Kevin Curran (former WCBS intern), Phoenix, 12/09/08
I had a nice chat with Rich Lamb when he came to McCain HQ in Phoenix on Election Day. The memories flowed like Niagara Falls.
A career, like a building, is only as good as its foundation. The foundation laid during my internship at News 88 in the fall of 1981 put me on an interesting path. At the time, the station had one intern who was expected to work 40 hours/week for no pay. I was selected from a dozen applicants. I think my big advantage was attending the Fordham class Lou Freizer taught in the meeting room on the 16th floor.
Curran
From there, it was news positions WHLI in Hempstead, WNEW, WHN and WFAN, the Mutual Broadcasting System in Washington and the NBC Radio Network. I jumped over to the sales side at WPUT/WMJV in Brewster and became sales manager at WGRQ in Fredricksburg, VA. I moved to Phoenix in 1992 and became operations manager at a radio group. I then moved to TV and have been an assignment editor at KOLD in Tucson, KCAL & KCOP in Los Angeles, and KTVK and now KPNX in Phoenix. I have been the Cactus League engineer for the Oakland Athletics Radio Network since 1994.
My experience at WCBS was instrumental in my getting hired as a news writer at KNX while I lived in Los Angeles. It's nice to have both of those legends on my resume.
I cherish the relationships I built and do try to cross paths with my WCBS friends when able. Gil Gross had just started a talk show when I got to Phoenix, so I "hired" him to be the late guy. When the station went all sports. I "fired" him.
It is an unfortunate commentary on the business that despite the career it gave both me and my wife, we were not sorry to hear our oldest son say he wanted to be a doctor and not a broadcaster.
