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I was digging through the crates and I found this today. It reminded me of the ambition that I once had. At one point, my drive literally drove all of my friends away. They called me crazy. I dedicated almost 80% of my day towards researching the industry. Finding out who's who. My network game was tiiiiight. I have no regrets. In a little under 10 years, I was able to maneuver through some of the top radio markets in the country. Most importantly, I was able to go from $6 dollar an hour to a six figure salary in 9.4 years. I was humble yet hungry.
The above image is a snapshot of something that I created called it a critique sheet. I mailed them to Program Directors across the country along with my audition cassette tape. I simply asked various people in the industry to review my tape and them critique it. I included a self-addressed stamped envelope (this was before e-mail & MP3s) to try to make it easier for them to respond. It was also a way to introduce myself in a non traditional way. Unfortunately, I rarely received a response. I remember being so angry as most PDs wouldn't give me the time of day. Furthermore, a bitch was broke and I had wasted postage and perfectly good cassette tapes on some of these assholes.
I thought it would be cool to share some of the results from mailing these packages to some of the industry's alleged finest.
Terri Avery - Never mailed the critique sheet back. I called to follow up and her response was, "I usually charge people to critique them". >>enter a WTF face here<< >
Russ Parr - Actually responded. Showered me with compliments. Insisted that I would make it 'BIG' one day.
Steve Hegwood- Ignored me in the worst way.
Vinnie Brown - Ignored me in a WORSER way.
Helen Little - Ignored my critique sheet..but eventually responded to my phone calls...but would never hire me.
Lisa Lisa (formerly of WKYS in Washington DC) - Crickets.
Lorenzo 'ICED TEA' Thomas - More crickets.
Toya Beasley (formerly of WRKS, NY) - Ignored me.
Tracy Cloerty (formerly of WQHT, NY) - Ignored critique sheet...but eventually met her personally. She told me that she only hired 'stars'. >>there goes my self esteem<<
Tony Gray (consultant) - Ignored me but eventually responded. Gave me a lot of empty promises.
There are probably more...but I'm gonna head for bed now.
SIDEBAR - I actually received a phone call today from a potential employer! Being unemployed for so long has definitely done some damage because I wasn't even excited when the phone rang. My heart told me that it was going to be about some bullshit. And it ended up being exactly that..Bullshit.
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Russ is great! I read an interview on him back in 1998… at the end of the article he gave his email address. I wrote him to see if he would critique my aircheck. He email me back with his home address to send my tape. I had forgotten about the tape I sent when I got a phone call early one Saturday morning. It was Russ! We made some small talk, then he said there was only one thing wrong with the tape… it was blank! I was mortified! I couldn't believe I sent him a blank tape. But he said to send him another tape and he'll get back to me. A couple of weeks later, I got another call from him. He told me usually he has to tell people to be natural on the mic instead of trying to sound like a "DJ." He was impressed because I already sounded natural, and said all I needed was experience behind the mic. A year later I was hired at Hot 97.7 in Boston as the local producer of the Russ Parr Morning Show with Olivia Fox. We hadn't talked since our previous conversation, so I didn't think he would remember me. But the first words out of his mouth was "I see you're getting that experience!" Russ is a good dude.
ReplyDeleteOther good radio people I've talked to: Terri Thomas; Phillip David March; Tom Calococci; Quincy McCoy; Sam Weaver; Sunny Joe White (RIP). All have given me advice and/or confidence in my abilities. They took time out to talk to me even though they didn't have to and they were getting nothing out of it except the gratitude of a hungry personality/program director.