After I was told about one of the local colleges informing instructors that the kids in their program were 'income units' I realized just how much trouble the 'broadcasting college' model is in.  

There have always been the ones that offered to make you an audio engineer to the rock stars, or promising you the 8am slot on 'RB even though you can't read a newspaper, those are dream factories that operate on the PT Barnum philosophy, take your money and leave you hanging.  But it appears to have seeped into the mainstream as well.  

If I had a choice when hiring, I always used to go with Humber when I could.  Not because their students were necessarily the 'best', but just by surviving the course, they proved they had the potential to be, They never appeared to have sunshine blown up their ass that the degree would lead directly to a major market morning show gig, or even a job for that matter.  I always liked the fact that the kids arrived excited and glad for the chance of a position, and appreciative that they were probably among the single digits percentage of the class who might, yet they had kept hammering on anyway.  

Unlike another place who's graduates entered the building, walked into the PD's office and asked why there was someone sitting in their chair.  

Maybe it's changed, it's been a while .

 

ig wrote:

After I was told about one of the local colleges informing instructors that the kids in their program were 'income units' I realized just how much trouble the 'broadcasting college' model is in.  

There have always been the ones that offered to make you an audio engineer to the rock stars, or promising you the 8am slot on 'RB even though you can't read a newspaper, those are dream factories that operate on the PT Barnum philosophy, take your money and leave you hanging.  But it appears to have seeped into the mainstream as well.  

If I had a choice when hiring, I always used to go with Humber when I could.  Not because their students were necessarily the 'best', but just by surviving the course, they proved they had the potential to be, They never appeared to have sunshine blown up their ass that the degree would lead directly to a major market morning show gig, or even a job for that matter.  I always liked the fact that the kids arrived excited and glad for the chance of a position, and appreciative that they were probably among the single digits percentage of the class who might, yet they had kept hammering on anyway.  

Unlike another place who's graduates entered the building, walked into the PD's office and asked why there was someone sitting in their chair.  

Maybe it's changed, it's been a while .

 

Iain: Working for you was like a dream. 
A wonderful dream where everything worked and everybody loved everybody. 
We knew it had to be KILLED!
And it was.

I long for WIC to come back...Please come back...
Then I can wake up and the last 10 years will have been a really bad nightmare.

Sometimes you've got to fight to get passionate about this business.
Don't wait for the next guy to do it, because they won't.
 

National Institute of Broadcasting and Career Academy still exist ??

I know that Paul Mott  is a grad of Career Academy...many many moons ago...

Anyone else come to mind ??

I'm not well known at all but I hate to admit I went to NIB 1988 and 1989 ...lol

 

Judy?  Well see, I'm definitely not that well known 
 

Last edited by Jody Thornton (January 29, 2016 12:47 am)

I left the college teaching role when it became obvious that the aim was simply to put "bums in seats" to get the "per student" grants from the government.
It's criminal that such institutions no longer permit you to fail anyone.
I don't know how these "sausage factories" can turn out 120 "graduates" per year in radio, television and journalism when there are no jobs at the usurious rates they charge for "tuition" spread over two or three years.
I know dozens of ethical former instructors who no longer care to participate in this charade, even though the money and the teaching hours are good.
The other thing driving good people out of the teaching "industry" are the massive amounts of paperwork and accountability required by the administration that takes far more hours than actual instruction time and one on one sessions with the sheep, er, students.
It was much different in the 70s and 80s when the industry still was viable.
Teaching in those decades and then again in this century had no comparison.
Back then, the students actually worked at trying to become successful participants in the communications business.
Nowadays, they stare at their phones and tablets during classes and it's certainly not about what you're trying to tell them.
The only thing that hasn't changed?
The two or three you get in a class of forty who have real talent, personality, skills and desire usually will succeed in the business they choose.
The others?
"Would you like fries with that?"

