“I Just Wanted to Be One
of the Voices on Radio”
- Rob Brookler
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(May 31, 2011)
LARadio has embarked on a
series about career reinvention. Due to
consolidation and the 2008-10 economic
meltdown, thousands of radio jobs have
been eliminated and for the most
part will never be
available again. Today’s reinvention
story is not from the ashes of the
recent
past, but rather it’s
about what happens when a dream for a
career in radio is suddenly aborted
through a station sale.
Rob Brookler
is a name you probably never heard, or
if you did hear him on the air during a
brief couple of years in the 80s, he’s
not been in radio since. Rob was
destined to be a doctor when he left his
Southern California home to study
pre-med at UC California at Berkeley.
Rob’s father was a doctor, as well his
grandfather and a couple of uncles.
Halfway through his second year at
Berkeley, Rob dropped out and pursued a
career in radio. “I became disenchanted
with school and just wanted to be on the
radio. I got an apartment just off
Hollywood Boulevard.”
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Rob was born in 1960. “When I was
growing up, I listened to the radio a
lot. There were only a handful of
television channels, but to me radio was
everything,” said Rob, in a recent
interview. “In those days you had a
relationship with the radio stations.
That was a place you went. For me, it
had a mysterious aspect to it. The
voices and music created this kind of
world that I really enjoyed. It was a
homey place for me that was wonderful. I
just wanted to be one of those voices.”
He said it was a crazy
thing to do to quit college. “My parents
practically disowned me,” Rob said. In
1982, he got an entry level job at KIQQ,
a Top 40 station run by
George Wilson.
Rob could walk the dozen blocks to work
at the Sunset & Cahuenga building.
“I answered phones and helped in
production. I was trying to get my foot
in the door, so I pretty much did
everything there – music department,
programming department and production –
just trying to get in a place where I
would be thrown on the air by accident.
I would give my audition tape regularly
to the program director. I was pretty
persistent.”
And then almost as an afterthought and
without warning, the pd said, “You’re
on.” Rob was petrified with the reality
of going on the air. “It was a great
opportunity,” recalled Rob. “I started
on the weekend graveyard shift, which
was the least conspicuous place for a
first-timer. It was an incredible
opportunity. I had no experience except
for doing audition tapes. It was a huge,
huge break.”
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As the months went by, Rob got
additional weekend shifts. “The format
was Top 40, right about the period when
New Wave was actually New Wave. There
was a clear definition between Top 40
and AOR. KIQQ sort of bridged the gap
and was innovative and played some
crossover New Wave but it was not as
extreme as KROQ, which was the cutting
edge of that game, but KIQQ had a huge
audience. We introduced the ‘Pick Hit of
the Week,’ which was usually on the edge
between Pop/Top 40 and New Wave. Some of
the songs became big hits.”
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In 1985, KIQQ became automated. “Nobody
had an easy time with KIQQ’s
transition,” Rob conceded. “It felt like
we were losing our home. We were so
involved with the station that during
the last days of live programming, it
felt like someone died. There was so
much good energy in the offices since I
started there in 1982. Even the sales
people were close to the programming
people. I don’t know if it’s like that
anymore but we actually liked seeing
each other. Suddenly the offices got
more empty. The last days were strange
with no one there except for the jock in
the booth running the board.” |
The thought of a
transition to another station was
troubling for Rob. He had not networked
during these early years of his career.
He felt like it was either move to a
smaller market or change careers. While
trying to figure out his next step,
the station kept
him on to assist with the automation and
help with production."
He discovered that his work in
production gave him much experience with
copy and writing commercials. Rob moved
to a PR management firm and eventually
opened his own business.
“I created an independent
business, representing medical,
manufacturing and publishing
associations doing PR consultation. I
sometimes served as a spokesperson and
PR contact for volunteer organizations.
My largest client was the World Airline
Entertainment Association.”
He oversaw publications,
editorial, media relations, and
marketing.
Two years ago, Rob
returned to a long-held interest in
meditation, which led him to the
creation of an entirely new business.
Beginning at age 15, Rob
took meditation classes and eventually
became a teacher on the side through his
various careers. He now works
exclusively on his website,
Meditations2Go.com.
