Short Story: My First Boss
Tuesday, June 05, 10:32 PM By
Shelly
Reading Bryan's yesterday post, one
phrase grabbed me and pulled this short story out of me.
The phrase:
"my super professional broadcasting voice"
My First Boss
He certainly was not the kind of boss that would hire you for a job you were qualified for and very excited about doing with “Well, I don’t have any better choices, so I guess you can give it a try, and see if it works out,” not give you the assistance he promised, or for that matter a clear detail of exactly everything he wanted you to do, and then fire you because you mispronounced a town name, some odd foreign name that really could go either way (and for the record, even people who have lived there didn’t pronounce it his way).
He was more the jovial, hard-working, encouraging kind of boss, that when the actual adult (married-with-kids) full time news director needed to go on vacation, he would help you stretch your experience and resume, by asking you to fill in for the week, for two summers in a row (so you must have done a good job the first time), while watching over you to make sure you weren’t overwhelmed, but watching from far enough away that you didn’t feel smothered.
And he was rather a celebrity around town, and not because of all the AA meetings he went to or where he used to work, but because he was a decent, fun, doing-for-others kind of guy. He was my first boss ever, besides the parents of the babies I sat, and he was a great yardstick that the majority of the rest of my bosses couldn’t quite rise up to. But I still can’t get over what he did to me.
I worked part-time at the radio station outside of my small college town, far enough outside of town that the radio tower is a landmark itself, far enough that there was nothing else around for miles, making it a little creepy when you were the one that had to sign off, turn off, and speed off all by yourself. I worked some Saturday evenings, but mostly Sunday afternoons, for three years, two general managers, and four format changes. Sunday afternoons were usually either a live sporting event, or a couple music shows sent to us on an LP (that’s what'cha call a record, a Long Playing record, for all you kids out there). So I had lots of time to do anything, or nothing. I wrote &/or recorded a lot of letters, and read a lot of letters, magazines, and books, oh, and when school was in session, I probably did a little homework now and again, too.
I had enough free time sometimes, that I could record a whole 60 second advertisement (or ‘spot’ in the biz), and edit it if needed, and still not miss my commercial break. But being in a small town in the ‘80’s, and being that my boss was not only popular, but a man (underline Man) with an awesome radio voice, this gal didn’t get asked to do too many spots. So I was pleasantly surprised one lazy Sunday afternoon, when my boss came in to record something, and asked me for the loan of my voice. He was writing and recording a funny character kind of spot, and could I do a female Hill Billy (I believe that would be a Hill Jilly, Jim). Well, of course I could, I’d been in several plays, and done several clever voices for our college radio station, so I’d be glad to help. He gave me my lines, and watched the board while I recorded, then he added his, and edited it into one silly little radio ad.
A few weeks later, on a more normal unvisited Sunday afternoon, I found a script in my in box with a note from said boss, could I record this for him while I was working this afternoon? Or rather I should say a part of a script, I only got my own lines, but he said to use that same Hill Jilly voice I had done so well before. I did as he asked, pleased to be useful, and pleased to get my voice out there a little bit more, perhaps this silly character could become a serial commercial and be my ticket out of this one-horse town. I never heard the second commercial on the air, but I wasn't surprised as I never listened to the station when I wasn’t working (and seldom when I was), plus I had only heard the first one when the boss was done editing it, and once on the air.
Time goes by, and I forgot about the commercials and the character, I guess it’s not going to be my rising star character voice that gets me the big gigs. Oh, well. It happened after a while, that I needed to call the boss at home, for whatever reason or another that a part-time person might need to call the boss at home, and after a few rings, a familiar voice answered the phone. Not his, but mine! The second recording he had asked me to do was for his home answering machine, not the radio! I was terribly surprised and initially irritated.
In the end, was I actually angry about this? No, not really, I was much more flattered by the whole thing, all in all. I did wish he would have asked me or told me what he was doing with my recordings. When he moved on to a larger market out in sunny California, and the second boss replaced him, the boss from the first paragraph of this little story, I sure wished that the worst thing a boss ever did to me was use recordings of my voice without asking me.
