9/11/01 Tragedy, TV, Airplanes, and a Song

This blog is about my personal experiences related to September 11, 2001. It includes my perspective of the tragedy, my job at a TV station that was carrying coverage of the day, how it affected my role in aviation, and my part in a song dedicated to the heroes of 9/11.

It started for me a little after 9:00 that morning. I was driving to the local grocery store when I had WCMF radio on in the car. I heard them discussing a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. While it was obviously a horrific situation, my mind transported back to the 1940's when a military airplane crashed into the side of the Empire State Building. At that time, it punched a hole in the side of the building and rained some debris onto the sidewalk below. I did not even begin to imagine what this new event was creating. By the time I got to the grocery store, I had heard that the FAA was shutting down airspace around New York City. Still not comprehending the magnitude of what was happening, I started thinking about how this was going to affect flights across the country with cancellations and delays.

I continued with my shopping trip, all the while thinking about Air Traffic Control, the airspace, and airline flights. Obviously I was naive to what was really happening.

Once I got my groceries back out to the car, started the engine, and turned the radio back on, that's when I heard that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon, and still yet another plane had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. That's when I really became aware of what a horrible situation was developing.

Back in my house, I left the groceries in the car and ran in to turn on the TV. I was shocked at the amount of smoke I saw around the south end of Manhattan Island. There was so much smoke that I didn't even  recognize that one of the buildings had collapsed already. As I was watching, the phone rang. It was my mother. She asked me if I had seen the plane hit the building. I told her I did not. As we were talking, I kept my eye on the TV screen. Suddenly I saw the second tower collapse. My mother was also watching the TV and she saw it too. I was shocked at what was going on.

I am a licensed private pilot. At that time, I was the president of the Rochester Pilots Association. I don't remember who it was, put a reporter from a newspaper called me to ask me my opinion about airspace being shut down. I didn't know what to say. I told him that I was just learning of all of the events and didn't know what else to tell him. I still don't know who it was and if they used any of my comments in their story.

I continued watching TV coverage, and somewhere along the way I managed to get the rest of the groceries into the house. At that time, I worked in the control room of WHEC TV 10. I was scheduled to work at 3:00 that afternoon.

Once at work, I was asked to take over in master control and I sat there for the next nine hours straight until it was time for me to go home. My job was to keep coverage of the NBC television network on the air, write up all of the programs and commercials that we were missing, and do local special reports whenever the newsroom wanted them aired.

One of the notifications that we received from the NBC television network was, since nobody knew at that time who was behind these hijackings and attacks, NBC did not know if they would get knocked off the air. They advised all of their affiliate TV stations to be prepared to go to local programming if the NBC television network lost its signal or worse. We had videotapes of our regularly scheduled programs running on the tape machines, so we were ready to cut to regularly scheduled programming if needed. Otherwise, we continued with coverage.

A program log at a TV or a radio station is a pre-printed schedule of programs, commercials, and other content that is scheduled to go on the air. It is a master control operator's job to air these items and to write down the times that they aired. I took pictures of the program log that channel 10 had that day, and you can see some of the pages. The first one shows when the special report began, at 9:00, airing coverage of "world trade center fire." The second one shows when I signed on for duty at 3:00 PM. The third picture shows that we cut away from NBC coverage around 6:00 PM for a local news update. Otherwise, you can see some of the programs and commercials that were pre-empted at those times.

After nine hours of broadcasting repeated replays of planes crashing into buildings, and buildings collapsing, I went home and had images of buildings collapsing in my head as I was trying to get to sleep. It was not easy. I truly wondered what was happening to the United States.

At work, nearly nonstop coverage of the 9/11 events continued for the next few days and frequent coverage into the next few weeks.

The other role I had in my life at the time was that I was president of the Rochester Pilots Association. All flights in the United States were grounded for a couple of weeks until the government assessed the threat of further attacks by air. A reporter from R News in Rochester called me up and asked if we could do a story about small planes, like the kind I flew, being grounded. I met her and a news photographer at Ledgedale Airport in Brockport and here's the story.

https://www.facebook.com/paul.pakusch/videos/467714888091/

The following month, my good friend Tony Weschler called me up and asked me if I would play drums on a song that he was recording as a tribute to the heroes of 9/11. So I did. We recorded it with Eileen Alexander singing lead and Scott Meli playing guitar. The four of us enjoyed working together so much on this song that we decided to form a permanent band, which was named Intrigued, and stayed together until 2009. This was the silver lining on a horrible tragedy. It brought me out of retirement from playing drums and I have been playing drums ever since. Here is the song.

https://youtu.be/zL0GrZ0YoIY

Growing Up in the 1960's

If you read virtually any history of the sixties, you will think that every young person was a hippy and went to Woodstock, everyone protested the Vietnam war, and everyone was listening to psychedelic rock. That's not how I remember it.

I was born in 1960, so this period accounts for the first ten years of my life. I was doing what kids that age typically do. I occasionally saw long-haired teenagers called hippies, but most of what the sixties are known for was not a part of my life. Superman, Batman, comics, Bewitched, Adam-12 and the NASA rocket launches and recoveries were. I had a cool 5-speed Stingray bike that I rode constantly all over the neighborhood. I loved climbing trees; we had a couple of awesome trees in our yard for climbing. Eventually we put a rope swing on one.

My parents listened to country music of the day and so did I.  I remember President Johnson. I didn't really understand who he was or what he did, just that "President Johnson" had a nice ring to it and couldn't imagine saying "President-anybody-else". I was too young to remember Kennedy. I once asked my mom what I was doing when the word of his assassination came on TV. She told me I was playing in the living room. She remembered Walter Cronkite breaking down on TV, so I guess I must've seen that. On November 22, 1963 I was a few weeks away from my third birthday. I do remember watching the episode of Bewitched in 1968 that was interrupted by a news bulletin about Martin Luther King being shot. Before then, I didn't know who he was. I also remember watching the long train ride of Robert Kennedy's funeral and my mom crying.

Just to see how the music of 1969 compares to today's version of history, here's the top 25 hits of 1969 according to Billboard Magazine

1	Archies	Sugar, Sugar
2	Fifth Dimension	Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In
3	Temptations	I Can't Get Next To You
4	Rolling Stones	Honky Tonk Women
5	Sly and The Family Stone	Everyday People
6	Tommy Roe	Dizzy
7	Sly and The Family Stone	Hot Fun In The Summertime
8	Tom Jones	I'll Never Fall In Love Again
9	Foundations	Build Me Up Buttercup
10	Tommy James and The Shondells	Crimson And Clover
11	Three Dog Night	One
12	Tommy James and The Shondells	Crystal Blue Persuasion
13	Cowsills	Hair
14	Marvin Gaye	Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
15	Henry Mancini and His Orch.	Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet
16	Youngbloods	Get Together
17	Friends Of Distinction	Grazin' In The Grass
18	Elvis Presley	Suspicious Minds
19	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Proud Mary
20	Jr. Walker and The All Stars	What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)
21	Isley Brothers	It's Your Thing
22	Neil Diamond	Sweet Caroline
23	Oliver	Jean
24	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Bad Moon Rising
25	Beatles	Get Back

A Hard of Hearing Person Coming Out of His Shell

In the past few years, friends have commented about how I've come "out of my shell" since my first marriage ended. I'm aware of this, too, and it has led me to become aware of how much I feel I missed in the five decades prior to that. I had begun obsessing over things that happened in my teen and young adult years. Or more to the point, things that didn't happen. Was I really shy? Why was I so naive about a lot that was happening around me? Why did it really matter now what happened 40 years ago? Why was I feeling like I had missed opportunities when I was younger?

A lot of people know that I am hard of hearing and have been all of my life. It is hereditary sensorineural hearing loss, which for the most part causes moderate to severe loss for me. In general, I hear high frequencies and low frequencies better than mid-range frequencies. Mid-range is where the human vocal range is. And that's what causes me to not understand what people are saying to me even if I can hear their voice.

