George Carlin/Radio Days

I woke up to read that "Counter Culture" hero and so-called funny man George Carlin has assumed room temperature at 71 years of age. The left wing babbled and gooed over Carlin in years gone bye, much like they do with non-funny man Jon Stewart....the left leaning morons idea of funny is stuff that you don't have to think about...much like their political views, they just want somebody to follow, like the lemmings they are....these days clowns like Stewart, and "cartoons' like "South Park" fill that void in their lives...that void being unable to think for themselves.

On to Carlin and my drink of water in Radio.....I first heard Carlin while "walking the line" and humping B-52s and KC-135s as a Air Force Cop at Griffiss Air Force Base in upstate New York....while walking around aircraft for 8 hour shifts in usually frigid weather conditions, you needed something to kill time.....because in all reality, it was the most boring job one could imagine....I used that time to plug in my transistor radio and listen to either WABC Radio coming from NY City, or one of the local underground FB stations in the local Rome-Utica area...."underground FM"? Funny thing, all of the top-40 stations were AM back then(we are talking 1970-72)...the FM was either news, long hair(we ain't talking Beatles) music, or the occasional "acid" stations...those are the ones you could hear the comedy of George Carlin on. Carlin, much like me, was a radical type guy, he had also been in the Air Force back in the early 1950s...and claimed to have been court-martialed 3 times, this I doubt, because he would have been drummed out, or jailed...so I suspect Ol' George was lying through his teeth for effect...as funny as I thought he was then, I realize he was just stringing us all along for the money and "fame" back then.

George Carlin was born in Manhattan in 1937...and was a "straight" man in a 2 man comedy show in the early 1960s....this after starting out as a disk jockey in Louisiana radio, while in the AF in 1954....he eventually became a counter culture stand up comic in the middle 1960s. In 1972 he was arrested in Milwaukee for his infamous "7 Words" which he uttered(Google them up, I need not post them here, there may be some children accidentally dropping in)....a judge threw the case out as a violation of Free Speech....in 1978 the US Supreme Court did rule those words "offensive" and they could not be uttered on the Air Ways.....as chance happened I was attending Trans American School of Broadcasting in Wausau, Wisconsin, when that ruling came down....and still have the original AP transmission of that story locked away somewhere in my "junk"....needless to say, we students at TAB had great fun with those. This was basically the last time I took anything Carlin did to heart....his politics and mine had parted company, I became a far right kind of guy, and ceased laughing at his mindless BS....both Carlin and I had dislike for the government, but for differing reasons....I enjoyed Carlin in his days when we viewed things much the same....I traded my hippy dippy days and realized Winston Churchill was right, Carlin and his followers never figured that out.

My full time radio career began in late 1978 after graduating from Trans American, the list of jobs and stations in a short span of time lists like a "how fast can you get in, how fast can you get out?" list of small and medium market radio stations....here is a list:

WRIG Radio Wausau, Wisconsin, News Anchor and weekend DJ-1978

WJMT AM-FM Merrill, Wisconsin, Afternoon Drive DJ 78-June 79

WIOU/WZWZ Komoko, Indiana, Morning News Anchor June 79-January 80

KGNO/KDCK Dodge City, Kansas, News Director, January 80-August 80

WCSM Radio, Celina, Ohio, Morning Drive DJ, Program Director, and Sports play-by-play

August 1980-June 1983

No, I didn't stick around long...the combination of moron owners, excessive egos from untalented fools, and pathetic wages, do not go hand-in-hand with long term employment in the "business". In addition you got stuck doing sorry local commericals(give a small market station a listen sometime, they are painful to listen to), remotes, and boring ass interviews...with people nobody wants to hear.....

Finally in the Summer of 1983 I left full time radio and went into my college major, Environmental Health, a career that would last the next 20 years, before boredom and working with bureaucratic BS said to me, "it's time to retire, Patrick, let's do it".

When I left full time radio in 1983 I did not leave broadcasting in total...I became a cable TV News Anchor, did sports play-by-play on both TV and Radio for another 20 years...finally giving up the ghost in 2003...right after retiring from the Environmental Health field. Despite it's ups/downs and pitfalls, I will always remember my days in broadcasting, not that I loved in all, but it was fun at times, much like George Carlin's humor. It seems pretty lame to me now, but when I was younger, he seemed to be a pretty funny guy. George was not a Christian by any stretch, and where his soul rests today, is any body's guess....peace be with you Mr. Carlin.

back later>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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photos-a couple of Newspaper photos from the radio days-top/Dressed up doing the MC'ing for a local farm show back in 1982...I actually had a pretty good time doing these type events...always a good meal and a audience that appreciated any break from the usual business at hand. As you can see, they grow them big on the farm in Mercer County..I stood at 5' 11" and the Father at about 5'10"...and we are dwarfed by the other guys...big time. The other photo is from on the air at WCSM with a noontime local show called "____________" Hell, I don't remember, but as you can tell, I looked excited doing these hard hitting interviews with the local movers and shakers...usually the Chamber, Lions, or Rotary type thing...the problem was.."How can I get a half hour interview out of this material?" and as you can see, this live(barley alive) broadcast has one minute to go...lasting from 12:30 to 1PM...."I made it"

And finally the late and in some minds great, George Carlin, dead yesterday at 71.