Mike Cleaver wrote:

I left the college teaching role when it became obvious that the aim was simply to put "bums in seats" to get the "per student" grants from the government.
It's criminal that such institutions no longer permit you to fail anyone.
I don't know how these "sausage factories" can turn out 120 "graduates" per year in radio, television and journalism when there are no jobs at the usurious rates they charge for "tuition" spread over two or three years.
I know dozens of ethical former instructors who no longer care to participate in this charade, even though the money and the teaching hours are good.
The other thing driving good people out of the teaching "industry" are the massive amounts of paperwork and accountability required by the administration that takes far more hours than actual instruction time and one on one sessions with the sheep, er, students.
It was much different in the 70s and 80s when the industry still was viable.
Teaching in those decades and then again in this century had no comparison.
Back then, the students actually worked at trying to become successful participants in the communications business.
Nowadays, they stare at their phones and tablets during classes and it's certainly not about what you're trying to tell them.
The only thing that hasn't changed?
The two or three you get in a class of forty who have real talent, personality, skills and desire usually will succeed in the business they choose.
The others?
"Would you like fries with that?"

Nice post Mike...good read...
 

I was approached by a community college to teach journalism and communications many years ago.
They were impressed by my resume and all of my accomplishments.
The breaking point in discussions came on the subject of degrees and honors.
The most embarrassing point is that I have none. 
I worked for Peter Jennings newsroom at ABC News in New York, and got published by every newspaper and magazine excepting "New Mother & Child", but that doesn't come with anything except letters of recommendation.
Old rating surveys are good for lighting a fire...
 

 
  
"There'll always be the need for a ditch to be dug '...

Or to quote Mike Cleaver..."would you like fries with that"...??
 

"As usual, it all worked out for the best in the end.   I'm incredibly glad it all worked out the way it did."


I couldn't agree with you more!

Good old "Cablecasting" .

Jerry Millan?   I'm trying to think of Graham people, Steve Spice, Brian Ferri, Rich Sereda(?), Dave Hopkins, Gary Roberts I believe.  Pat Cole.  Shit that's a long time ago  

me.

Ps.  I had no idea David was married for 4 years to Barbara Amiel.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228782/David-Grahams-4-storey-Knightsbridge-mansion-entirely-underground.html

Sounds like he never got any less eccentric with age.




 

Howie Moore was the Community Programming Manager/Director for Graham Cable TV, at least when the office and studio were on Scarlett Rd.

I worked with Dave Hopkins, and Steve Spice...  but I always thought they had come from the "mother ship" York Cablevision on Railside Road.

Steve was also a DJ, and had a DJ service with Pat Cole...  Cole and Spice Disc Jockeys...

Steve ended up working for Rogers Community programming department after the Rogers led "rationalization" of all of the Toronto area cable tv licences in August of 1980...  Rogers basically bought or traded area licences with other companies so that Rogers ended up with the majority of the lucrative Toronto area.

My understanding is that Steve Spice died of a heart attack about 18 or 19 years ago...

Dave Hopkins went into local sales for CKWS-TV in the Belleville/Quinte area. I think he has since retired.
 

Mark Elliot wrote:

Stop this Jody, you're on the radio. 
You're well known.  Get over it.

Oh I was just kidding Mark

Kip Moorcroft was a f$!'ing great guy.  Always seemed to be approachable, really listened and had awesome ideas and concepts.  

But that was back in a time where the players were all pretty colourful.  Kevin Shea, Peggy Stevenson, Don Briggs, Jean-Paul Riopel, Phil Lind, Colin Watson, Barry Moore.  If WKRP Hadn't been about radio it would have been about Rogers / York / Keeble / Metro / Graham and Scarborough  Right down to the gaffer tape office walls.  These were a different breed of people, not hiding out behind a mahogany desk, but an active and integral part of what they were building.  As I said about Kip, this seemed to be a time when upper management was so much more involved, approachable and open to ideas.  (Rogers and Metro had all the money, and therefore the best toys.)