It has only been through counseling in the recent past that I have come to understand what this has done to me all of my life. A lot of people believe that my dancing, singing karaoke, and just getting out there and being among friends is my overcoming shyness. But what I've learned is it I'm not the shy introverted person that I thought I am. A counselor pointed out all of the things that I have done that show that I am not an introverted person, such as DJ'ing radio shows, writing a blog, creating public access TV shows and videos, and other things as a method of expressing myself.

It turns out when I have actually done all my life is accommodate myself because of my hearing. I've sheltered myself. It's true; I have been afraid of not hearing people, so I have avoided situations where I might have to talk to someone. In my jobs such as working at channel 10, I often took positions in the control room where it would mean I don't have to talk to many people. I used to love running master control, which is basically a solo operation. I would put on a headset I so that I could communicate with other crew members when we were working television production. I did not like being out in the studio very much, because sometimes it meant that I would have to talk to other people in the studio and I would be afraid of not being able to hear what they had to say to me. This caused me to keep to myself. I'm sure a lot of people thought that I was being unfriendly.

Just about five years ago, I got a set of hearing aids that are the best I've ever had. They have opened me up to conversation that I was never able to experience much in the past. Three years ago I started interacting with friends more often, getting out dancing, and basically just opening myself up to more than I had in the past. It has been a tremendous life-changing experience for me.

Autobiography Chapter 12 - My Experience As A School Bus Driver

by Paul Pakusch

Prior to being a school bus driver, I spent nearly 39 years in the broadcasting business.  I started in radio at age 14 and progressed to working in the control room of a TV station, a job which lasted 32 years.  I had earned a BA in Communications, and later on earned a AAS in Accounting.  Along the way, I also earned a private pilot's license and dabbled in a few side business ventures.

In September, 2014, my position at the TV station was eliminated.  I quickly put the broadcasting business behind me and moved on.  Over the next few months, per union contract, I was recalled three times to the TV station but turned them all down.

Within a few weeks after being layed off, I decided to try school bus driving.  My wife was a teacher and the idea of us having vacations off together was appealing.  That was the initial attraction.  But once I got into driving, I discovered I truly enjoyed the job and kept it for that reason. Summers off became just a perk of the job.

There is a national shortage of school bus drivers.  I literally could pick whichever school district I wanted to work for.  I applied to four of them in my area and was called by all four for interviews.  I chose the district I lived in, which was my first choice anyways because it was a convenient commute for me.

I had to take a written test for my learner's permit.  In New York State, I needed the CDL, the passenger bus, and the school bus endorsements to my license.  Once I passed those written tests, the road training began.

I was assigned a trainer to teach me how to drive a school bus.  You begin with the "pre-trip" and "post-trip" inspections of the bus, which is a required routine for every single bus run.  The inside check consists of such things as checking all the buttons and switches around the dashboard, the interior lights, all the seat cushions and seat backs, the emergency doors, hatches and emergency windows.  The outside check consists of checking such things as all the exterior lights, reflectors, the tires and every single nut and bolt on them, all the windows for cracks, rubber seals around door windows, and more.

People have asked me if it's hard to drive a bus.  In my opinion, once you get used to the size of it, it's not a big deal.  I am as comfortable driving a school bus as I am my own personal vehicle.  You just have to be aware that you're taking up a lot more space, especially when going around corners.  If you follow the established procedures, you should have no problem driving a bus. You also have to learn how to use the air brake system.  Just about all school buses use automatic transmission these days.

I did learn quickly that I needed to get rid of a lot of bad driving habits.  Most drivers quite frankly suck.  The attitude of learning to drive as a teenager is to get your written test out of the way, learn to pass the road test, and then quickly adapt to all the bad habits you see everyone else doing. People are very impatient, which is what causes accidents.  People speed up to get through yellow lights before they turn red; CDL drivers are taught to slow down for "stale green" lights and be ready to stop when the light turns yellow.  People use road shoulders as turning lanes, or otherwise misuse turning lanes, especially the center lane. People drive either too fast or too slow in the left lane of a multi-lane highway.  People treat stop signs and right-on-reds as a yield sign, often hardly even slowing down.  People don't use turn signals properly, or don't use them at all.  People don't use hazard lights when they stop on the shoulder of the road.  People don't keep both hands on the wheel.  People text and/or use cell phones while driving; from high on my perch, it was very easy for me to see into people's cars and what they were doing.  I'm guilty of a lot of these.  Yup, it goes back to copying what everyone else was doing once I became a licensed driver, back in the day.   In training to drive a school bus, I found I needed to clean up my act.  Now I use my better driving habits in my personal vehicle as well as on the bus.

Once my trainer got me comfortable with driving a school bus, we spent a lot of time driving around the various neighborhoods of the school district.  I needed to see where all the cul de sacs and dead end streets were.  I needed to know the established procedures for turning the bus around in those areas.  We did practice runs so I could learn how to stay on schedule and find houses without driving past them and missing my stop.  The real challenge is finding houses on dark mornings when the house numbers are not lit up.  Hardly anyone thinks of lighting their house numbers.  Good luck when you need an ambulance.  And we're not allowed to use GPS.

When I got my own route, I got up early on a Sunday morning, at 0-dark-thirty, to drive the route and look for clues or landmarks to help me find certain houses in the dark. It might be a certain mailbox by the road with reflectors on it.  I might count driveways from an intersection or a light pole.  It might be a fire hydrant; I named it the "fire hydrant route" because so many of my stops were either just before or after a fire hydrant.  It might be a driveway just before or after a speed limit or duck crossing sign.  Landmarks of any kind that can be seen in the dark are a big help.  I wrote them all down in my route book so that a substitute driver could use the same landmarks if I wasn't there.

The day of my road test, my trainer and I showed up at Emerson & Glide in a school bus.  Of course, I was just a bucket of nerves.  I made a few mistakes on my test but passed.  Whew!  Then I did my initial driving of passengers with other drivers watching me.

My first solo driving experience was to take the high school hockey team to an ice rink.  I was happy to have the coach on board to keep the boys in line.  I chuckled over hearing some of them talk about girls.  Yep, back in high school!

Then one morning I was assigned to pick up an elementary girls' swim team from the high school and bring them back to their elementary school.  So the girls got on, and I looked around for an adult. Finally I said to them, "Do you have a teacher riding with you?"  They said no.  I looked back at the school building and saw an adult waving me on.  "Holy crap!"  I thought.  "I'm ALONE in a bus with a bunch of elementary school kids!"  So, awkwardly I drove them to their school and everything went fine.

I continued driving some more sub runs and then was told I'd be filling in on a regular run for a driver who was going on medical leave.  He ended up not coming back, so that run became mine for the rest of the year.

It's worth noting that my initial driving was in January and February of 2015, one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record in Rochester.  This brand new bus driver was cutting his teeth while plunging through snow drifts in nearly-zero visibility!  Don't I deserve some kind of an award for that? :-)  Anyways, once I got used to it, I was fine.  I much prefer driving a school bus through a blizzard than my own personal vehicle.

In March of 2015, I had my first bus emergency.  While driving middle-schoolers home, I suddenly saw some small amounts of smoke coming from my engine.  I pulled up to my next stop, which was only about 500 feet away, and told the kids we needed to evacuate.  They did wonderfully!  Everyone was off the bus in about 20 seconds, and they followed my instructions to stay together as a group.  I reported the situation to the dispatcher and they called 911.  Once the engine was checked, it turned out to be coolant leaking onto a hot part below it.  The whole thing was surreal; when I saw the smoke, I was in denial, thinking, "This can't really be happening."  Then I tried to wish the smoke away, but that doesn't work.  I didn't know what the cause was, so I took the safest course of action.

A lot of people tell me they don't know how I can stand having all those kids on the bus. To be honest, I was ok with it at first. I felt the kids really aren't that bad, overall. I'd have a few problem children that I dealt with individually.  Kids are a bundle of energy.  It's not natural for them to be sitting still for hours at a time.  So, I did the best I could at making sure they were in their seats and safe.  Many of them got loud; I dealt with it.  For most, they are only on the bus for about 15-20 minutes.  I probably spent more time alone in my bus than I do with kids in it.

