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

[Donna Halper]

For me, it was a snowstorm.  I was, as many of you know, the first 
woman in the history of Northeastern University to be on the air 
(after a 4 year battle), back in the day when a PD could say to a 
prospective employee, "We don't hire women" or "we don't hire black 
people" or "we don't hire [insert name of ethnic group]".  I found 
that while I got lots of fan mail and good response from the 
audience, no professional station would give me a chance, and yes, 
they did tell me they didn't hire women as announcers.  SO I kept 
working behind the scenes-- I wrote scripts for radio documentaries, 
I helped other announcers do the research for specials about the 
history of rock and roll (I wrote "Retro-Rock" for Frank Kingston 
Smith of the ABC Radio Network to voice), and I grew more and more 
depressed as I could find nobody who would take a chance on me.  I 
got a job teaching to pay the bills, but my heart was in radio.  A 
local station, WCAS in Cambridge, was playing some of my favourite 
music-- folk and folk rock-- and I so much wanted to be on the air 
there, but the General Manager categorically wouldn't hear of it, 
even though the PD really wanted to hire me.  I applied and applied, 
but kept running into the same brick wall.  And then one day in 1973, 
there was a big snowstorm, and the poor jock on the air was unable to 
find anyone to come in and relieve him... I was able to get there, I 
got on and did a show, and I heard later that the GM was furious-- 
except that, as luck would have it (or perhaps it was by the grace of 
G-d), the audience liked what I was doing and wanted me back.  The 
irony here-- or perhaps the hypocrisy-- is that when the PD, who had 
been on my side from day 1, was able to hire me and the newspapers 
asked the GM for a quote, he said he had ALWAYS been a big fan of 
mine and was just waiting for the right opportunity... That gig at 
WCAS led to my being hired by WMMS in Cleveland, and then WLIR and 
WRVR in New York, WAVA in Washington DC, etc etc.  And the rest, as 
they say, is history.