Dropped into the old college town today for a haircut. Sixteen years now going to Darcy. I couldn't help but think about how I might not get to visit her anymore if I get the big gig.
After hairs cuts, I had lunch with Dr. Gretchen. It's so weird to see her down in the radio/TV hall, in an office, when I remember her coming in as a bright eyed freshman. She's a parent of only a year, so we talked a lot about making babies. It's also fun to talk to her about how it's difficult to truly evolve an academic program rooted in traditional broadcast and journalism. If there's one thing that would drive me nuts about working in an academic environment, it's that the status quo is practically an immovable object. Some programs don't change much over time, and don't really have to. R/TV isn't even called R/TV anymore, since it wouldn't make sense in light of the broad spectrum of media in the world today.
I also ran into Tom, who was the assistant engineer back in our day, only a few years older than us, actually. Now he's the chief and operations guy. I feel so old when I talk about what we had back in the mid-90's, compared to what they have today. On one hand, I'm familiar with most of the standard production gear (God knows I've bought enough of my own!), but the current state of the art for multi-camera field production has changed drastically. Unfortunately, they're not state of the art yet, but things like the new stadium have the right conduit in place so they can get there when the time is right.
They have a new radio guy there, and it sounds like he's very open to alumni dropping in to pick up a shift or two. I am all about that. I'd like to get back and do it a few times. It's something I was really good at, and I hate that the business itself just got so shitty. It was a lot more fun when I didn't have to do it for a living.
The couple of visits I've had there this year has really brought back a lot of memories, and a great deal of perspective about myself. So many things about my personality, good and bad, began to take shape in those years, and bringing those things to the forefront of my mind goes a long way toward helping me understand how to move forward.
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