Over time, it started getting to me. I was reaching my saturation point with certain kids who kept acting up and getting other kids riled up. A pet peeve of mine is school districts' policies of putting three kids in a seat.  I think the limit should be two to a seat, even for little kids.  They are restless and get on each other's nerves.  They elbow, poke and push each other. They've got big backpacks, and in colder weather, they're wearing thick winter outfits.  I think a lot of behavior problems would go away if districts would limit bus loads to no more than two passengers per seat.

Everything about school buses is designed around safety.  In New York State, riding a school bus is statistically the safest form of transportation.  Students are at far more risk of injury if they drive or are driven to school in a car.  I know people get annoyed at being stuck behind a school bus in traffic, or at having to stop for a bus's red lights, but you have to remember that kids are unpredictable.  Yes, they are taught how to cross a road in front of a bus and board or unload, but if they drop something or a sheet of paper starts blowing across a road, they're going to be impulsive and start chasing after it.

Cars going through a bus's red lights are a real problem. It happens to every single one of us drivers.  I've had as many as five cars go through my reds at a single stop.  Quite frankly, I don't think the drivers were even aware of what they did.  I could see their faces and they appeared to have "tunnel-vision;" they were driving on the opposite side of the road, looking straight ahead, and seemed oblivious to what was around them.  That's a dangerous practice even without a school bus in the environment; every driver should always be looking around, no matter where they are.

The worst busting a bus's red light situation I've seen is when a car tries to pass a stopped school bus on the right shoulder, by the door where kids are getting on or off.  Yes, it does happen! Even in my own school district! If you search Youtube, you can find some horrible examples of this.  I always checked my right mirror for cars that might be attempting to do this, and I reminded kids at those stops to watch for traffic before getting off.

A question I often get from people is whether they are required to stop for a school bus in the opposite direction on a divided highway.  In New York State, the answer is yes, you need to stop.  It's the law.  Why?  Remember what I said about an impulsive child chasing a paper across the road.

I hated holding up traffic and I'm sure many other bus drivers don't like it either.  The red lights don't come on until I open the door; I made sure no one was racing down the road before I opened the door.  If they were, I waited until they passed and then opened the door.  I'm not a cop, so I wasn't out to "get" anyone.  I'd write a license number down if I could see it and do it without jeopardizing the safety of kids.  But my primary responsibility was to make sure the kids got on and off the bus safely.  I was, however, very happy if I knew there was a cop following my bus!  Most people are nervous with a cop behind them, but I know I'm following all the road rules, so I have nothing to worry about; then I'm happy I've got someone watching out for idiots who pass a school bus's red lights.

So, what about those seat belts?  Well, yes, all school buses in New York State are required to have seat belts available for all the students.  They are not required to wear them unless it's a part of their IEP.  The high, cushioned seat backs are supposed to prevent injury if a bus comes to a quick stop.

The reason a lot of bus drivers are against the required use of seat belts is because a lot of valuable time would be lost if you needed to evacuate the bus quickly.  A bus with an engine fire is going to fill up with smoke quickly (again, search Youtube for some examples of how quickly this happens).  My bus can carry over 60 kids at once.  If I had 60 kids who were all wearing seat belts, imagine the confusion of a smoky bus, where 3/4 of the kids were able to get their seat belts off and get off the bus.  Meanwhile, they are in a panic, climbing over other kids who are struggling to get their belts off.  Chaos ensues in the smoky bus as kids head in different directions for the nearest exit, and I'm trying to get through with a seat belt cutter to get the remaining 15 kids out of their seat belts.  How much time has passed before I'm able to get to them all?  Two minutes?  Three minutes?  Maybe by then I'm either forced to get off the bus myself, or maybe I've passed out from smoke inhalation. Yet there might still be some kids on the bus, stuck in their seat belts. Remember what I said earlier: When I had an actual bus emergency last year, my un-seat belted middle schoolers were all off the bus in about 20 seconds.

What about possible injuries in a collision, when the kids are not wearing seat belts?  Yes, there are horrible examples of fatal school bus collisions, but in the vast majority of them, the kids are not going to be injured.  The padded seat backs will cushion the blow if they hit their heads.  If a bus is rear-ended, chances are there won't be anyone in the back seat because we try to keep the back seats unoccupied.  If the bus is hit on the side, the impact point will likely be below where they are sitting.

I really enjoyed the job.  I enjoy the feel of driving a big vehicle and I enjoy sitting up high in traffic so I can see everything.  I enjoy watching the sun rise.  I enjoy being out with the windows open on nice days.  I enjoy seeing the kids on a regular basis.  I especially appreciate the kids who seem to like me.  I got a bunch of really nice cards on my elementary school's bus driver appreciation day.  I was happily surprised when I saw how many of them wrote such things as "I love you," and "you're nice," and "thank you for keeping me safe."

I'm not alone in this being a major career change.  Other bus drivers I've met include drivers from other transportation jobs, people layed off from other jobs, retired cops, retired Kodak workers or factory jobs, business owners, empty nest mothers, volunteer firefighters, a church pastor, transfers from other school jobs, parents or grandparents of students in the district, and many other walks of life.  Everyone has their own reason for choosing this line of work, but we all pride ourselves on the safe transportation of students to and from school every day.

Although I had a lot of positive things to say about being a school bus driver, after 3 years I decided it was time to move on. The main source of frustration for me is that I get the feeling taxpayers are expecting too much of school bus drivers. There is a tremendous amount of responsibility and the  salary over the course of a year is not very much. A lot of emphasis is placed by the New York State DMV and the federal DOT about driver distraction. But they seem to forget that having 50 screaming kids in the back of the bus is a bigger distraction than anything else. If I had it my way, every single bus would have a monitor on it so the driver can pay attention to driving.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Thursday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

My Autobiography, Chapter 11: Accounting and Tax Preparation

by Paul Pakusch

In 1986, the treasurer of my union, NABET Local 22 announced his retirement.  He had been treasurer for 30 years.  Nobody expressed any interest in taking the position.  Local 22’s by-laws had a provision for the Secretary to be a Secretary-Treasurer.  Since I was already Secretary, I was encouraged to take the position.  I did.

I learned how to do some basic bookkeeping by paper, since most computer software did not exist yet.  For that matter, it seemed like hardly anybody had a computer, either, but interest was growing.  It certainly was with me.  After a couple years of doing my work by paper, I made a proposal to the Local that we purchase a computer for me to keep membership records on and to do my bookkeeping.  It was approved and I entered the world of DOS. 

I don’t remember what the original software I had was.  But eventually, we picked up Quicken in its early stages.  I remember it seemed overwhelming because I had to use multiple floppy disks to install it.  CD-roms and pre-installed software on computers did not exist yet.  In any case, I was one of the early users of Quicken.

NABET became the bulk of my bookkeeping experience from 1986 to 2007.  In 2007, amidst strong rumors of layoffs at WHEC, I feared for my future and decided to go back to school and get a degree in Accounting.  I did it part time and graduated in 2011.

I had joined Excelsior Brigade Fife & Drum Corps in 2008 and became its treasurer not long after that.  In 2009, I picked up a volunteer position as bookkeeper for the Henrietta Foundation, a non-profit group that was dedicated to preserving green space in the town of Henrietta.  They had purchased a small golf course, so my bookkeeping duties included the golf course operation.  I stayed on for three years.

For the 2011 and 2013 tax seasons, I prepared taxes for pay.  I also did volunteer tax preparation for VITA at Rochester’s C.A.S.H. program.

