Have you ever been on TV or radio? Where? When (elaborate please)?
Yes! I moved to Brookdale CA (Santa Cruz County) in 1978 from Campbell, CA. Set up my office (Tax Professional & Bookkeeper in Felton) in 1984 and left Santa Cruz county in 2004. The day of the Loma Prieta earthquake (touted to be the worst one to hit anywhere in the United States since the San Francisco 1906 quake), I had an appointment with the property management firm in the Cooper House for 3PM. Something came up and the meeting was cancelled about 2:30PM that day. {I’m truly thankful it was cancelled—the entire building collapsed and I’m relatively certain I would have been one of the casualties.}
I was sitting in my office (with large plate glass windows) meeting with a client when the earthquake hit. Everything in my little office was shaking and/or flying across the room, including a 135 gallon fresh-water show tank aquarium I had had for about two years. About three hours later I was able to maneuver my way home, scared that I would find nothing but rubble. The home was built in September 1906, a 2+ story all wood structure built on stilts. Got home and other than all my personal belongings (including 4 fresh & salt water aquariums) strewn everywhere, nothing about the structure was damaged.
Listening to (our local) KSCO radio for any information regarding damage, etc. elsewhere in the county, I found they were calling for volunteers to help with the phones, etc. While it took me nearly three hours (usually took about 25 minutes), driving all the backroads & avoiding bridges, to get to the radio station. I literally LIVED at the station 24/7 for the next 4 days. I pulled a non-stop 65 hour shift (no sleep and only a 5 minute break every six hours) answering phone calls from all over the world, providing LIVE interviews with some of the World’s most famous TV & Radio personalities, passing messages over to one of the two broadcasters or just making the announcement myself, passing on information about road closures, shelters open and taking donations or where people could go for help, food, a place to rest, etc. Even one night, the station manager and chief engineer were so exhausted, they left me in charge. Because KSCO had been designated by the FCC (just minutes after the quake occurred) the “Official Emergency Broadcast Station” ANYONE, licensed or not could run the station or broadcast critical information until the “emergency” was declared under control. Several friends had heard me "on the air” as I was passing the messages over to the broadcasters. At one time about 12 years before the quake I had taken & passed the radio broadcasters exam, holding both a 3rd class and later a 2nd class Broadcaster license, but never renewed it.
Prior to this event, I had lots of training and worked as a volunteer helping to dispatch police, fire, medics, utility companies, animal welfare all with Santa Clara County communications and Santa Clara Fire department. So it was only natural that what I did at KSCO was merely an extension of those five plus years working only as an unpaid volunteer.
