back to Milwaukee...

note.....(for the NBC News assignments in Chicago and 30 Rock NYC and Vietnam/Cambodia please see earlier blogs.)

How about a nighttime talk radio show in Milwaukee with in studio guests....Averell Harriman......with Senator Gaylord Nelson

      Robert Welch...founder of the John Birch Society

      Senator Bill Proxmire

      and....The Ace Trucking Company comedy group with Fred Willard and Bill “you can call me Ray” Saluga!

That’s like the Tonight Show and Nightline combined.

No Father James Groppi...not this time

Things had mellowed in that fine city and we had interesting shows every night without mishap.

Bob Collins did the afternoon rock show and as you read earlier in this blog...ended up replacing Wally Phillips at WGN Chicago for really unbelievably money.  In fact I went down to Chicago to sit in on  his show  and we hit a bar afterwards and he looked at me and said “I didn’t know anyone could make so much money!”.  

I was happy for him...just as I was pleased for my friend Neil Rogers when his salary jumped up to a well deserved million a year.

I got my big bucks over in Nam for NBC News...in fact I telexed them at 30 Rock after a few months telling them they were paying me way to much money!  I was afraid I would have to give some back and that could cause consternation later.  

But..they wired me that the amounts were correct...I was being paid a handsome price each time one of my reports was aired on the networks...and I averaged at least four a day...sometimes double that. 

Us talent guys in radio too often get the short end of salaries and the corporate brass get the big goodies.  I have nothing but admiration of the likes of Rush...Howard...Bob C... Neil etc for finally “cleaning up” and getting their just desserts.

One other note of interest about WRIT/WBCS-FM  Milwaukee.  After both Bob Collins and I had left the stations..I was told a guy came in to be production director. His name was Bob Pittman and he was probably working for penuts knowing the station’s history.  He left in a short time and in a few years this same dude would invent MTV!   

He also later became CEO of AOL and is now head of Clear Channel and all that.  IHeart is his latest toy. 

Pittman rules the roost of all communication now.

connect:

stanmajor@aol.com