After being layed off from WHEC in September, 2014, I rented some office space in Spencerport and included bookkeeping in my services.  I would have kept the bookkeeping and tax preparation venture, but I was having a lot more success as a wedding Officiant.  So, I closed up the office in May of 2015 to focus on my wedding venture.   I did dabble in tax preparation one more time now in 2018, but decided I'm better off sticking with weddings.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Saturday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

My Autobiography, Chapter 10: Union Officer

by Paul Pakusch

When I first started working at WROC Channel 8 in May of 1982, I was required to join the union that represents engineers and news photographers at that station and at WHEC Channel 10.  The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) represented TV and radio stations all over the country and Canada, including the TV networks ABC and NBC.  At the time I joined, the international office was in Chicago.  Across the two countries, NABET was made up of Locals representing the TV and radio stations in their cities.

In Rochester, NABET Local 22 served Channels 8 and 10, and during the 1950’s and 60’s, WOKR Channel 13.  I joined at WROC and maintained my membership when my employment changed to WHEC.

The executive board was made up of a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and generally two shop stewards at each station.  In 1985, the office of Local Secretary was open and I was encouraged to run for it.  No competition, so I was voted in by acclamation. 

One of the first influences I had in how business was conducted was a simple suggestion. Local 22’s general meetings were usually held on Saturday mornings and were poorly attended.  They generally served coffee.  My suggestion was to change the meetings to weekday evenings, when the evening shifts at both stations were on their dinner break, open the bar and serve pizza.  Well, it worked!  Attendance at the general meetings shot up.

In 1986, this young whippersnapper had the opportunity to represent Local 22 at NABET’s International Convention in Fort Lauderdale.  I met broadcast employees and fellow NABET members from all over the U.S. and Canada.  I learned how TV and radio stations were all dealing with the same labor issues, and I learned how they dealt with them.  This became the pattern for the next 20 years as I frequently attended NABET Conventions, Conferences, Regional Advisory Meetings, and later CWA Conventions when NABET merged with and became a Sector of the Communication Workers of America.  I also got caught up in the internal politics of NABET-CWA. NABET merged with CWA in 1993.  By that time, NABET Canada had separated from NABET, so it was no longer an international union.

My time as a local union officer lasted for the better part of the years from 1985 to 2014.  There were a few times during those years when I was not an officer, but cumulatively, I was either treasurer, president or secretary for about 25 years.  We had some difficult contract negotiations during that period at both stations.  We never went on strike, but we had several instances of mobilization campaigns.  That’s where you go public; you get politicians involved in your cause, post billboards and bus signs, contact the station’s advertisers, etc.  I can remember one negotiating session where we were sitting in a conference room on Main Street in Rochester, and we watched buses go by with our signs on the side of them!

On the day I was layed off from channel 10, I resigned as a  NABET-CWA Local officer.  I have since considered myself retired from broadcasting and recently received my NABET-CWA Retired Member’s Gold Card.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Saturday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

My Autobiography, Chapter 9: Out of a Job at Age 53 and Rebounding

by Paul Pakusch

In my previous chapter, I described how I was layed off from my job of 32 years in 2014.  I knew immediately that I was done with the broadcasting business.  Including the time I spent in high school radio starting at age 14, I had accumulated 39 years of working in radio and TV control rooms.  

While it was a lot of fun in the beginning, the nature of the business had changed so much that none of it was attractive to me anymore.  The truth is that, given a little bit of time, I could very easily have gone right back into it, and right back to my former employer.  Per union contract, I was recalled from layoff three times in the next four months.  I turned them all down.  I had moved on.

I had prepared myself for losing my job as far back as 2007, when there were rumors flying around of impending layoffs.  I survived that round, but decided to make myself ready for another career.  I decided to go back to school and get an accounting degree.  I enrolled in the Accounting program at Monroe Community College.  I already had my BA in Communications from SUNY Geneseo, so I was able to transfer in credits from core courses.  I attended school part time and finished with my AAS Degree in Accounting in 2011.

So, in 2014 when I was layed off, I was ready to jump right into an accounting job.  However, I was totally turned off by the idea of working in a corporate environment.  I found plenty of starting positions listed in the classifieds, but all the jobs that looked promising to me were in places I wanted nothing to do with. 

I recognized that I need to explore other options for me.  I went to some job hunting seminars at Rochester Works and got a counselor who was supposed to help guide me in my new job search.  It’s a fantastic program and it doesn’t cost anything.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is struggling with finding the right job for them.

As I mentioned at the end of my previous chapter, I booked a trip to Florida the day I was layed off.  I figured I had the time, some unused airline and hotel credit, and some car rental vouchers that were due to expire if I didn’t use them.  I had also learned that one of my favorite bands, the Spirit of America Fife & Drum Corps at Disney’s Epcot park, was being shut down.  So, I wanted one more opportunity to see them perform.  I travelled to Florida a couple weeks later and spent three nights there.  One day in the park, and two days at a poolside.  It gave me time to think about my career options.

Through the years, Mary and I had occasionally considered the possibility of my becoming a school bus driver upon retiring from Channel 10.  The idea was becoming more and more attractive to me.  We had always wanted to travel the world together.  Working on the school calendar would give me the same vacation time as her, which would give us the opportunity to travel together.

I knew that I would take a significant cut in my income by becoming a school bus driver.  I wanted to supplement my income by following my dream of opening my own bookkeeping service.  So, I rented some office space and opened up a bookkeeping and tax preparation business.  Since I had two rooms, I decided to also make one of the rooms a gallery for my photography.  Talk about diversification! 

I had a great open house event to show off my new photography gallery.  A lot of people attended and I sold some framed pictures.  But after that, attendance and sales plummeted.  I got a lot of compliments on my photography, but very few people were buying.  Bookkeeping was a tough start for me; in retrospect, I recognize that I did not do a good job marketing myself.  Tax preparation actually went quite well.  From the time I opened the office in November of 2014 to around May of 2015, when I moved out of the office, I had a pretty decent thing going with tax preparation.

The big surprise in all of this was a little side venture I had dabbled in that I never expected to get much out of:  Officiating weddings!

 I will devote upcoming chapters to my experience with Accounting & Tax Preparation, Photography, Officiating Weddings, being a Union officer, scholl bud dribing, and more.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Saturday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

My Autobiography, Chapter 8: Broadcasting Memories, Part 5: Memorable Highlights from 3 Decades at WHEC Channel 10

by Paul Pakusch

It’s tough to come up with details about every single event and every single person you met while working a job in one place for a long time.  My time at WHEC covers almost my entire adult life.  So, my goal with this chapter is to present some highlights; things that stand out in my mind for one reason or another.

When I started at WHEC in August of 1982, I was entering my senior year in college at SUNY Geneseo.  The job was part time on weekends.  I was engaged to my college sweetheart.  For 32 years, I always humorously told people it was a college job I never left.  By the time I did leave, I had three grown daughters.

One thing about broadcast technology is that it is always changing.  When I think of various significant news events or things that were happening on the job, my mind pictures the equipment that was in the control room at the time.  In 1982, TV stations were still showing some programs on 16 mm film, but it was on its way out.  Many of our programs were on 2” quad tape.  We used ¾’ videocassettes for ENG news.  1” reel to reel tape was on its way in.  Master Control was switched manually between sources, and the video switcher had no presets on it.  Every visual effect had to be set manually.  By the time I left, everything was computerized.

The control room positions at the time included a master control operator, a video switcher, an audio operator, two camera operators in the studio, a videotape operator, and a character generator operator.  I ultimate did all of these jobs.   All of this was tied together by a director, which was in a different Union.  Control room techs were NABET and directors were AFTRA.  We also still did some film operations; when 16 mm films of shows came in, they had to be spliced to fit our commercial schedule.

In my first year and a half of full-time work, I was the vacation relief guy.  I worked the schedule of whoever was on vacation that week, so I was all over the place.  It gave me a lot of valuable experience.

