My First Job

>>"When I was in junior college near Chicago, the only place I could get flexible hours to coordinate with my classes was at Kmart. I started there as a stockman, which is probably the lowest rung on the ladder as far as Kmart goes. I was responsible for all the odd jobs. I did that for about six months, at which point (and this is the unofficial title) I became the blue-light specialist. On the weekends all I would do for eight hours was push that blue light around and make announcements about items that were on sale. So in a roundabout way, it was my beginning in broadcasting.

"My starting pay was $4.25 an hour, but if you worked Sundays, that was double time-and thank goodness for that, because Sunday was the day they'd do most of the blue lights. Everything I made pretty much went to my education.

"One of my favorite blue-light-special products was called the Hose Mobile, an item you used to wrap up your garden hose. Every year when we got them in, the announcement we would make was, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the 1985 Hose Mobile has arrived!'

"Through the job I learned I had a flair for broadcasting. I remember specifically one gentleman who came up to me, shook my hand and said, 'You did that announcement for the blue-light special very well. You should think about getting into broadcasting.' I was kind of taken aback and said, 'Thank you very much. That's what I'm going to college for!' So that was my first real positive affirmation. Looking back, it was my favorite job before I got into broadcasting, because it was broadcasting. Maybe to only 50 or 100 people, but still, I was doing it."

-Interview by Lauren Bernaldo