JONATHON LILLESKOV
Greetings, Mr. Trout!
I apologize for the lateness of this e-mail. (or more rather, the slipping under the wire...) Things suddenly got busy this weekend, thanks to work and a nasty snowstorm. But all is better now. God bless the inventor of the snow plow...
Most people go through life never knowing what they want to do or where they want to be. For me, that never really seemed to be a problem until lately. I had a lot of hare-brained ideas that never really seemed to pan out. A love for aviation prompted the desire to be an astronaut, or at least an airline pilot. The curiosity of mechanical structures gave birth to the desire to become an architect. Most lately, though, I have followed a path that never much appealed to me until recent years - cars.
Well, the cars thing pushed me to become an auto mechanic, which was something I was very, very good at. Overtime, this became pretty monotonous, so I gave it up. (work hard; earn very little, all the earnings go to the tool guy...) After working some pretty meaningless jobs the past couple years, I really got to thinking where my life was really headed. I remembered back to my childhood, and my friends and how we used to record ourselves doing interviews and voice impressions of great people.
One image that particularly stuck is an image of me interviewing my friend who was supposed to be Ronald Reagan. I remember how much fun it was. It wasn't so much the humor of it (though it was funny), but the whole thought of my voice coming through a little box just blew me away!
That's what I decided I wanted to do... I'll be the first to admit; I never considered a career in radio until the last couple years in high school. I wanted to go to school to learn all I could about the field. If it weren't for circumstances beyond my control, I think this whole situation would have developed in late 1997. I wanted to go to Brown Institute, but doing so would leave only my mother behind to care for my ill father. Instead, I decided to attend our local community college and get some general courses out of the way to prepare for my major when I transferred.
What happened instead was something no one expected from me. Upon a friend's insistence, I enrolled in the automotive course instead. It was something that came naturally, but the lot of shop politics and outdated instruction literally killed the ambition for doing it. After a stellar first year in the course, my second was not near as good. I did manage to stick it out and graduate. After I finished in May of 2000, I saw myself with a diploma saying I could do what my heart and mind said I shouldn’t.
I thought back to my first year with generals, and a career in radio again. This time, I decided to give up any inhibitions and just do it! I applied for and was accepted by Brown Institute to start in April of 2001.
This is where the present kicks in. One night while surfing the web, I find getamentor.com, a website for mentoring in media arts fields…. In a thunderstorm of thought, one clear idea came to mind - wouldn't it make more sense to actually be taught by those who do it every day? It seemed the natural thing to do. After contemplating it for a few days, I decided it would make more sense. Without hesitation, I bolted onto the computer and applied. After an application and a couple phone interviews, I'm ready to embark on a journey to my new destination. I honestly can't remember anytime in my life when I've been more excited, scared and happy all at once!
All my life, I've always thought of the people "inside the box" to be some of the luckiest people in all the world. It is my hope that I can also be held in that high respect by another young aspiring broadcaster. I'm not saying that I'm going to be a broadcaster in the steps of Joe Soucherey (a Twin Cities broadcaster highly regarded by our state), but it is a goal I'll constantly strive for. Thank you for the opportunity to "get my foot in the door". Now is my chance to be a lucky person "inside the box"...
Update on my progress... Sun, 18 Feb 2001
Greetings, Phillip! I'm sure you've been waiting to hear from me for a while now! Well, after two weeks, so much has happened that it's hard to summarize, but I'll try! When I started two weeks ago, on 2.5.01, Cori and James had me observe the atmosphere and how they did what they do. That's what I did for the first four days, to get an idea of how the board operates. I asked a lot of questions on how the levels work and how things are operated. It's confusing, to say the least, but interesting to learn and try to figure out. Then this last Wednesday, I started reading commercial scripts and recording how I sound. Needless to say, I've been doing a lot of voice work, both at the station and home. While the ads I've been reading are older PSAs from a couple of years ago, they are challenging in their own right. It's hard to have a good voice while announcing them, because you can't be enthusiastic, but you can't be in a doldrum, either. I think they may have been the perfect thing to start with. They're a lot easier to read when you've said it for the 10th time! But practice makes perfect, or very close to. It's what we strive for...
Well, that's the report so far for two weeks. Tomorrow is a big, big day for me. I should be finishing my commercial scripts, and getting into some serious stuff! I tell ya! If I thought I was scared before, tomorrow's gonna be nerve-racking! But now, it's time to show what I can do! The monumental tasks before me today will be the foundation of my career tomorrow. Thanks again for everything! I will report again in two weeks with more progress.
My update!
Sun, 11 Mar 2001 11:58:15 EST
Hey Phillip! How are you? I'm doing better by the day! I absolutely love doing this. It's unlike anything I've ever undertaken before, and that only gives me more motivation to do it.
Right now, we're focusing on news broadcasting. It's really tough because you can't inflict much, if any, emotion into it. Still, it's a great way to further develop my voice. I seem to have quite a degree of difficulty with slurring words together. It's getting better, but I still notice it.
So far, I have done no tremendous undertakings. It's been primarily the stuff an intern does: gathering materials, screening phone calls, copying materials, etc. But there have been many things I've learned that may be preparing me for on-air exercises. The phone calls are part of it, but I've also worked with the CART computer, which organizes and broadcasts the station's commercials, and learned how to record and distribute commercials into the CART system. Also, through steady at-home workings with the demo, I've learned a little bit about Cool Edit Pro, which is a program most of KROC's broadcasters use to record commercials. It's amazing how far technology has come.
On Friday, I witnessed Cori recording an on-air commercial from nothing to final approval from the customer. That was something to see. It's hard to believe that you can record a whole commercial without the use of room-filling machines, but I know now that it can happen! Furthermore, the whole process took only 25 minutes!
Well, that's about all to report now. I want to thank you again for this opportunity. If you have any questions, you can contact me at my e-mail or cell phone. I will talk to you again soon!
Jonathon L. :-)
March 29, 2001
Hey Phillip! How are you? I'm doing great. I could never have foreseen the fun and excitement of this field. Wow!
Well, it's been pretty quiet lately around the station for me. Lately, I've been writing news scripts. It's really hard to write them for some reason, and I don't know why. I've been reading a lot of the copies that come over the wire and what Kim and Andy write, and wonder how they all do it. I can never seem to get a story short enough and still get all the info into it. But I'm getting better...
Last week, I was running airchecks of the station's morning show and opposing station's shows. That was interesting to hear, because all the stations are so diverse, yet they have the same ideas.
Well, that's about all to report now. I'll write again when more news develops. Thanks again for this great opportunity!
Jonathon :-)