A typical weekday morning schedule at first had me coming in at 6:00 AM and getting out at 3:00 PM.  We’d come in to broadcast live 5-minute local inserts during the CBS Morning Show between 7:00 and 9:00.  At 9:00, we had a half-hour window to do some production work.  One a week, legendary Rochester newsman Dick Tobias would walk over from WVOR radio to record three commentaries that aired during the 6:00 PM news.  Warren Doremus did the same on another day.  Lunch hours were from 9:30 to 10:30 for the first group, then 10:30 to 11:30 for the second group.  We were also getting ready for the 12:00 news during that time.  After the noon show, we might have more production, such as recording the Sunday Mass for Shut-ins, or an interview show called Newsmaker.

I think it was around 1985 that we started recording a morning show with Warren Doremus hosting.  It was recorded at 9:00 AM and was played back at 6:30 three weekday mornings later.

The evening shift started at 3:00 PM and ended at 12:00 midnight.  The afternoon typically had some production time, and then we got ready for the 6:00 PM news.  We’d then have dinner breaks, followed by time to “cart commercials.”  That means we transferred videotape reels of commercials onto a videocassette that would be played in a legendary broadcast control room machine called a TCR-100.  It’s tough to explain this thing; you’d have to see it yourself!

There was time for more production in the evening, followed by short news updates during prime time TV programming and then the 11:00 news.

Weekends were more of the same, but at a much more relaxed pace.  During overnights and weekend mornings, generally there were two people in the control room and eventually just one, running master control.

Through the years, the basic structure of the workday remained the same.  Over time, there was a lot more emphasis on news production, less emphasis on commercial production, and earlier workshifts as the trend in local TV news grew to have morning news programs lasting two hours or more.  Technology changed as everything gradually transitioned from film and analog to digital.

We did a lot of interview shows, between Warren Doremus’ morning show, Newsmaker, and noon show guest segments.  I saw a lot of famous people come through our studio, including Marie Osmond, Richard Simmons, Chuck Mangione, Pat Sajak & Vanna White, Patti Page, Peter Noone, Graham Nash, Mitch Miller, and so many more that I’m forgetting as I write this.  One of my favorites was Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary.  He was in town for a children’s show and they were promoting it on the noon show interview segment.  I was on audio that day.  He was the most wonderful person to work with as we got his audio set up.  My only regret is that I did not save a videotape of that segment.

I remember sitting in master control through special reports of significant news events.  The biggest had to be Sept 11, 2001.  I was working the evening shift at the time, so I was home when the planes hit.  When I did arrive for my shift that afternoon, I was assigned to stay in Master Control for 9 hours straight.  We truly did not know what to expect; NBC was broadcasting from New York City, which everyone knows was under attack, so we received messages from NBC that they could not guarantee they would stay on the air.  At the time, we did not know who had hijacked the planes and no one knew whether buildings other than the World Trade Center would be targeted.  So, we, like all NBC affiliates had to be ready to go on the air with something if we lost our signal from NBC.  We stayed on the air with coverage from NBC and did local updates.   That night when I went to bed, visions of buildings collapsing kept playing over and over in my mind as I tried to get to sleep.

I recall coverage of political campaigns, conventions and election nights.  I recall sitting in Master Control, watching Presidents be sworn into office.  I remember sitting through the Oliver North hearings and the Iran-Contra hearings; the space shuttle launches and landings; Challenger exploding; both wars with Iraq; DOS and Windows; Chernobyl; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union; Tiananmen Square; Exxon Valdez disaster; Nelson Mandela’s release from prison; the spread of AIDS; construction of the Chunnel; the fear of Y2K (which I laughed all the way through until nothing happened); and the birth of the internet.  I can remember being in Master Control during all of these events.

I spent a lot of time on weekends running Master Control for sports.  I was never much of a spectator for sports, but I grew to enjoy watching golf and auto racing from Master Control.  I was assigned to Master Control for one Super Bowl.  It was pretty cool, knowing that everyone in the city and beyond was watching my work.  And no, it never made me nervous.  Switching a program and commercials was the same, whether 50 people or 500,000 people were watching, or whether the commercials being played cost $10 or $10,000.

I spent a lot of time on audio during my early years at WHEC.  Eventually I transitioned to video switching for about a decade.  I was a videotape operator for my entire tenure until tape was finally abandoned.  Everyone on the crew did studio camera until operators were displaced by a remote control panel.  I was a character generator operator sporadically; sometimes I would do it for awhile, then I would not be assigned to it for several years.  CG eventually became a source of frustration for me because of the constant going back and forth, “You’re a CG operator; no, you’re not a CG operator.” It reached a point where I had trouble keeping up.

In 2007, I was unexpectedly handed a job that took me off the control room crew for a good chunk of the day in my remaining years at WHEC.  The perk was that my schedule was 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM Monday through Friday.  The job was what my boss and I called, “Program Media Coordinator.”  Essentially, I was in charge of making sure programs we needed were recorded, and then made ready to be played back at the scheduled time.  I enjoyed it, and it was enhanced when Channel 10 added a weather channel.  We were required by FCC law to air some children’s programming on it.  It was my job to make sure those programs got on the air.

Business is business, and the purpose is to make a profit.  In spite of the FCC’s declaration that broadcasters are public trustees and must “serve the public,” the reality is that they are businesses and are in it for the money.  Like any business, they want to keep their expenses down and their profits up.  By the spring of 2014, WHEC had finally come out of 1980’s style technology with the installation of automation equipment for its Master Control system.  When a company invests in automation, it wants to reduce salary expenses.  I get that.  I harbor no resentment for the company wanting to be state of the art while keeping expenses down.  That’s how you earn a profit. 

There were a bunch of us who were making “top scale” salaries and seemed to be targeted during lay-offs.  By mid-summer 2014, the signs that I would be the next one to go were glaringly obvious.  No offense, but my immediate management did a piss-poor job of hiding that fact from me.  Training for the new equipment was under way, work was being taken away from me, and the rumor mill was in high gear. My morale plunged.  In mid-August, I cleaned out my locker and took personal items out of my desk. 

On Friday, September 5, 2014, I was simply told that the new automation equipment was working as expected and that my “position was eliminated.”  Fine.  At that point, all I wanted was my severance pay.  Once it was confirmed that I would get it, I was ready to walk out of the building.  Escorted, of course, because I was no longer an employee.    

Since then, I’ve pondered the fact that when one spends decades on a job and leaves or retires on their own terms, they get cake and accolades.  But when you are forced out the door during a cost-reduction event, you are erased. 

I went home that late afternoon and spent a couple hours catching up on my NABET treasurer bookkeeping duties.  Then I sent an e-mail to the executive board to tell them that since I was no longer employed at WHEC, I was resigning as treasurer. 

Then I booked a trip to Florida. 

In my next chapter, I will discuss how I rebounded from losing my job in my early 50’s.

https://paulpakusch.blogspot.com/2018/05/my-autobiography-chapter-9-out-of-job.html

My Autobiography, Chapter 7 - Broadcasting Memories, Part 4: Getting Started in Television

by Paul Pakusch

Near the end of my junior year in college at SUNY Geneseo in the spring of 1982, I was looking for a summer job.  My friend, Brad Smith at Geneseo, was working at WROC Channel 8 at the time and told me about vacation summer relief jobs.  I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by applying, so I sent in a job application and resume.  In the meantime, I was offered a job as s security guard for a security company (I don’t remember which one).  When I got home from accepting my new job, my sister told me there was a phone message from Channel 8.  Chief Engineer John Coon wanted me to come in for a job interview.  I think I went the next day and was hired on the spot.  So I called back the security company and told them I got another job.

My job at Channel 8 was to work in the control room and studio.  It was a temporary job for the summer with full time hours.  My WeMoCo training came in handy here.  I started out on studio camera, then added audio and master control.  My hours were 2:45 to 11:45 PM; I was involved in daily late afternoon production of commercials and interview shows.  Then we got ready for and produced the 6:00 PM newscast.  In the evening we did the 11:00 news.

Master control was a lot like running a radio station except with video.  I found I really enjoyed that, and it remained my favorite control room position through my entire 32-year television career. The times we had to scramble for special reports, breaking news, or other quick program changes were invigorating for me.  I prided myself in quick, smooth changes.

