[BC] How we got our first break in radio....

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

I got my start in radio as a 13 year-old kid who
ran away from home. I went to the top of Asnebumskit Hill
in Paxton, Massachusetts, and peeked into, then, WTAG-FM.
An Engineer was on duty and he invited me in. I saw this
enormous General Electric FM transmitter and, being a ham
radio operator (K1KLR), I asked the engineer many questions
about it. I learned that it generated FM from phase-modulation,
that it used a special vacuum-tube called a phasotron.

I became very interested. It’s in my book. Once I got out
of Reform School (really) and started to attend public school
in Roslindale, Massachusetts, I skipped out of school one-day-at-a-time
to take the various elements for the FCC First Class License.
By the time I was 18 years of age, I had the First Class ticket
and a "Ship RADAR" endorsement. My first radio job was at WARE
in Ware, Massachusetts. The second was at WACE in Chicopee,
and as an "old timer," my third job in a year, I joined WDEW
in Westfield and built them a modern radio transmitter to
replace their Western Electric rig for which vacuum tubes
were no longer available. I was a hyperactive kid (I still am)
so I’d get another job as soon as I fixed all the problems at
each new station. That’s why I had many jobs at many radio,
and eventually, television stations before I got real bored
and started college.

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Barnswatts" <AMFAN at collins21e.com>

All this talk about starting out in radio made me wonder as to exactly 
HOW many people got their start.