, they were also the founders of the community theatre group, the Pumphouse Players.
Long-time readers will know of my love of community theatre. It wasn't a done deal, as many may believe. I indeed did quite a bit of theatre in high school, but I did nothing in college and during my first years out of college.
It wasn't until I tried out for Inherit the Wind as put on by The Pumphouse Players that I reengaged with theatre. Inherit the Wind was something I performed a scene of in high school drama class, and I had fallen in love with the play. I tried out hoping for one of the lead lawyer parts but got cast as the teacher on trial for teaching evolution. So here I was, this Michigander just moved south, cast in a part playing a Tennessee school teacher. Don Kordecki was in the play-acting the part of a cynical New York reporter.
The Kordecki's friendship and encouragement steered me into my lifelong passion for community theatre. Soon, I was doing lead parts, and I won the Best Actor award two years in a row, once for a comedy and once for a drama.
Their friendship led me to interview and try for a position at their radio station. And I got it! Networking is King.
Unfortunately for both of us, that position was in sales. You hear about the guy who could sell ice to an Aleutian? I was the opposite. I couldn't sell water to a drought-stricken desert dweller.
I tried. They gave me a list of clients and potential leads to additional clients. Your pay was based on commission - how much ad time your clients bought.
I don't remember successfully adding new clients. My strongest memory is of a guy who had a large clothing store. I managed to get a lunch meeting with him, but my social studies background, where everything is couched with conditions and uncertainty, caused me to be more couched with my language rather than the glad-handing confidence a salesman exudes. I know that, in my conversation, I used the word assume. I know this because I'll never forget his response, "Do you know what it means to use the word assume? It means you are making an ASS out of U and ME!"
Yes, I know that's an old trope. But it was the first time I had heard it. Needless to say, I did not get any of their advertising dollars.
It was not all doggy downers. Don and Ollene were as kind and as supportive as they could be. And I got to write and perform ads! And they were creative! I thought I added quite a bit of zip to their commercial time using multiple voices and humor.
That part mostly went well. However, one client, a sandwich shop, responded negatively to one of my extravaganzas - "Just tell them what sandwiches we have and where we're at." Oh, well, Not everything is a home run.
The music format of WKRW was pop. On weekends, they would do Casey Kasem's Top 40, or a similar countdown. They were known as the WKRW (Wicker) Rocker. Clever.
Don had a community talk show in the mornings, and occasionally he let me on as a guest to talk about politics. That's right. I was doing political talk radio before anybody else. And no, I wasn't as Progressive then as I am now, but I was still center-left.
I got to interview two politicians. One was Zell Miller, then running as a CENTER LEFT candidate for U.S. Senate, opposing Senator Herman Talmadge in the Democratic primary. The sitting Lieutenant Governor, he at the time seemed very reasonable, certainly a better alternative than the corrupt and racist Talmadge, and we had an incredible conversion, lasting an hour.
He lost that election but later became Governor of Georgia. He was one of the best Governors since I've been living here. He helped bring into being the Hope scholarship, one of Georgia's greatest blessings, as it helps cover a good chunk of the tuition for so many of our college attendees. Benjamin has had an advanced lever of it, called the Zell Miller Scholarship, which awards those with higher grades to cover ALL their tuition.
Along about 2004, Zell, no longer Governor, now a U. S. Senator, took a sharp turn right and became a spitting, foaming, angry conservative. I don't know what happened.
My second interview was with former Mississippi Governor Cliff Fitch, running for US President in the Democratic primary. Yeah, you don't remember him. Think hard. He's doing interviews with an obscure nobody in the small town of Cartersville, Georgia, the home state of the incumbent President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
We met at a diner, I think in Woolworth's. He seemed... a little off to me. I wasn't then, nor am I now, an expert on alcohol, but there was a slight smell, and he seemed a little..off. Like Zell Miller, I got the impression he was center-left. But I was not impressed. Neither were the voters. He got 0.25% of the country's Democratic primary vote, and earned zero delegates.
But I did get to interview a presidential candidate. Huzzah!
I was earning less than minimum wage, so it was not something I could keep up. In addition, there was strain in my marriage, and I realized I needed to do something else. The Kordecki's were understanding, but they deserved someone who could make them more money.
So, once again, I found myself looking for something else. Another networking opportunity soon appeared.
I was at WKRW for less than a year.
In researching this, I found out that both Dan and Ollene have since passed away, Don in 2010 and Ollene in 2015. I was greatly saddened to read about this. They were great people, and they meant the world to me. Literally. They opened up the world of community theatre to me, which has been a blessing ever since.
* the very funny TV show, WKRP in Cincinnati. You don't know it? OMG, some of you are so YOUNG!
**check out the post Proof of Existence: My First Job in Georgia.
No comments:
Post a Comment