Rene’s Take

Time flies when you are having fun. That is how i feel. Friday November 24th will be my 30th Anniversary in broadcasting. I started working at WSJR/WLVC in Madawaska and Fort Kent on Thanksgiving Day 1976. I still remember that day the first song i played was “Disco Duck” by Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots. The “Bionic Mouth was born on that day and continued through my tenure in radio. I loved my time in the St John Valley spinning records and doing basketball play by play in the winter time. I also worked at WFST in Caribou and WDHP in Presque Isle. I was with WFST when they bought WDHP and formed a strong AM FM team. I had the chance to be Program Director for both stations and built a number of friendships all over North America with Artists, Songwriters and Label Promotional people.

 I have been at WAGM for 23 years. I feel i am the luckiets person alive. The day that WDHP/WFST went bankrupt was the day that a part-time sports position opened at WAGM. As Paul Harvey would say and that is the rest of the story. I have loved every second at WAGM working  my way up from part time sports  and anchoring weekends to anchoring the 6 and 11pm shows. Wearing two hats as Sports Director and Assistant News Director.

I was talking to some of the younger reporters last week and talked about how technology has changed in the last 23 years. When I started here the cameras and decks were two separate units. The good thing about the deck,   it balanced you when you were shooting, the bad thing it weighed what felt like 50 pounds and one shoulder is now higher then the other… Over the years the equipment has become smaller and the pictures are much more clear. We now edit everything non-linear using computers to make our lives much easier. When I started here we didn’t have a teleprompter so we had to read everything from our scripts. We got our first prompter about 19 years ago and it was hand fed. Now it is all computerized. Computers have become a very important part of our lives. From researching stories on the computer to writing our scripts, editing our stories. to runnig the newscast.

As I said in an earlier post I am living my dream. When I was in Junior High I knew that I wanted to be a Sportscaster, not just any Sports Guy, but the broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox. I may not be at that level but I am very very happy to be here bringing you the sports each evening. There are so many people who pushed me in the right direction. My parents always supported what I wanted to do. Dana Hews was the Guidance Counsellor in Ashland and steered me into the right classes from media to speech. I was a very shy kid and needed the extra pushing. Anyone who knows me says yeah right.. you shy.. well I was when I was younger, but I grew out of it. My teachers in Ashland were all excellent and supported me through my senior year. I went to Northeast Broadcasting in Boston and after graduating waited and waited for the phone to ring for my first Disc Jockey job. It took several months for it to happen and after listening to my audition tape I know why. It was awful. Thankfully Ben Talbot took a chance on me in Madawaska.  Sue Bernard gave me my break at WAGM and I will always be thankful for her confidence in me.

I have been on the air on over 14 thousand newscast at WAGM. Hopefully I have another 15 or more years of bringing local sports into your homes every night.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 11:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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