I also learned how to edit video for news.  We were using ¾” U-Matic videocassettes at the time.  I was often assigned to edit some news stories in the evening.

It was just a few short months for me at WROC Channel 8.  As my temporary job was coming to an end in August, I started thinking about continuing my career in television instead of radio.  I recognized that control room TV jobs were a lot more secure than pretty much any job in a radio station. There were no permanent openings at WROC, so a longtime employee and supervisor at WROC, Joe Mazzaferro,  offered to call his friend, Jerry Evans, chief engineer at WHEC Channel 10.  I stood right in the office while he made the phone call to Jerry.  He told Jerry that if any openings came up, he had a guy he could recommend.

My last evening on the job at Channel 8 was a Sunday.  The crew wished me well.  The following Wednesday, I got a phone call from Jerry Evans.  I was interviewed on Thursday and offered a weekend part time job on the spot.  It was perfect!  I could go to school for my senior year at Geneseo during the week and work weekend evenings at Channel 10.  I started the following Saturday, so I didn’t miss a weekend!

You get familiar with certain places and routines.  The weekend I started at Channel 10 I was badly missing being at Channel 8.  But I got over it quickly enough.  I continued working studio camera, master control, audio, and editing news at Channel 10.

In 1982, it was still common for TV stations to sign off during the overnight hours, and channel 10 signed off around 1:30 or 2:00 AM.  While I was working there during my senior year, Jerry told me they were going to start staying on 24 hours a day during the week.  He offered me a full-time job for the overnight hours.  It was tempting, but since I was trying to graduate from college, I turned it down.

Towards the end of my school year and graduation, I was once again offered a full time vacation relief job.  I did that for the summer of 1983 at Channel 10; in August, a full-time position opened up and I was offered the job. My part-time college job turned into my full-time career.  There I would stay for the next 31 years.

In my next chapter, I will have memorable highlights from 32 years at WHEC Channel 10.

https://paulpakusch.blogspot.com/2018/05/my-autobiography-chapter-8-broadcasting.html

Autobiography Chapter 6 - Broadcasting Part 3: Radio During My College Years

CHAPTER 6 Broadcasting Memories, Part 3: Radio During My College Years

by Paul Pakusch

While I was a senior in high school, a family friend gave me the birthday gift of several nights spent in his dorm room at SUNY Geneseo.  I was looking for a college to attend and he thought it would be a nice way for me to experience college life.  He also included meal coupons in the package deal so I could eat.

I spent many hours of that time on campus at the college radio stations, WGBC-AM and WGSU-FM, chatting with other Communications students and learning how college radio worked.  WGBC was a carrier current station, meaning it used a building’s electrical system as an antenna. There were small transmitters in each of the dorm buildings, broadcasting at 640 AM.  It could only be picked up on radio receivers within or very close to the building, much like WiFi is today.  WGSU was and still is a licensed FM station that broadcasts to the local community at 89.3.

It was a no brainer for me to choose SUNY Geneseo.  It was affordable, it was close by, and it had the communications program that I wanted.  Since I didn’t have a car yet, it was also conveniently on the Trailways bus route.

My mom, family friend Ruth and sisters gave me the complimentary first ride to campus.  I was to share my dorm room with two other freshman; we were the first to arrive.  After checking into my room, my mom noticed that there were some knobs missing from the dresser that I chose as my own.  She unscrewed a couple of them from one of the other dressers to put on mine, leaving the other two dressers with knobs missing.  We were out of the room when my other two roommates, Vinnie and David, arrived. Apparently Vinnie’s family did the same thing. Later on, when I met them, David told me he had been the last one to arrive.  He said, “Funny thing we noticed.  When I got here, the dresser I got didn’t have any knobs on it.”

After my family left, I wasted no time heading up to the Blake B building, where the two radio stations were located.  WGBC was on the top floor and WGSU was down in the basement.  I met the student managers of the stations.  Neither was offering any DJ slots for new students yet, so I had to wait for auditions before I could start.

If you read my chapter about WGMC, you’ll recall that I had speech impediments due to my hearing loss. I never liked the way I sounded during my high school years.  Starting in college radio, I still had some issues to overcome, but it was at WGBC and WGSU that I honed my radio announcing skills.  I was also able to get speech therapy, which if memory serves correctly, came in 1980.  There were two older girls who did the therapy for me.  They were both seniors in the speech pathology program.  I was one of the cases in their student teaching programs.  They would analyze my speech patterns and come back at the next session with methods to help me overcome my impediments.  They had a teacher who would listen in on the sessions to monitor my progress and evaluate their work with me.  It was an actual course for me as well since I got college credit for it.

It didn’t take long for me to get past the required auditions for DJ slots at the two campus stations, and I kept them for every single semester of my college years.  In addition to shifts that played the standard formats of both stations, I was also offered a rock and roll oldies show on WGSU, which I hosted for a couple years.  I continued doing newscasts as well.

I held director and management positions at both stations.  At WGSU, I was Production Director during my junior year, and at WGBC, I was Station Manager for my senior year.  A number of my campus colleagues moved on to careers in radio and TV.  Quite a few ended up in the Rochester market; others moved on to other parts of the country.

I did get involved with the campus TV station, GSTV, but it was more of a footnote compared to campus radio.  I did some news anchoring and studio camera my first couple of years.

My college classes were all about radio and TV.  There were the required core classes, of course, but the ones that excited me were Radio Production, TV Production, Radio & TV Writing, Newspaper Writing, Public Speaking, Fiction Writing, Poetry Writing and similar courses.  Many people graduate from college with a degree that they never use; I’m happy I’ve been able to benefit at times in my life from most of the courses that I took in college.

In my sophomore year, I got a job as a DJ at the Statesmen Bar.  It could have happened sooner, but Leona’s policy was not to hire freshmen.  Tony and Leona Battaglia were the owners of the Statesmen.  I heard that Tony was the first person to get a liquor license in Geneseo after Prohibition ended.  I started going to the Statesmen soon after starting college in the Fall of 1979. Leona told me she believed freshmen should get settled in schoolwork their first year, so I would have to wait a year before becoming employed at the Statesmen.  In the meantime, she waived my admission fee every time I went there.  As soon as my sophomore year started, she hired me as a DJ.

A disco floor had been built in the back room, complete with mirror balls, flashing colored lights, and a DJ booth.  This was where I developed some of the dance moves I have today; some of it was by copying other people I saw dancing and some of it was from improvising my own moves. When I hear certain disco songs today, my mind goes back to the Statesmen and I can vividly picture being on the dance floor.  Among my favorites, still today, are “Heart of Glass,” “Shake Your Body Down to the Ground,” “Born to Be Alive,” “Rapper’s Delight,” “Bad Girls,” “MacArthur Park,” and “Ring My Bell,” which always got Leona on the dance floor with her finger cymbals.

DJ’ing at the Statesmen was pretty easy.  All I had to do was play the regular favorites and include new songs.  It wasn’t all disco; we had new songs from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, Bruce Springsteen’s “River” album, and some New Wave tracks. We were supposed to push the drink specials from time to time. Every night ended with Donna Summers’ “Last Dance.”  We were to never play it until the night was over.

My DJ job at the Statesmen lasted only for the Fall semester of 1980.  I quit because I had also started a weekend job at WPXY over the summer.  Leona was not happy about my leaving; she had expected me to stay the full year.  I told her my career goal was in radio and that I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to work at a radio station.  She lost her chance with me by not hiring me as a freshman, the year before.  The problem I ran into was that my weekend shifts at WPXY started at 6:00 AM.  I finished at the Statesmen at 1:00 the night before.  It meant getting a few hours of sleep and then getting up early enough to drive from Geneseo to be at my job in Rochester by 6:00.  Leona asked me if I could recommend anyone else; I recommended my friend, Sharon, and she was hired.

