In Another Lifetime

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The TV business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
                                            -Hunter S. Thompson

Many of you already know that I used to be a television news producer. I even worked with some of you (Hi, Nikki! Hi, Ginger!). My first job was at WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia. To put it plainly: I shouldn't have been hired. I had no idea what I was doing. I was thrown into the chaotic world of television without any experience or direction. I had no guidance. To use the cliche, "It was sink or swim". For my first few months, I sunk. (I ended up being a pretty kick ass producer, though)

I was hired by a man named Michael Sullivan. My resume came across his fax machine and he called me because an old-timey producer he used to know, a professor of mine, was listed as a reference. One week after graduating from college in Montana, I was interviewing for a job in Savannah. Of course, I got the job. I didn't know at the time that Michael always hired the first warm body that walked through the door.

Like I said, I failed--A LOT--during my first few months. It was an insane newsroom-- more insane than most. I had a News Director who rarely came out of his office and, when he did, he'd turn everything upside down, ask for the impossible, and then leave work early for the bar and the beach. He never, ever stuck around to see a newscast get on air. The rule was, if you had to go into Michael's office, you'd better have a solution to your problem. He seemed terrified of making decisions and the ones he did make would create a bigger headache than your original problem.

There are dozens of stories I could tell you about him. Dozens. Half of them don't even make sense.

But I have to share this one with you...

About two months after I started working at WSAV, Hurricane Floyd was heading for Savannah. Living in Montana all my life, I didn't really know what a hurricane was. I was producing the 6 o'clock news when the emergency management agency declared a voluntary evacuation that evening and a mandatory evacuation starting at 8 am the next day. My news director, Michael, told me not to include the information about the mandatory evacuation in my newscast. He said that the emergency managers might change their minds. I argued and argued with him to no avail. So, do you know what I did? I had the anchors announce it anyway. Me: scared out of my mind, fumbling fish out of water... I stood up and defied my boss. I knew that it was important to inform our viewers that they would need to be packing their things and get ready to leave town the next morning because A HURRICANE WAS COMING.

Michael's reaction to my decision was not pretty. Not at all. First, he busted into the control room and screamed at me while we were still on air. After the show ended, he threw a box of printer paper at me (missed by a mile) and screamed some more. I bawled and bawled on my way home.

I went to work the next morning (mandatory evacuation still in effect) and I was one of three people in the newsroom. A reporter and the assignment editor were the only two other people there. I waited around until 11 am until we finally got a call from Michael. He was bringing his wife to the airport and told me to go "wall to wall". Let me admit something here: I had no idea what that meant. It turns out that he wanted me to produce continuous coverage of the evacuation. With what army? I don't know.

Several hours later, after we finally did get on the air for our "wall to wall" coverage, I rocked it pretty hard. I found a groove with one of the directors and I also proved myself to almost everyone around me. At the end of that day, Michael told us that the hurricane may destroy the television station and we may not have jobs to return to. And, if we wanted to, we could leave town. And, oh yeah, he also said that HE made the right decision to announce the mandatory evacuation. You can bet I high-tailed it out of there and went to Atlanta until the storm passed.

I thought I'd gotten over this incident and many more. I thought I was finally past all the horrible treatment that was bestowed upon me and others (Hi, Nikki!). But it all came flooding back last night when I watched Making News, Savannah Style on TV Guide Channel. It's a reality series about working in small market news. It's not at my old station, but it is my former News Director, Michael. He's now at the #3 station in Savannah, WJCL. And I'm feeling bitter because, at least so far, Michael is not coming off as the psycho that I remember. He actually seems like a nice guy with a sense of humor about the fact that they're in last place and the building and equipment are falling apart.

But the cameras for that show are only out in the field. They follow around the reporters and aren't back at the station to see Michael bust into a control room and scream and throw things at peoples' heads when a full-screen graphic appears over a live interview.

I'm going to keep watching for two reasons: 1) I hope that my feelings of animosity and bitterness will finally subside, and 2) I'm hoping to see my former boss make a complete ass of himself on national television.

Here's video of that program (my former boss is the guy with the mustache):

 

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