No. 247 – Once in a Lifetime

Performer: The Talking Heads

Songwriters: David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth

Original Release: Remain in Light

Year: 1980

Definitive Version: Stop Making Sense, 1984.

This song was something of the unofficial song of the Food World back shop back in the day, complete with appropriate arm chopping. Ironically, this here post pertains to the ONLY summer during my college career when I didn’t work at the World of Food, as we uster say.

As I mentioned, I decided to “take off” the summer of 1985—when I was listening to the Stop Making Sense version of Once in a Lifetime on a regular basis. Part of my reasoning was due to sloth and not wanting a “job” job. But part of it was because I wanted to do something career-related.

By this time, I knew I wanted to get into journalism with an eye toward grad school. What I wanted more than a “job” job in the summer of 1985 was an internship. Any media would do—radio, newspapers (my academic adviser’s recommendation), TV—it didn’t matter. It just had to be something that I could put on my grad-school application.

I don’t specifically recall doing this, but I might have sent out introductory letters too late in the process, because I didn’t get much of a nibble from the newspapers (Columbus still had two back then) or radio stations. The action—surprisingly, given I had zero experience with it—was in TV.

I got an interview with Jimmy Crum, who was The Dean of Columbus Sports Broadcasting, at WCMH. Crum was known as much for his loud sports coats as his folksy reports. He was gracious, saying my background was good and encouraged me to continue, but his TV station didn’t do internships, so he had nothing for me. It wasn’t ideal, but I appreciated the advice from someone who was such a well-respected pro.

The real hook came from WSYX, the ABC affiliate. I not only got an interview with the main sports guy, Lonnie Haskins, but I got an internship. It would be unpaid and only one night a week, but it was something. Because of that, I decided that was going to be enough work for the summer.

I cashed in savings bonds that had matured that I held since being an infant, so I had disposable income. But Beth wasn’t happy that I didn’t have a “job” job, and we got into a pretty big fight (or three) about it over the course of the summer. I didn’t care. I was working in the media—my first real look at one possible career avenue.

My summer internship at WSYX was interesting. I got to see the inner workings of a TV station. As Frank Baum showed us, the magic disappears after you peer behind the curtain. There’s nothing magical about local TV news. It’s work, and it’s only as good as the people who do it.

The biggest thing I learned about TV was that, at least it’s no big deal. You’re not speaking to hundreds of thousands of people but about 10—the other anchors when they’re in the room, the guys behind the camera, a stage director, a couple hired hands and some college student.

I went in to the station, on Riverside Drive near Upper Arlington, about 4 or 5 and stayed until after the 11-o’clock news, about midnight, on Wednesdays, with the occasional extra day thrown in. My duties were small—some research here, a little proofreading there.

The most important thing I got to do was to edit actual video for the news of “Luscious Lonnie” as Hulk Hogan called him in one memorable interview during that time trying the Frog Slam game at the Ohio State Fair. It wasn’t good—the cuts were too loose—but it made the air.

Two other things stand out about that experience. The first one had to do with my Rotisserie Baseball league. As I mentioned, I started a league in the spring of 1985 at Wabash. One of my regular duties was to watch and track the baseball highlight feed that came over the satellite, so Lonnie would know where to make cuts for the news.

One particular night, my Wonkas went nuts, so it was like my own personal highlight reel. Leon Durham, Jody Davis and Glenn Davis hit homers, and Von Hayes hit two, including a grand slam. It was a 5-homer, 16-RBI night, and I got to see it all in the raw and then later cut up during the broadcast. (I couldn’t convince Lonnie to work in a Wonkas reference, alas.)

That was about the extent of the fun baseball highlights, because that summer was dominated by the runup to the strike of 1985, which was mercifully short.

The second thing was close to the end of my internship. Lonnie invited me out with the rest of the early-evening crew for a night of drinking at Victory’s in the Brewery District.

Now THAT was a learning experience. I had known so many of these people from being on TV, and it was very different to see them with the red light off, the TV cameras gone and the beverages flowing copiously. Lonnie bought me a drink and would’ve bought me more had I been interested. (I hadn’t yet acquired that particular skill.)

In addition to chatting with a very well-lit and funny weekend anchor, I spent most of my time talking with Lonnie, asking him about his experiences away from the workplace. He was no Jimmy Crum, and I seem to recall that he moved on from Columbus soon after my summer at WSYX, but he was cool to me and typed up a letter of recommendation that helped, a few months later, to get me into Northwestern.

I didn’t get paid, but you could say my internship paid off in the end.