I was never really part of the Graham world, I came in during the late 70's.  Spice had already moved to York, and my only real involvement was when we'd drop in to visit.  I wouldn't be where I am today if Steve hadn't taken me under his wing.  He saw an ADD clusterfuck with potential and taught me so much.  I did the DJ thing with Steve for many years, meeting up at The Golden Star or the Conroy with Pat Cole at 2am to talk about the night .  

Those early cable channels put out some amazing stuff, because there was no 'sponsor' angle.  If Jody T. and I wanted to do a show on the yellow board, as long as we showed up we were 95% of the way.  It wasn't about mass appeal and there were no ratings, it was programing that programmers who were deeply involved in their communities believed the community wanted to see.  York and Scarborough were putting people like Beryl Potter on air long before CBC learned about 'diversity'.   We were doing shows on everything from numismatics to optimist clubs.  It wasn't technically perfect, but it was as good as we could make it, and often better because we 'found' ways to do things for free that would have cost tens of thousands in digital equipment to accomplish.    A black card with white letraset on both sides sitting on a turntable was our version of a Quantel squeeze .  We would take apart the VTR Productions demos and try to figure out how we could do it with keys and colorizers.  (Probably where my love of Network stock music came from )  I had a friend at Global and we'd go in and record shows there when we could, and also record black into white versions of their Richmond Hill's modulated wipes to be used to impress our multicultral clients

For any techies out there, one of the 'outside the box' thinking stories I love to tell was the 'Scarborough Indianapolis Peace games".   A big deal at the time and carried on all the cable 10 channels across the city.  The problem was locking the trucks.  This was before GPS and we couldn't have afforded it if we wanted to.  Spice suggested genlocking the truck to CFTO since it was freely available and have the local playback rooms do the same.  We were now all in sync.  And it worked great.  We could go from one truck to the other, from one studio to the next.  The only problem came when CFTO switched to CTV and everything rolled .   It all locked back up again soon enough though.

Steve and Pat did a show on Graham, which Spice moved to York called York Preview.  Basically 2 hours of setting up his DJ Stuff, putting a camera on the dj and shooting a monitor with colorized video feedback for the duration of the songs.  People would phone in and make requests, and in the process Pat and Steve were booked solid for school dances and other events.  It was brilliant.  Cost nothing.   No Cancon adherence  come to think of it .   The arguments go on about who was the first VJ and I could make a good case for York.  Long before Muchmusic or MTV, CBS especially were sending us 3/4" and 1" promo videos that we'd play in place of records.  At one point we put 2 cameras in the audio booth and did a 'video for audio' music pilot, but there just wasn't enough video out there to keep a show alive.   But we were playing the 'video' version of Flash and the Pan, Lene Lovitch and anything else we could find in 1977.  MTV launched 4 years later, and Much was 3 years after that.

The other great part was discovering that Rogers porn feed to the prince hotel ran through the York Head end on Railside.  It was all the channels, but groomed to include their 'hotel' PPV.  A simple RF splitter on that line, a Jerold converter box, and a load of T60 3/4" tapes and we had a library that Larry Flint would have been proud of.  Made me popular around school with the staff, but that's a story for my death bed

The other thing that jumps to mind was standing out front at 43 Railside with a sledge hammer, pounding the jesus out of the side of the 12 foot c-band dish to move it from Anik to Satcom where once again, the ole' 3/4" machines would be put to good use with Showtime till the head end guys came in on Monday and couldn't figure out why the parliament feed wasn't coming in.










 

Last edited by ig (January 30, 2016 2:04 pm)

Just wondering as I was reading the wisdom from Old Codger who talked about time at Humber College.  I was there during the Phil and David era around '78-79.  Like most did not graduate.  Wondering if our paths may have crossed in the studios of CHBR and CHCR-FM.Many memories, and somehow I managed to remain in the business.  Good or bad ?   Depends on the day.