My job at WPXY over the summer of 1980 began as a full-time automation operator.  It was part of the AM-FM combo originally at WROC-TV. The company that owned the TV station had sold the radio stations.  By 1980, WROC-AM was an all-talk station with the call letters WPXN.  It was being moved out of the historic building on Humboldt Street and into office space at the Chamber of Commerce building on St. Paul Street in downtown Rochester.  The automation system, similar to the one I had operated at WEZO, was in the TV transmitter building on Pinnacle Hill.

The automation was set up in the future sales manager’s office while the rest of the space was being renovated into offices and radio studios.  As was the case at WEZO, my job was to change the reels of music, keep the commercials up to date in the cart carousels, and make sure the weather forecasts and news broadcasts got recorded and ready for playback.  As the studios were being completed, the automation equipment was moved into its new home, and new radio equipment was installed in the other studios.

When summer ended and I went back to college, I changed my hours to weekend mornings.  WPXN was changing, too.  They started doing away with talk radio and changed the format to a mellow music type of format, which added to my duties.  In addition to overseeing the automation for WPXY, I would now be running the board manually for WPXN.  The music was provided on reels of tape, just like WPXY, but nothing was automated.  We still provided regular news updates live from the news booth and we carried Rochester Red Wing baseball games, which I engineered during my shifts.

By the summer of 1981, I was dating Mary. We came up with an arrangement for me to live at her house in Saugerties, NY, during summer vacation, so I quit my job at WPXN-WPXY.  I had worked there a full year.

I needed to support myself while I was in Saugerties.  I got a job working five overnights a week at the Malden Thruway rest stop as a cleaner and dishwasher.  I also got a job working weekend overnights at WJJB-WHPN in Hyde Park, NY.  This became the job I had where I never met my boss.

I had sent resumes to various radio stations near Saugerties, hoping to continue my radio career for the summer.  A program director, I don’t remember his name, called me one day and, based on my previous automation experience, hired me over the phone to work weekend overnights.  I was to work something like 12:00 midnight to 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning.  Training consisted of my showing up at 11:30 the first night so the previous operator could show me the ropes for a half hour. So, I’d babysit WJJB-FM for the overnight hours.  Then at 6:00, I’d sign on WHPN-AM and run religious programs until the end of my shift.  I never saw anyone except the operators before and after me.  After a few weekends of this, my schedule at the Thruway stop changed and the radio hours became a conflict.  I had to choose the job that was earning more money for me, so I called up the program director and told him I had no choice but to quit.  That was it.  I never met my boss.

After returning to school in the Fall of 1981, I once again obtained employment in radio.  This time, a former colleague from WNYR-WEZO, Nelson Guyette, had become program director of the legendary WSAY in Rochester and he hired me for weekend board shifts.  WSAY was no longer owned by Gordon Brown, who had passed away a couple years earlier.  The new owner was Lou Dickie, and he had changed the format to an adult contemporary station.  The legendary team of Jack Slattery and George Haefner had been hired away from WHAM for the morning program.

My weekend shifts were 12:00 midnight Saturday to 9:00 Sunday morning, 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM Sunday, and 10:00 PM Sunday to 5:30 Monday morning.  Then I’d curl up in a sleeping bag in one of the offices for a couple hours of sleep before going to Geneseo for my classes.  Mary was with me on a lot of those Sunday overnights so we could drive to school together.

While I was employed at WSAY, the format and call letters changed to all-talk WRTK.  In June of 1982, I was hired for a full-time summer position in the control room and studio of WROC Channel 8.  The start of my career in television will be the subject of my next chapter.

https://paulpakusch.blogspot.com/2018/04/my-autobiography-chapter-7-broadcasting.html

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.

https://paulpakusch.blogspot.com/2018/04/autobiography-chapter-6-broadcasting.html

Autobiography Chapter 4 - Broadcasting Memories, Part 1: How It All Began

CHAPTER 4 Broadcasting Memories, Part 1: How It All Began

by Paul Pakusch

I am making a series of posts on my broadcasting memories, from the point of view of someone who has worked mostly behind the scenes for nearly 40 years.  My hope is that some readers will have an interest in what it is that gets their favorite TV or radio shows into their homes.  It still amazes me that some people I meet are surprised when I tell them how often I've worked holidays, evenings, weekends, very early mornings and overnights.  What they don't seem to realize is that there are humans behind the scenes.  So, when they are watching their favorite sports teams, reality shows, newscasts and more, someone has to be there to put it on the air. 

Briefly summarizing, my career began in high school radio in September, 1975 when I joined WGMC radio in Greece, NY, when I was 14.  That led to both part-time and full-time radio jobs through the next few years at WEZO/WNYR, WPXY/WPXN in Rochester, WJJB in Hyde Park, and WSAY in Rochester.  I was heavily involved in college radio & TV at SUNY Geneseo from 1979-1983, at WGBC-AM, WGSU-FM, and GSTV.  In the summer of 1982, I worked at WROC TV 8 and then WHEC TV 10.  I was at WHEC for 32 years.

What first sparked my interest in anything related to broadcast technology occurred around 1970 on a snow day from school.  I went to my friend's house.  Since we were in a blizzard, his dad was also home from work.  His dad got out his reel to reel tape recorder and recorded our voices.  I had never experienced anything like that before and I was totally fascinated by tape recorders.  I later asked for and received one for Christmas.  As the old ad campaign once said, I had a "Sony of my owny!" 

I spent many hours recording and playing back myself, my sisters and the audio of various TV shows.

If my friend's dad's tape recorder provided the first spark, what really got the engine going for me occurred in the summer of 1974 when I was a member of the Greece Cadets Jr. Drum and Bugle Corps.  Our hometown show was coming up and we were to host a competition of drum and bugle corps.  As part of publicizing the show, the corps' PR director, Warren Heiligman, asked about a dozen of us kids to appear on the TV show, "Louise," which aired at 9:00 every weekday morning on WOKR Channel 13.  I was one of them.  We stood at attention in our uniforms with our music instruments while Warren and Louise discussed the upcoming show.  It was my first time inside of a TV station.  I was dazzled by the studio, the cameras, the sets and the lights.

I wanted to see more.  I started watching WOKR's evening newscast, "Eyewitness News," with Dick Burt and Don Alhart on a regular basis.  I wrote a letter to Don Alhart asking him if I could come and watch a newscast on the air.  He set it up for me and made it work.  Dick Burt was not there that night, so I wrote to him and got a second visit for another time.  In both cases, I stayed around long enough to also see the live broadcast of "Bowling For Dollars," which aired at 7:00 PM on weeknights.  Later on, I made visits to see live news broadcasts at WROC Channel 8 and WHEC Channel 10.

Shortly after I started high school in September, 1975, I learned of radio station WGMC, which was based at Athena High School. Many people today know of WGMC as a jazz radio station, supported by donations.  It was a different atmosphere at the time, funded by the school district.

 The town of Greece at the time had three public high schools and one Catholic high school.  WGMC was meant to be available to students of all the high schools.  It was also considered a community station, meaning any adult from the area could volunteer at the station.  It was a wonderful mix of students and adults working together.  Some were on the air and some were behind the scenes.  When I think of that time period, I think of how we had a group of high school students and adults that got along so well together.  Everyone cooperated; we all learned from each other.  Kids quickly picked up on radio production techniques; adults exposed kids to culture.  We had radio shows that featured different genres of music and countries from around the world.

The station had only 10 watts of radiated power at the time, which generally covered the town of Greece and some other nearby areas.  The goal at the time was to eventually raise its power so the signal could be heard further out.  What prevented this from happening was an agreement with Canada in which the station could not interfere with a Canadian station on the same frequency.  Ironically, there was no station on that frequency.  Canada assigned frequencies by area, whether there was a station or not.  So, a non-existent station in Canada is what kept WGMC from raising its power until the early 1980’s.

In any case, WGMC was the beginning of a 39-year career in broadcasting for me.  I started there as a student in 1975 at the age of 14, and left broadcasting in 2014 at the age of 53 when my position was eliminated at WHEC Channel 10 in Rochester.