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“The website has given me the
opportunity to teach more classes and
going on the lecture circuit. Meditation
is more important to me than ever. I
really wanted to put my energy into
something that helps people a little
more directly.”
Have his parents forgiven him for not
pursuing the medical field? “They went
from being very upset to very proud once
they heard me on the air. They listened
to me at the hospital where my dad
worked. The staff knew me because I used
to hang around there. They listened to
me during the night shift.”
“We’ll stay tuned for updates on Rob
Brookler’s
latest reinvention.
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Marinko
Changes Focus. Rob
Marinko announced his last broadcast
on KABC yesterday morning. He was
filling in for Mark Austin Thomas. “My wife
and I agreed that the distraction of
radio and the hopes of finding full time
employment in the field were preventing
me from securing meaningful and paying
work elsewhere,” emailed Rob. “After
nearly two and a half years of being
unemployed, the prospect of making a
living in radio became increasingly
unlikely. I thanked Jack Silver
for the opportunities to fill in over
the past several months, but I also let
him know that I was no longer in the
position to come in on such an
infrequent basis. The bottom line is
that broadcasting for me became
financially impossible.”
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KERN Layoffs.
Just before the holiday weekend,
KERN-Bakersfield laid
off two longtime anchors
and severed the remainder of its
relationship with a popular talk show
host, in order to save costs. "It was
just a straight-up economic issue.
Working for the news department can be
quite expensive," said Brett Reckamp,
pd at KERN.
Let go
were news anchors Danielle Sullivan
and Bill Curtis, and former host
Inga Barks. KERN's news team was
the largest in the seven-station radio
group owned by parent company American
General Media. The layoffs bring the
news team down to six people, including
two anchors, one producer, a show host
and two anchor/reporters. Reckamp also
serves as the program director for the
news.
"In
addition to the personnel reductions,
Reckamp said the station will no longer
offer local newscasts at the top and
bottom of the hour after the 5 p.m.
cut-in. Those newscasts had continued
until 11:30 p.m. each evening.
"Less
people are listening in the nighttime
than during the day," Reckamp said.
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Newsbusters.
On Thursday, liberal
talk-radio hosts Randi Rhodes (l) and
Stephanie Miller each protested
the one-week suspension of MSNBC host
Ed Schultz for calling Laura
Ingraham a “talk slut” on his radio
show, according to Newsbusters.com.
Miller said of the S-word: “So, I wear
it proudly. Some women on the right are
soooo sensitive!”
It’s understandable Randi Rhodes might
think this isn’t offensive. She was
suspended by Air America for yelling
that Hillary Clinton was a “big f---ing
whore” in 2008. But she was really upset
at the Schultz apology and suspension,
insisting Schultz had used the word on
her, too, and neither found it
offensive:
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RHODES: So, they suspend him for saying
that on his radio show - the MSNBC show
suspends him. Now, I don't know if he's
been suspended for his comments or for
moonlighting! I have no idea what's
going on there!
But I will tell you that
the
right wing does not do this to their
hosts,
they just don't! They let them say
anything and they do! They call the
President every name -- you're talking
about the President of the United States
of America! They call him every name in
the book, everything! They say he hates
white people! They say everything about
this president! They say everything
about people like me, they call me a
Nazi, they call me uh Randi Bin Laden.
They’ve questioned my patriotism
personally, they have questioned my love
of country...these people who have had
absolutely no experience loving their
country, I mean, loving the country!
They, uh, they've never really loved!
And, you know, it's so
interesting to me that the left media is always
suspending their hosts! You know ... it's the weirdest thing in
the world! And like I said, in 2004, Ed
called me Randi slut...I don't know what
that is, and maybe I'm thinking he just
gets excited calling women sluts! So I
guess the message would have been, if I
were his manager, uh, you know a lot of
sluts would charge extra for that, be
careful.
You
know, I don't know what his deal is, I
don't know why he plays like that, but
he does, he's always been, you know,
kind of in nasty - um, he went on a
tirade in 2007 that was so unbelievable
and I got on the air uh, you know after
that, and people were calling me going
did you hear what he said about you did
you hear...and, you know, I have my
response....we went back and found
it...I said, you know, when all this
happened and I was the target, what was
it that I said exactly, what was it that
I you know - how did I react to -
because you know they demanded his head
on a platter! You know, they wanted him
to be fired!”