The phrase:
"my super professional broadcasting voice"
My First Boss
He certainly was not the kind of boss that would hire you for a job you were qualified for and very excited about doing with “Well, I don’t have any better choices, so I guess you can give it a try, and see if it works out,” not give you the assistance he promised, or for that matter a clear detail of exactly everything he wanted you to do, and then fire you because you mispronounced a town name, some odd foreign name that really could go either way (and for the record, even people who have lived there didn’t pronounce it his way).
He was more the jovial, hard-working, encouraging kind of boss, that when the actual adult (married-with-kids) full time news director needed to go on vacation, he would help you stretch your experience and resume, by asking you to fill in for the week, for two summers in a row (so you must have done a good job the first time), while watching over you to make sure you weren’t overwhelmed, but watching from far enough away that you didn’t feel smothered.
And he was rather a celebrity around town, and not because of all the AA meetings he went to or where he used to work, but because he was a decent, fun, doing-for-others kind of guy. He was my first boss ever, besides the parents of the babies I sat, and he was a great yardstick that the majority of the rest of my bosses couldn’t quite rise up to. But I still can’t get over what he did to me.
I worked part-time at the radio station outside of my small college town, far enough outside of town that the radio tower is a landmark itself, far enough that there was nothing else around for miles, making it a little creepy when you were the one that had to sign off, turn off, and speed off all by yourself. I worked some Saturday evenings, but mostly Sunday afternoons, for three years, two general managers, and four format changes. Sunday afternoons were usually either a live sporting event, or a couple music shows sent to us on an LP (that’s what'cha call a record, a Long Playing record, for all you kids out there). So I had lots of time to do anything, or nothing. I wrote &/or recorded a lot of letters, and read a lot of letters, magazines, and books, oh, and when school was in session, I probably did a little homework now and again, too.
I had enough free time sometimes, that I could record a whole 60 second advertisement (or ‘spot’ in the biz), and edit it if needed, and still not miss my commercial break. But being in a small town in the ‘80’s, and being that my boss was not only popular, but a man (underline Man) with an awesome radio voice, this gal didn’t get asked to do too many spots. So I was pleasantly surprised one lazy Sunday afternoon, when my boss came in to record something, and asked me for the loan of my voice. He was writing and recording a funny character kind of spot, and could I do a female Hill Billy (I believe that would be a Hill Jilly, Jim). Well, of course I could, I’d been in several plays, and done several clever voices for our college radio station, so I’d be glad to help. He gave me my lines, and watched the board while I recorded, then he added his, and edited it into one silly little radio ad.
A few weeks later, on a more normal unvisited Sunday afternoon, I found a script in my in box with a note from said boss, could I record this for him while I was working this afternoon? Or rather I should say a part of a script, I only got my own lines, but he said to use that same Hill Jilly voice I had done so well before. I did as he asked, pleased to be useful, and pleased to get my voice out there a little bit more, perhaps this silly character could become a serial commercial and be my ticket out of this one-horse town. I never heard the second commercial on the air, but I wasn't surprised as I never listened to the station when I wasn’t working (and seldom when I was), plus I had only heard the first one when the boss was done editing it, and once on the air.
Time goes by, and I forgot about the commercials and the character, I guess it’s not going to be my rising star character voice that gets me the big gigs. Oh, well. It happened after a while, that I needed to call the boss at home, for whatever reason or another that a part-time person might need to call the boss at home, and after a few rings, a familiar voice answered the phone. Not his, but mine! The second recording he had asked me to do was for his home answering machine, not the radio! I was terribly surprised and initially irritated.
In the end, was I actually angry about this? No, not really, I was much more flattered by the whole thing, all in all. I did wish he would have asked me or told me what he was doing with my recordings. When he moved on to a larger market out in sunny California, and the second boss replaced him, the boss from the first paragraph of this little story, I sure wished that the worst thing a boss ever did to me was use recordings of my voice without asking me.
