Since I took my first job in broadcasting. Coincidentally, I had just turned 18 years old and was a recent graduate from Penn Manor High School in Millersville, PA. I was the new evening announcer (fancy way of saying nighttime disc jockey) for 1350AM in York. The station format was oldies, so there I was at 18 years of age playing all of this music that had come out before I was born, and failing miserably at displaying that I had any type of clue as to what I was doing. It was oldies on AM radio, needless to say, my friends weren’t impressed, but my parents on the other hand were thrilled.
The station had ONE computer and it sat in the Program Directors office. I was way down on the totem pole and I didn't have any access to it, but I didn’t really care either. What use did I have for it? Microsoft Windows? Not even close, it was all DOS. The internet? Still years away from becoming common place. I remember spending my downtime at work reading the newspaper. How archaic is that!
The station got a fax machine about 6 months after I started, and I remember the first day that they hooked it up we all sat huddled around it. We marveled at how it spit out messages on special crinkly paper through the phone line! Impossible!!
Fast forward 18 years, and here I sit at my desk in the Channel 21 traffic center typing my first station “blog.” Now I sit back and marvel at how much the world, and for that matter the business of broadcasting, has changed.
I want to use this space to talk a bit about what goes on behind the scenes here at WHP, maybe toss around some topics of the day, but most importantly, to just be myself. That’s right, just be myself.
Recently we conducted a viewer contest here at WHP where our viewers were asked to write in and, “tell us why they watch WHP CBS 21 News.” The response was humbling and I was really pleased to see how many folks commented on the fact that they really like that our broadcasters seem like, “real people.” We are real people. As I type this I have a 5 year old son at home that is sick with an ear infection, a car that I am hoping will get through its State inspection without costing me my entire paycheck, and no idea what we are having for dinner because like a big dope, I forgot to thaw anything out of the freezer this afternoon. This week I would have liked to have gotten a haircut, washed the car, gone to the gym, and worked on the overgrown back yard that I have been strategically putting off. I haven’t done any of it. Why? Because I haven’t had the time! I have a wife, active kids, a mortgage, car payments, bills, and groceries to buy. Sound familiar? Sound real? Um yeah, I’m a real person.
The management here at WHP has always allowed us to be ourselves. We’re all extremely professional, especially when the stories of the day dictate it. But we’re allowed to show the viewers another side. It’s a side that other stations don’t afford their air staff, and it’s just one of the many reasons why I enjoy working here at WHP. I don't feel like I have to be wooden or stiff on the air. We can all spot a phony, and it's a big turn off. In this business that means turning off our station, something we try to avoid our viewers from doing.
I see this as the next step. This is an even bigger chance to be myself and for the viewers to get to know all of us a little better. As a viewer, you make a personal choice to invite us into your homes. There is no reason why you shouldn’t get to know the people that you invite into your home a little better, and this is the perfect vehicle to do it with.
So who knows what is to come from this, my first professional blog space. I’m just really happy to have another outlet to be myself, the guy my friends and family know as just Steve.
See ya next time......
PS One shameless plug for our traffic alert emails. Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, I personally send out a traffic alert via email. Signing up is easy, just log on to our web channel at www.whptv.com Best of all…… it’s FREE!! :)
