See a preview of the next episode here.
So you're at work one day at a radio station and you just finished a newscast that you were somewhat proud of. You turn your mic off and turn around, and what do you see? Naked people coming into the room. Sometimes radio can be just plain weird. I'm Jim Pulling, and this is my view from the middle. I'll get to the naked people in a moment. So if you're easily offended by such things, I'll let you know before I talk about it, so you can mute your speakers or stick your fingers in your ears while humming Amazing Grace or whatever it is you do. I'm always mildly amused by people who are not in the radio business and you have a skewed view of what it's really like. So here's the truth. It's not always glamorous, it's not always lucrative, and believe it or not, it's not always highly skilled. The one thing podcasting does for you is it gives you a bunch of weird stories to tell. Some are tragic, some are funny, and some are just plain embarrassing. I've told many of them throughout this podcast series, such as the time I experienced road rage on my way to cover a space shuttle launch with the time I talked with a famous baseball player for two hours and didn't know who he was, or some of the big stories I was in the middle of, like the fall of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, the Pulse shootings in Orlando, and the Shuttle Challenger disaster, among others. Many people who have worked in a career for many years and then stop will tell you a similar story. But I still to this day have a recurring dream where I'm sitting down in the broadcast booth. The mic comes on. The on air light lights up. I look down and I have no copy to read. This is weird because the last half of my career I wasn't even on the air anymore. Why I would have a dream about going on the air is probably something that a headshrinker would have to determine. I did have an actual cold sweat moment once, actually probably more than once, but one I remember clearly came when the Florida News Network was going to broadcast the Florida Governor's State of the State address. This was in the early eighties and our technology wasn't all that sophisticated. We also didn't have a very big budget, so we couldn't afford long distance remote equipment or expensive telephone circuits, either of which would have been the correct way of doing this coverage. But we came up with a plan or so we thought that wouldn't cost us anything. Interlando, at the network studios, we had a small broadcast booth, a teeny tiny broadcast booth that was lined on all the walls with a gold carpet for sound absorbency. Now remember the gold carpet, it's part of this embarrassing story. We had arranged to get a feed of the governor's address through another network with their permission, but the problem was the feed that they would give us had their anchors talking on it right up until the governor would start speaking. We didn't want their anchors to be heard on our network, and need of did the other network we were getting the feed from, so we had to be creative. Another problem was the governor's speech was not going to be televised anywhere in central Florida, so we couldn't even watch it on TV. We only had the audio feed from the other network. This made things a little awkward because there was no precise time for the governor to start speaking. The only thing we knew for a fact is that the state Commissioner of Agriculture, Doyle Connor, would be introducing the governor. The other network providing the feed to us told us their anchors would talk right up to the point where the governor starts his speech, so we could not air Doyle Connor's introduction. So this meant we would not be able to switch to their feed until the governor actually started talking any earlier than that, and we would get the other network's anchors. So without a TV feed, how are we going to know when the ag Commissioner was done with his intro. Well, it turned out there was TV coverage on a local station in the state capital of Tallahassee, and at the time, we had a bureau reporter who worked for us in Tallahassee. So what we decided to do is put her on the air to anchor the coverage. She would watch the proceedings on a TV there and would be able to see when the ag Commissioner was ready to hand off to the Governor. I would be running things in our teeny tiny gold carpeted booth in Orlando. I would have her on a telephone and put her on the air that way. So the plan was as we meticulously worked out. She would watch the local TV station in Tallahassee while she was opening the coverage and watch for the AG Commissioner to finish his introduction. Then and only then would she herself introduce the Governor. I would then have the other network's feed ready to go in Orlando and switch to it. There you have it, Bob's your uncle, A clean introduction to the state of the State of Dress. Oh if it had only worked that way. Somehow, our bureau reporter didn't understand the plan. She opened the coverage just fine, but instead of waiting until she saw the AG Commissioner finish his introduction, she instead introduced the ag Commissioner and then stop talking. So I'm in Orlando, staring at nothing but a gold carpet in this teeny tiny studio, and I can't turn on