Lifestyle: Our intrepid scribe , Tom Bernstein continues to report on his life and times in the radio and TV business.
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Hawaiian Interview
I’m still working for the CBS Script Department in Hollywood, when I have a chance to tag along with a bunch of local surfers flying to Hawaii to make a movie. So I take some vacation time. I think, maybe I can catch on with a sales job at a radio station in Honolulu. The same person who arranged a previous, unsuccessful, job interview at KFWB Radio sets up another one with the general sales manager of the Kaiser owned station there. So I pack a sports coat, slack pants, shirt and tie for the meeting. Should have anticipated the outcome. The guy’s opening greeting is: “how’s everything at the Crumbling Broadcast System”. Then he tells me he’s got nothing to offer, but they’re auditioning for a newscaster at their TV station, would I like to try out? Well I’m there, all dressed up, so why not. I go in, read a regular newscast, on camera, then I’m given a weather report, full of long, unpronounceable Hawaiian names, which I stammer and stumble through. Camera light goes off, and the director comes out of the booth and says “nice sports coat”. A couple of weeks later, I’m back in the script department at Columbia Square. The movie, “Slippery When Wet”, was directed by Bruce Brown, his first before “Endless Summer” made him famous, and is probably one of the worst surf movies ever made. It is available on Amazon, I’m in a few scenes, but I don’t recommend renting it.
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