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Thursday, April 12, 2018

Autobiography Chapter 5 - Broadcasting Memories, Part 2: High School Job at the #1 Radio Station in Town

by Paul Pakusch

I turned 16 in December of 1976 and was ready to look for my first paying job.  You needed a work permit if you were under 18, so I quickly got one at my high school office.  Getting the first job wasn’t quite so quick.  I don’t remember what I did between December of 1976 and the summer of 1977; did I apply for jobs?  I don’t recall.  What I do remember is that when school was out for the summer, I began in earnest to find a job at a radio station.

I literally hit the pavement.  My mother, at the time, worked for Visiting Nurse Service which was headquartered in downtown Rochester.  On several occasions that summer, I would ride to work with her.  Then I would walk to each radio station’s office to apply for a job.

WNYR and WEZO was an AM/FM combo of radio stations, a popular arrangement in the 1970’s.  There were federal rules against ownership of multiple stations in one market, which is the case today.  WNYR was at 680 AM for daytime broadcasts only, and was a country music format.  WEZO was at 101.3 FM and featured “beautiful music,” a very popular format in the late 1970’s.  In fact, it was the number one station in ratings at the time.  The stations and their offices were located upstairs in a small building on East Main Street in Rochester, across the street from the old Armory.

The first time I walked into WNYR/WEZO, I met Jerry Warner.  He was the voice of WEZO, giving his smooth delivery of station ID’s, times, and morning announcements.  WEZO was a fully automated station.  The equipment racks included 4 reel-to-reel tape decks, 2 carousel cart machines for commercials, two large cart machines that alternated between the even minutes and odd minutes of every single minute of the day, and a few more cart machines from which newscasts were played.

Had there been a job opening on my first visit, Jerry would’ve been the one to hire me.  He invited me to stay and chat a bit.  I remember asking him, “What would my main job be?”  His answer, “To stay awake!”  The position was automation operator; you had to change the reels of tape and the carts in the carousels, based on what was scheduled in the program log.  That, and of course, stay awake while beautiful music threatened to lull you to sleep.

The computer system was extremely rudimentary.  All it did was put the various tape machines in a sequence.  Each of the songs on the reels of tape had a very low-pitch audio tone at the end of them; the tone was below the hearing level of the average human ear.  When the computer heard this tone, it would trigger the next tape deck in sequence to start, whether it was another music tape, a commercial, or one of the carts with Jerry’s ID or time on it.  I can still hear him say in a smooth tone, “The WEZO time is 7:24.”

I think I made about two more rounds of radio stations that summer.  I never got a job then, but on my last visit to WEZO/WNYR, Jerry introduced me to a new chief engineer, John H.  John was taking over the  hiring of automation operators.  Not long after school started in September, I happened to be at WGMC when John called me, offering me a job working weekend evenings.  Wow!  I’d get paid to work in radio!  Of course I accepted!

My job consisted of running the automation for WEZO, and transferring commercials from reels of tape to carts for both stations.  I got to know the DJ’s who were on WNYR and we'd talk about the business.

Not long after I started working there, John told me he needed an operator for the overnights. I was still in high school, so it was not an option for me.  I mentioned it to my friend, Burt, who applied and got the job.  He often arrived early enough so that we could chat for a bit before my shift ended.  We still have a good laugh every time we remember seeing sidewalk snowplows, one night, on the streets below.  It was like bumper cars out there; the plows kept knocking into tree planters and mailboxes!

While we were both employed there, the station was building new offices and studios a couple miles away on East Avenue, in the block of the 111 East Avenue Hotel.  I think it was in January of 1978 that we made the move.  What stands out to me is that I remember another building under construction one block away.  Little did I know that in another few years, I would end up spending over three decades in that building, WHEC Channel 10.

My time at WEZO/WNYR was short.  In February, 1978, I ended up being fired from a job for the first time in my life.  They claimed I had made a mistake in carting a commercial, but I’ve always suspected that there was more to the story than what they told me.  There seemed to be a house-cleaning going on at the time, and it left my friend Burt out of a job, too.

That ended my paid broadcasting jobs while in high school.  More successes came later on in college.  For the record, I spent most of the rest of high school working at two different nursing homes. 

This gives me an opportunity to brag about the shortest job interview I ever had.  My mother had worked as a Registered Nurse at Lake Shore Nursing Home, on Beach Avenue in Rochester.  By the time I stopped there in September, 1978 to apply for a job, she had already moved onto Visiting Nurse Service.  So, I walked in the front door and asked for an application.  After filling it out, I gave it back to the receptionist.  She told me to have a seat. 

A few moments later, the administrator came out and looked at the application.  He said, “Are you Dorothy Pakusch’s son?”

 I said, “Yes.” 

He said, “Can you start today?”

Bang, hired!

I started the next day, in the kitchen. (Thanks, mom, for having a good reputation that got passed on to your son!)


In my next chapter, I will talk about my college radio experience.

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