the other network's audio yet because their anchors are still talking, and I can't get a hold of our bureau chief in Tallahassee to tell her to keep talking until the governor begins a speech. So we had dead air. Anyone in the radio business knows the travesty of dead air is something you want to avoid at all cost, So I had no choice. I cracked open my microphone in the teeny tiny broadcast booth with a gold carpet and started ad libbing and trying to make our network audience believe that this is how we plan to do this. So in my best network news anchor voice, trying to sound calm, cool and collected with an actuality, my heart was about to leap out of my chest. I started babbling some nonsense about how the agg Commissioner was introducing the governor and trying to preview what we thought the governor was going to talk about. None of this had I prepared for, and all I had to look at, no script, no notes, no TV feed was a gold carpet in a teeny tiny studio. So I'm making stuff up about everything under the sun, talking about the weather, any state issue that popped into my head, what the governor had for breakfast, what I had for breakfast. Well maybe not, but I'm broadcasting to listeners all across the state of Florida on multiple radio stations, so I had to say something while the other network anchors were doing their commentary. I had no idea what was going on in Tallahassee. I had no way of knowing when the agg commissioner would finish his introduction and when the Governor would start talking. All I had was the gold carpet in the teeny tiny studio. I kept switching off my mic and yelling for someone to help me. To this day, I'm not really sure how I got out of that mess. The whole thing is a blur, but I seem to remember one of my other new staffers running in at one point and pointing to the switch that turned the other network on. I turned off my mic, and the staffer said, the governor is speaking. So I, very casually and very coolly, opened my mic and said, ladies and gentlemen, the governor of the state of Florida, and switched on the feed, which of course was now well into the speech mid sentence. Think anyone noticed, So now let me tell you about the naked people. So if you're easily offended, you might want to stop the playback. This happened when I was filling in as a news anchor on a local FM rock station in Orlando. A friend of mine usually the anchor during this morning show was on vacation for a week and asked me to fill in. It was your typical morning YU come up jock show with the host doing stunts and gags. Sometimes I got to interact with them in a gag, but for the most part, my job was to strictly read the news. I did the news not in a booth, but actually in the studio with the other hosts. It was the last day of my fill instant and the last newscasts of the morning. I sign off, turn off my mic, turn around, and what do I see bursting through the control room door but several strippers totally topless, clamoring and singing as they marched in on the show hosts. One of the strippers came up to me and I pointed to the show hosts and said, I think you're meant for them, and casually slipped out of the room. Those situations were embarrassing, but they weren't of my doing. Of course. Another embarrassing situation that was my fault was when I was co anchoring the launch of a Space shuttle. My co anchor was a fellow by the name of Dave Elliott. We were anchoring the launch one of many of the Shuttle discovery on the Florida News Network, carried on several stations throughout the state. Dave and I worked well together on the air, and we did a pretty good job of anchoring the coverage until it came to the sign off. Now, we had pre arranged that I would do the final sign off. I was to say thanks for joining us for Dave Elliott, I'm Jim Polling. Oh if it only worked that way. We were going along with the commentary and feeling really good about ourselves when it came to the clothes, so I said, thanks for joining us for Jim Polling, I'm Dave Elliot and turned off the microphone. I turned to Dave, smiled and said that went, well, don't you think. Dave stared at me in disbelief for a moment and then said, do you know what you just said? Huh, what do you mean? I said, you just said you were Dave Elliott. Now I thought Dave was pulling my leg. It wouldn't have been the first time, but he insisted that I boxed the clothes and told the entire state radio audience that I was Dave Elliott. I still didn't believe him until we got back to the network studios in Orlando and listened to the tape recording of the coverage. Oops. It took a long time for me to live that one down. Another embarrassing moment was when I was working for WHOO in Orlando doing the morning show with Bucks Braun Bucks for Breakfast was the show. I was the news guy, So this particular morning, the plan was for me to do what we always did every day. I would open the show at five thirty AM with a newscast. Oh if it had only worked that way. As the little hand hit the five on the clock and the big hand hit the six. You may remember analog clock faces, This means it was five thirty, Bucks looked up through the gl into the news booth and realized I was nowhere to be found. So he did what any comedic morning show jock would do. He dialed the telephone