I began riding my bicycle from Arcadia to Athena High after school was out.  After awhile, I made arrangements to ride a school bus.  The bus would do its Arcadia high school run, then go to Athena for its Junior High Run.  I would stay on the bus until it got to Athena.

In the beginning, I was first shown how to used WGMC’s production room.  I quickly caught on to how to use the board, as the audio console of a radio station is called. In a pre-computer world, everything was analog and mechanical.  We had turntables, reel-to-reel tape decks, and cart machines. Cueing up records, segueing between songs, playing audio carts with prerecorded content, and keeping it “tight” came naturally to me.  I learned tricks from other students and experimented with different sound effects, such as reverb, double-tracking, speeding up or slowing down tape speeds.  I learned how to splice tape and how to put new tape into a cart.

WGMC broadcast school and town board meetings on alternate weeks every Tuesday.  In order to pick up the voices of all the participants, we had to set up an array of microphones in the board rooms.  I learned how to connect all these microphones to a mixer.  The school board meetings were in the same building, so I learned how to connect the  mixer to a wire that ran back to the room where the station was.  In the case of the town board meetings, which we held several miles away at Greece Town Hall, we unscrewed the mouthpiece of a telephone and hooked the mixer up to that, using alligator clips.  Back at the station, we unscrewed the earpiece of another phone, hooked up alligator clips to that, and fed a wire into a patch panel, which then connected the audio line to the board.

One of the first on-air shifts I had was on Tuesday evenings.  I ran a slew of programs, including the board meetings.  Other programs were on reels of tape that were sent to the station; such short programs like Consumer Watch and Earthwatch.  We also had shows that came into the station on vinyl records, such as a weekly country music show.

I engineered shows for other announcers.  One was a religious program; another was “The Irish Party House,” hosted by Ted McGraw who, to this day, still does his show on another local station!  A folk singer named Al Rehn came in to sing and play his guitar; his trademark theme song was a tune where he strummed his guitar and whistled.

Occasionally, we had live bands in the studio.  Thinking back to how small those rooms were, it amazes me that we crammed in all the people that we did.  The studio became a maze of band instruments, microphone stands and cables.  A young lady named Nancy Park did a weekly folk music show, often with these live bands.  Or she would simply have a local folk singer come on and the two of them would sit in front of microphones and play together.  My own band at the time, Silver Quarry, was once a guest on one of her shows.

As much as radio engineering and production techniques came naturally to me, on-air announcing did not.  With moderate hearing loss, I had some speech impediments that prevented me from getting on the air quickly.  I credit Louis Betstadt for helping me to overcome some of this.  During some one-on-one sessions, he helped me to understand what my impediments were and what I might do to overcome some of them.  Several years later, in college, I was able to get speech therapy. I also had to overcome some shyness issues and deal with the fact that I was soft-spoken.  Once I did start announcing, DJ work and broadcasting newscasts on WGMC, I never liked how I sounded.  Over the course of my four years in high school radio, I had accumulated a huge stack of reel to reel tape recordings of many of my radio shows and newscasts.  But it was always difficult for me to listen to them; I just hated how I sounded.  Years later I ended up throwing most of them in the garbage.

Even today, I sometimes have a recurring dream that I’m on the air at a radio station and I can’t read a script coherently, without stuttering or stumbling all over the place.  Happily, in real life, I have overcome all of those fears and can now read a script for a wedding ceremony confidently and sometimes loudly without a microphone.

But my fears and disillusionment with myself didn’t stop me from going on the air.  I did a lot of DJ shows and newscasts.  I collaborated with my childhood friend, Erik Hemdal, on a weekly news program we put together called “The Week in Review. “  Erik was going to Cardinal Mooney high school.  When I told him what I was doing at WGMC, he also joined the station.  Our first DJ shows were back to back on Thursday afternoons.

On my visits to the local TV stations, I picked up on concepts such as timing news scripts and backtiming so that you can end at a predetermined time.  You would add or delete stories while on the air in order to finish the news program on schedule.  I was intrigued by how the pro’s did news and wanted to imitate them.  Erik and I proposed the idea for “The Week in Review” to Louis Betstadt and he encouraged us to do it. We wanted to take news stories from the past week, as a review of what happened during the week. I think we started it about midway through our sophomore years in high school and it lasted until nearly the end of our senior years.  Later on, as we both became involved with other activities, we sometimes did the show solo, one without the other.

For over two years, we made a weekly ritual of spending our Saturdays at WGMC.  During some of that time, we also participated in WGMC’s live broadcasts from Long Ridge Mall.  Then we’d spend the rest of the day writing, timing and organizing our scripts, and putting together recorded elements from other sources.  At 5:30, we were on the air, and prided ourselves on ending promptly at 6:00 in time for the station to sign off for the day.

Always with the encouragement of Louis Betstadt, we learned how to increase the show’s visibility.  I wrote press releases about it that, after review from him, got sent to the local newspapers and were published.  Local news anchor Dick Burt recorded a promo for us that aired throughout the week on WGMC.

News journalism fascinated me at the time.  WGMC had a small library of books about broadcasting that station members were allowed to borrow.  I read the books about news journalism and what objectivity and balance are all about.  I read about how you need to seek and quote sources of opposite points of view.  Later on, in college journalism classes, I read about the pyramid structure of writing a news story; how to include “The 5 W’s” that should flow from any article, which are who, what, why, where and how.  The truth is, when I started working at a TV station in 1982, I was better prepared for the news department than I was for TV production, where I ended up.  Through all my 32 years of working in television, I don’t think any of my colleagues ever realized how much news experience I’d had for 8 years in high school and college.

People today really do not understand what makes good news journalism.  Everyone is doing so much shouting and hardly anyone is listening, and they want to blame "the media."  What makes a good, balanced news story is pretty simple.  You state the facts of what happened, including who, what, where, when and how.  You quote your sources; a statement from the police, a government official, a witness, a participant, etc.  If it is a controversial issue, you get a statement representing both sides of the issue.  Once you insert your own opinion or try to sway the reader/listener to one side of the story, it’s no longer a news story, it’s a commentary.  Broadcasters used to differentiate commentaries from news stories by stating that it’s a commentary. Now, news and opinion is so blended together that people can’t tell the difference between facts and opinion.

I learned about sensationalism.  Since I loved playing with radio production techniques, I remember one time when I decided to add sound effects to a news story.  The story was about an earthquake in China.   I prerecorded a “tease” to the story, using an excited voice over the sound effect of an earthquake rumbling, “AN EARTHQUAKE STRIKES CHINA!!!”  Louis Betstadt heard that and told me, “That’s sensationalism! You shouldn’t do that.”  I immediately got the point and understood what sensationalism is.  I never did anything like that again.

Radio production was where I was most at home.  I loved playing around with different production techniques and mixing sound effects and music.  This was the one area where I didn’t mind how my speech patterns sounded.  I could record myself over and over until I got it the way I wanted it.  So, although I tossed out most of my DJ and news recordings, I did save dozens of radio promo’s and other production pieces that I created.

My high school broadcasting experience wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t write about  WeMoCo, which is short for Western Monroe County, part of the BOCES II program for high school students.  It’s basically a trade school for a number of occupations, including carpentry, auto working, hair salon, food services and more.  Students spend half a day at their high school and the other half at WeMoCo.  Naturally I was interested in the radio & TV course.  It was a two-year program; the first year was generally radio and the second year was generally TV.  With all the radio experience I already had by the time I was a junior in high school, they put me right into the second year of the program so I could learn about TV production.  I learned about TV control room and studio operations, including camera work, studio lighting, TV audio and video switching, and directing.  The class often put together a half-hour newscast.  We rotated positions in order to experience all of them.  There’s no question that my WeMoCo experience is what got me my first job in television two years later.

It was WGMC that led to my first job ever.  The first job I ever had was at a radio station when I was 16 years old.  I will talk about my commercial radio experience in my next chapter.

https://paulpakusch.blogspot.com/2018/04/autobiography-chapter-5-broadcasting.html