CJMiller starts us off.
What was your 9-5 job after radio? I don't remember you ever talking about it.
In 1975 I got a job teaching radio at the KIIS Broadcasting Workshop on the Sunset Strip. This was one of those diploma mills — not that an actual degree in broadcasting was a gateway to anything.
The school's big lure, which was pretty ingenious, was that the students could actually go on the air on KIIS-AM from 2-4 AM. The station made way more money with this arrangement than if they had sold the time to sponsors, and the school had a perk no other broadcasting academy had. Talk about OJT.
The Workshop also provided assistance in making an audition tape and getting that elusive first job.
I will say this, we had some pretty impressive people on the faculty. Art Hannes, who had been the announcer on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW and was the original announcer on Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds.” Also Gene Taylor, who had been a jock and then General Manager of WLS Chicago when they went rock n’ roll. Lee Marshall, whose booming voice was heard on CKLW, KHJ, and KABC among others. He also became the voice of World Federation Wrestling and then the voice of Tony the Tiger. Gary Theroux was also there. He wrote the syndicated “History of Rock n’ Roll and has done major market radio as well.
For me, the attraction was 9-5, Monday-Friday and that’s it. It was my “survival job” as it’s now called. My “real” job was writing spec scripts nights and weekends with David Isaacs and trying to break into the business.
Brian Phillips asks:
Do show "bibles" still exist? What were some of the good ones that you have seen?
Some shows might still have internal bibles, but I’m guessing not many. Now that we have the internet, episode guides and loglines are readily available.
MASH used to have a great one. Each episode received a full page with a detailed description of what happened in the episode. It was very helpful when we were trying to come up with stories to pitch. We knew what had already been done.
None of the other shows I worked on ever had a bible.
From Kendall Rivers:
Now, I'm sure you've already been asked this at least a few times but I'm still gonna ask. About Alan Arbus' Sydney Freedman being such a beloved and popular character, do you know why he was never made a regular? You would think that what he brought to the show and how well he fit in with the cast that he would've eventually become a regular and frankly more Sydney could only have helped the show, especially its last few years.
We didn’t want his character to wear out his welcome. We wanted audiences to be delighted when he made appearances, which was usually a couple of times a season. Same with Colonel Flagg. We made a point to use him only once a season. We just didn’t want to go to that well too often. He was very funny but the character was so extreme that a little went a long way.
There are some characters that are great if used in small doses. Another was Harriett Harris as Frasier’s agent, “Bebe.”
I’m not a TV historian, but I imagine it might go back to Hans Conried as “Uncle Tonoose” on THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW. It was always a special treat when he appeared, but those appearances were doled out very carefully. (And now I feel 100 years old. Anyone else remember Uncle Tonoose? See the photo at the top of this post.)
DyHrdMET closes it out for the year.
I follow a few YouTube channels that post old games for viewing/listening (some are TV broadcasts, some are radio broadcasts). Do you know if any of your broadcasts are available for public consumption?
I also follow a channel which posts some old radio commercials and bumpers, etc. Do you know if your anything from your radio DJ days is on the internet?
To my knowledge, none of my baseball games are online. If someone finds one, please let me know. There are airchecks of my disc jockey days as Beaver Cleaver and later, Ken Levine on several radio aircheck websites like reelradio.com. Consult your local Google.
Happy New Year. Be safe tonight.
from By Ken Levine
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