In my work experience I have worked at six radio stations, two television stations and one newspaper. After all that, I started a business that is now 41 years old. How did this happen?
I first knew an interesting life awaited me when in the seventh grade, I was the only one in the classroom who could properly load a Bell & Howell 16mm movie projector. I have no idea how I acquired this skill. But it proved to be a sign pointing to a life of technically-related endeavors.
The next signpost pointing me somewhere was in my time at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tn. My home was in Nashville but my performance at the local public high school (Hillsboro) suggested I needed “focus”. So while I was gaining “focus” I also learned how to carry and use an M-1 rifle, not to mention how to stand at attention outdoors no matter how terrible the weather.
Two things happened at Castle Heights that guided me on my way; I became a member of the school’s newspaper staff and I joined the radio club. I wrote for the school paper “The Cavalier” and in addition became a radio announcer on the school’s station (assembled with surplus government parts) which broadcast locally in a five-mile area around Lebanon.
My mentors at the newspaper were young men who later went on to become editors of major newspapers in Nashville, St. Louis and Denver.
I moved on to Middle Tennessee State College (now a university) in Murfreesboro, Tn. I had plans to be a psychologist. Not to be. During the time when I should have been going to classes, I had two jobs: working at a local radio station as what was called in the days before automation “disc jockey”. The other job was driving an extremely old (this was the ‘60s) school bus from the college campus to the only shopping center in town. It was so old that its manual transmission required “ double clutching” in order to be driven. This maneuver required me to push in the clutch all the way, move the gearshift into neutral, then push in the clutch again and move the gearshift into whatever gear was needed. A loud grinding sound from the gears often followed those moves. Passengers often shouted out “grind me a pound while you are at it.”
It was on this bus that I met an very important person in my life: Norma Carol Woodward of Gallatin,Tn., who I was fortunate enough to marry. This was a lesson in how parttime work can be very valuable.
As time went by, my radio responsibilities allowed me to sharpen my announcing skills. That then led me to attend a radio school in Nashville operated by two of the most popular announcers in the city. Thus, I got my first big break in the capital working the midnight shift at the city’s most popular station. The audience was small but there were regulars, one was a worker at the Metro Nashville treatment plant. I helped the young man, Buddy Sadler, get into radio announcing. His successful career found him named to the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame.
Radio announcing as it was practiced in the ‘60s was my all-time favorite job. Automation essentially killed the need for announcers with personality. Before I moved to Chattanooga to take a job with WMOC radio, then a “rock n roll” station, I worked in Clarksville, Tn., and Paducah, Ky. The station in Paducah was unique as it was on the top floor of the Hotel Irwin S. Cobb, the tallest building in town at the time. Some announcers discovered they could order from the hotel’s bar on the main floor and get served while working. One other interesting feature of working at the station was the staff could tell if the station owner was having weekend visitors as the number of grocery store commercials significantly increased as they were traded for food. More later!
CORRECTION: Two weeks ago, I wrote that Adolph Ochs founded The Chattanooga Times. That was incorrect. He bought controlling interest for $250 in 1878, nine years after it was created by Thomas B. Kirby, Frank DeGeorgis, and Patten L. Gamble. Thanks to David Cooper for helping set the record straight.
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Fred Gault can be reached at avfred@gmail.com