to my house. I wake up out of a dead sleep to hear Bucks say, so, I guess Jim Pawling will be doing the news from home today. Take it away, Jim, Yeah, that happened. That was the one and only time I ever overslept and missed an on air queue and the final story I'll relate to you in this episode wasn't an embarrassing one for me, but it was a bit unusual. When I was working for FNN, Brian, our engineer, used to do some freelance work for the NBA at the Orlando Arena than home to the Orlando Magic. He would do the broadcast engineering for the visiting team radio stations. He would set up remote equipment microphones, headsets, et cetera courtside, and the visiting team's radio broadcast crew would come in and do the broadcast for their radio station back in their home city. Many teams found it more efficient to hire Brian to do this rather than go through the expense of traveling their own engineer with them on the road and hauling remote equipment all over creation. But occasionally Brian's schedule prohibited him from doing a game here and there, so he used to let me fill in for him. On those occasions. I would use the equipment he used. Now, each team in the league had their own way of doing things, and so you just learned to adapt. I had filled in for Brian on several occasions by this time, so I was used to rolling with whatever the visiting broadcasters needed this. Particular evening, the Orlando Magic was playing the Sacramento Kings. The Kings only traveled one play by play announcer. He would be set up to do the broadcast, and we would also have a microphone and headset available for a postgame interview a player or coach, or whoever they could get. The way they wanted to do the broadcast was to have me ce the announcer when it was time for commercial breaks. I would know when to do this because I would be listening to a telephone line to the control room in Sacramento, where I was on a speakerphone, so the producer in Sacramento would yell down the line on the speaker phone when it was time to go to a commercial. I would then tap the shoulder of the play by play guy, who was sitting right next to me court side, and he would then queue to the commercial break. They didn't want to have the play by play announcer listening for the cues or the commercials himself, because that would be too distracting. A lot of announcers do it that way. Since I was on a speakerphone back in California, I could hear everything that was going on in the control room, whether it was intended for me to hear or not. This didn't pose a problem until it came time for the postgame interview. Everything worked as advertised throughout the pregame show and the game broadcast. I would hear the producer yell out the cues to me, and I would tap the play by play guy on the shoulder. He would go to the commercial break. When the break was over, I tap him again and he'd go on with the broadcast. The game was over and most everyone had cleared out of the Orlando Arena, so it was deathly uncharacteristically quiet, with only the occasional noise made by the arena maintenance crew. The play by play announcer was doing his postgame interview with someone from the Kings. I'm still listening on the telephone line to the happenings in the control room in Sacramento, when all of a sudden, I hear a loud crash and someone yelling and cursing at the top of their lungs. In the control room, I hear the producer yell back at whoever was doing the cursing. I couldn't really make out what they were yelling about, But it sounded like a this fight was breaking out. I could hear things crashing, as if items were being thrown about, the producer yelling, guys screaming and yelling and cursing, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria, and all the while, in the peaceful serenity of the postgame arena, the play by play guy was conducting his interview, completely oblivious to the riotous carnage that was apparently unfolding back at the station in Sacramento. All of a sudden, as quickly as it started, the clamoring and screaming stopped. Back at the control room, the play by play guy wrapped up his interview courtside and went to a commercial break. When the commercial break started, I picked up the telephone receiver and called back to the control room. Is everything okay? Back there? I heard a lot of commotion. Is everyone still alive? I said, cautiously. The producer responded, very matter of factly, Oh yeah, yeah, everything's fine. That was just the talk shaw host is on the air next. He's mad because the postgame show was going long. He acts that way all the time. Holy cow. So there I was in the middle, a radio riot breaking out before my very ears, while a postgame interview continued on its merry way, me trying to do the news amongst a bunch of naked ladies, the governor stayed of the state address underway, and me helplessly staring at a gold carpet in a teeny tiny studio, and me awakened out of a dead sleep when it came time to go on the air. Sometimes radio can be just plain weird. I'm Jim Poling and that's my view from the middle. In the next episode, there are a lot of characters in this world, and in the broadcasting business, youing counter all sorts of them. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Next on my view from the Middle.