have gotten at any institution.” Picking up another skill set, director, opened more outlets for his creativity.
Jim hung in through many staffing changes during his tenure. He even had the opportunity to work a short while with the newest members, executive director Casey Reynolds and associate executive director Karen Cooper.
But she apparently was impressed with my enthusiasm and excitement. She told me they had no openings in the art department, but did have one in the mailroom and asked if I’d be interested in that. Of course I said yes.”
Working in the mailroom at a broadcast company allowed him to go to every department, including the announcers’ lounge and writers’ offices where scripts were written and delivered. Being Jim, he got to know the people. Curious by nature, he says, “I asked a lot of questions. People were very giving in their responses.”
WGN recognized the potential of that likeable, dependable mail clerk and offered him a promotion to accounts payable clerk. “I was not a CPA. I had no degree,” Jim says. “But they were very supportive and allowed me to learn on the job.” He soon advanced to accounts payable supervisor and then, at a very young age, to chief accountant of WGN Productions Company.
“Chief accountant was a prestigious position and I was paid well,” Jim reports. “But I really wanted to be a writer. Kathy encouraged me to follow that dream.” He went to the treasurer of WGN and asked if it was possible to transfer from accounting to radio production. Jim says, “He was floored. He told me he had no influence on radio or TV production. If I wanted to pursue that, I’d have to submit scripts to the radio programming director.”
So, at the end of his day in the accounting department, Jim would pop into the production department, sift through incoming news feeds, and write ‘dummy’ scripts which he persistently and persuasively submitted to the program director.
“I took a 35 percent cut in pay when I landed that writer/ producer position, but I wanted to learn the craft,” says Jim. “WGN provided me with an education that I could never
TPI Turf News July/August 2017
Now writer/producer/ director for WGN Radio, his work drew attention and awards. He won the prestigious George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge for his 3-hour broadcast of “An American Heritage.” He also received Silver Awards from the New York International Film & TV Festival and he was the recipient of the honored
Telly Award for scriptwriting.
Obviously Jim excelled at WGN. He loved what he did and describes the family atmosphere there as similar to that of MGM during Hollywood’s golden era—on a smaller scale. But he left.
“I wanted to broaden my writing skills to get into TV production or business theater,” he says. Jim took another cut in pay, smaller this time, and joined the staff of Video III Productions. He learned script and speech writing techniques for film and video there and soon rose to the position of head creative writer.
Seeking another skill set, Jim became the advertising/ marketing director and communications director for A.O. Smith Harvestore, the manufacturers of the blue silos used in farming and other commercial enterprises. “Now I was creating internal and external communications for targeted audiences. I was flying around in a Lear jet and was paid well.” Jim reports.
After a couple years there, Jim told the CEO he really wanted to go out on his own as a creative consultant. Being Jim, he’d established a great working relationship with the CEO. “He allowed me use of an office for six months to solicit clients. All he asked was that I do whatever they needed during that time. And he kept me on salary. Te year I left, their sales were exactly 100 million dollars.”
As an independent communications consultant for over 20 years, Jim put all his previous experience to work and broadened his communication disciplines to off-camera interviewing, film and video production, and literally all aspects of communication including print, multi-media, video, film and business theater.
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