May, 1995: I left not only for my first trip to the country of Colombia, but my first to South America.
Radio Caracol, through the efforts of Carlos Arturo Gallego, brought me in to present HOW TO CREATE MAXIMUM IMPACT RADIO ADVERTISING to their salespeople at their annual sales conference in Cartagena.
Radio Caracol is a very large, very successful group, with (at the time) 92 radio stations in Colombia. And radio advertising was very healthy there. In Colombia, radio received a larger percentage of the advertising dollar than newspapers did.
The company that owned Caracol also owned Colombia’s national airline, Avianca. That’s why I flew Avianca from Los Angeles to Bogotá, with a brief stop in Mexico City.
Avianca 757
Although the crew was fairly nice, I couldn’t enthusiastically recommend Avianca on this route, because they flew a 757…a very narrow aircraft and very uncomfortable on long flights. There were only three rows in Business Class, and Row 3 was the “smoking” row. I had to choose either:
1) A seat in Row 1, away from the smoke but with absolutely no leg room
2) A seat in Row 2, with room for my legs but no protection for my lungs
I spent the 8-hour flight with my legs scrunched up.
Even Row 1 didn’t keep the smoke out of my lungs. A couple of hours into the flight, I realized my sinuses were closing due to cigarette smoke.
I looked at the row behind me: no one was smoking. And no one was smoking in my row, either. So I got up to investigate.
I went up the galley, immediately in front of my seat, and peeked behind the closed curtain. And there was a flight attendant, puffing away.
My Flight Attendant, Smoking. (I believe Avianca's uniforms have changed since then.)
Next: Comparing the real Colombia with the American movies’ version of Colombia.
LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION with Bobby Ocean
The One Time I Physically Leaped
Perhaps this Zen production style I enjoy — Leap Of Faith Production — was foretold one time, when, as a baby jock, I pulled off an actual dramatic physical Leap, as only the young (and movie stunt men) can do.
It was the mid-60s, I was maybe 18, it was Halloween night and my imagination was heated: “I get to be on the radio!”
A bit dropped from somewhere. Next thing, I was on the mic, telling listeners what a shame it was that I could not be out there trick-or-treating, if they cared about their local DJ at all, they would drive by the radio station (on Monterey, California’s historic Cannery Row) and toss candy up to the second floor balcony for me.
It was going great, lots of colorful Halloween imagery about werewolves, vampires and how they are attracted to radio transmission towers, while candy started piling up out on the balcony, and I was well on my way to unimaginable stardom. Right about when I was mentally morphing into Clint Eastwood, events changed, as often happens on Misty All Hallows Eve.
On a routine candy check, the door blew shut behind me. Of course it was locked. Solid. I had no key, nothing in my pockets, suddenly confined outside, hopelessly! Over the air, Brenda Lee continued making her way through the last song I started, “I’m Sorry;” and I was now equally despondent. What could I do!?
I tried the windows. Locked. In desperation, just like TV, I punched the lower corner of a pane, shattering it with the intention of unlocking it from inside. Didn’t work, couldn’t find the lock, now I was bleeding from the shattered glass.
Brenda’s apology was well past the halfway mark. Next came what must have been one true Halloween shocker.
To the innocent tourists ambling the sidewalks below among the Cannery’s gift shoppes and eateries, came the stunning visage of a wild man, leaping from above, suddenly landing among them, blood freshly dripping from his paws, a truly desperate look in his eyes!
Racing through the panicking people, and up the staircase to the second floor of the infamous Bear Flag Building where KMBY was housed, the front door was found to be locked tight!
There was nothing else to do. I yanked the door right out of its frame. Adrenaline, I guess, haven’t been able to duplicate the feat since. Racing down the hall and in the studio, Brenda was singing the final phrases of her hit as I managed to reach the hand-made console and start the next record with no noticeable interruption in the flow.
Close call, happy ending.
That is, until I realized I was now preoccupied with rehearsing what I would tell the Program Director the next day. Sleep wouldn’t penetrate the multitude of reasons I had repeatedly gone over that night, to explain how the broken but hastily taped up door and window got that way.
I was rehearsing my next biggest performance. The one that would let me keep my job!
Here are the final moments of a spectacular radio career…
Gary Burbank spent 35 years doing more things brilliantly than any radio personality I’ve ever heard.
My biggest disappointment of 2008 was that he wasn’t voted into the Radio Hall of Fame.
I hope you will join me now in voting for Gary Burbank for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame this month.
Deadline is July 31.
The voting process is very quick and easy. In fact, doing it will be faster for you than reading these instructions. (You can simply click on this link to vote and ignore my instructions; I’m just trying to make it as easy as possible for you.)
How To Cast Your Ballot For Gary Burbank
1. Click on this link: https://nrhof.votenet.com/nrhof/register/
2. Fill in the free registration form. (The only required fields are First Name, Last Name, and Email address.)
3. Check your email for a message with the subject:
“NRHOF 2009 Radio Hall of Fame Vote”
4. Follow the instructions in the email, which are:
A) Click on the link they send you.
B) Enter your user name (which will be your email address).
C) Enter the password they give you in that email.
5. Click on “Ballot” (top of page, 3rd from the left)
6. Gary’s category is the first one: “LOCAL OR REGIONAL – PIONEER”
7. Vote for Gary.
8. Vote for any others you prefer in the other categories (including, of course, our friend Dick Orkin).
9. Keep clicking on “Click to Continue” until you get to the page that says “VOTE” in a big green box at the bottom of the page.
(All of this is VERY quick. Total voting time probably is a minute or less.)
You’re done!
I was a young jock when I first heard Gary Burbank. He raised the bar for all of us.
Let’s see that he gets the credit he deserves.
And if you have your own memories of Gary Burbank, please feel free to share them here…
