1980s - KERA Volunteer

While working at a camera store in Dallas in the 1980s, I decided I wanted to branch out and volunteer at KERA, the local Public Broadcasting Station in the evenings and on weekends. I started out volunteering on their 90.1FM radio pledge drives and knew I wanted to get in on the fun during the Channel 13 TV drives. I started out answering phones, as all good volunteers do, then graduated to talent coordinator, in charge of getting the on-air talent into the studio on time and with all the material they needed for the pledge breaks. I later graduated even further to become the teleprompter operator, responsible for updating and rolling the teleprompter the talent uses for their cues during the breaks. While it was quite exciting to be in the control room, this job didn't afford a lot of free time, as I spent the majority of the time between breaks updating the copy on an old (but new then) Wang word processor. All in all, it was a total blast to have been a part of such a worthwhile cause, and I met a lot of fun in intriguing people in the process.