Wisconsin Radio Antics Show How Far We Have Slipped

In light of the news from around the state regarding on-air personalities making less than wise decisions, I thought I would share one of mine while working in radio.  I think this also puts the state of radio into perspective, as I have lamented this matter before on my blog.  Radio is not what it used to be.  As a result, though others may not know it, we have all lost something.

While working at WDOR radio for four years the biggest ‘controversy’, if you can call it that, was my lack of pre-reading a piece of copy prior to news time.  So there I am on air reporting about something regarding….whatever…..and the person’s last name was Staufaucher…..and the name came off just like you think it did.  There was no disputing that I put the hard ‘u’ sound into the name for all the listeners across the Door Peninsula to hear.  WHOOOPPS!  As I continued my newscast I could see the lights of  the phone near the console start to blink a bright orange from every line.  Even the long-distance line from Algoma and Kewaunee were blinking!  Good Lord!  I knew as soon as the word had slipped my lips that this was going to be a problem.  At first the general manager was a bit irritated…..he was on one of the telephone lines of course……but later I recall he came into the studio and told some stories of his time at WGN radio and soon we were laughing.  Eddy Allen, Sr. was a class act, with a great deal of old-fashioned broadcasting under his belt.  I have thought over time at some level he was laughing about this matter too.  He just cautioned me to read local names more carefully as they were at times different than what I had perhaps been accustomed to in my area of the state where I grew up.

That story is kind of quaint in relation to what passes for broadcast outrage now.  It all seems so long ago in so many different ways.