Jules Coleman
Certainly one of the major factors in WHEN's continued success in the 70's and 80's was its aggressive and well-respected news department, under the direction of News Director, Bill Carey. A team of extremely talented and professional news people, including the likes of Jules Coleman, Donna Speziale, Dan Cummings, Dave Bullard, Christie Casciano, Devon Blair, Jim Campagna, Tony Rizzo, Laurie Bean, Geoff Dunn and many others. These were the people who contributed timeless energy and work in helping establish 62 WHEN's one-time national reputation.
Looking through the booth window and over Jules left shoulder
from the newsroom area, one can have a sense of the area from which news
people presented their hourly and half hour reports. Obviously this shot was
taken during Jules' first PM drive newscast. (3 PM). The controls immediately in
front of the news reporter were remote starts for the Gates cart machines located to the
right as well as buttons that actuated playback machines in the main studio. The
person reporting from this booth faced directly into WHEN's studio. If you were to
look slightly to the right and through the window from this vantage point you would
be face-to-face with the air personality on duty at the time. The reporter on
air would activate the machines in the main studio for commercial playback during
their newscast. Those taped commercials, however, were in cart (playback)
machines in the main studio which the reporter could not see. It was very important
for the person on duty in the main studio ... if they were considering leaving the studio
during a news break... to make absolutely certain that all commercials and the first
song to be played following the newscast were properly loaded in the machines and locked
in place... otherwise... no commercial...and dreaded dead air. Another logistical
problem was that if the announcer on duty in the main studio forgot to turn the volume up
on any of the machines used for commercial playback, the commercial would not be heard.
DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY! - If all commercials
were properly loaded in their respective machines...and the first song following the
newscast was also loaded in it's proper playback machine, the news reporter on air could
essentially give an air personality close to a 8 or 9 minute break (5 minute newscast + 3
- 4 minute song). As a means of preventing dead air immediately after a
newscast, a music cart (tape cartridge) was always left in the news booth for those times
when the jock was not in the studio at the newscast completion and the song would
not properly start. If a playback machine in the main studio had not been
properly loaded, or the volume not turned up, when the newsperson remotely attempted
to start the first song after of the news, nothing would happen...other than dead
air...and sometimes panic. Thus, Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This
Way" surely became a song that received more than its fair share of airplay over the
years. Catchy title too considering the circumstances. Any WHEN
staffers hearing "Thelma" at about 5 or 35 after the hour knew
things down the hall weren't going according to plan.
1978 - Jules Coleman - Newswatch 62 -
WHEN - Syracuse
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