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Speaker 1: Arrow dot net. It's more than a podcast, it's a

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podcast network, twenty different podcasts to choose from. One of

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them being Beyond the Calling. I was challenged to talk

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with the men and women who have served this nation

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when it comes to the military. Listen to their stories,

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grow from their experiences. Now share it with everybody Beyond

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the Calling on erow dot net a r r oe

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dot net. Enjoy your exploration.

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Speaker 2: You were saying that aerow co a r oe. Okay,

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that's an interesting spelling.

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Speaker 1: That's just a Montana. That's just a Montana's way of

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saying I don't want to be called John on the air.

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Speaker 3: Very good, very nice to meet you. How you doing nice?

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Speaker 1: Meeting you too well, because I mean somewhere along the

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line you had to have run into program directors and consultants.

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I told you, you know, I'm loving your name. But

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you know, those viewers and listeners they I don't know

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how they're going to put it in the arbitrary and

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they're not going to spell it right, and it's like,

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come on stop, there's too much thought going on here.

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Speaker 3: I can tell you a little bit about that too.

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Speaker 1: I would love to hear that, because I mean because

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there's you know, everybody's trying to come up with you know,

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I mean, how many Shadows Stevens are there out there?

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I love me some Shadow Stevens, but when there's twelve

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of them out there? How can I share all that love?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: And you know, the rock family is pretty spread across

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the country with Johnny Rock and this Rock and that

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Rock and you know, popular names though, and their names

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are sticking your mind, and that's real the science behind them.

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Speaker 1: Don't you think though, that with you calling your book

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an accidental career, there's going to be a lot of

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broadcasters and journalists that are going to go, wow, I've

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never heard it that way. But now I have a

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better understanding of the decisions that I made.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think, you know, I think you learn about

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decisions when it is that you have.

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Speaker 3: Done something that's not right and you learn from it. Yep.

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Speaker 2: So we are made up of a life full of mistakes,

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and we become better versions of ourselves because of it.

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Speaker 3: And I think that it takes time.

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Speaker 2: It's not your first journey into a business that you're

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going to be a pro. It really takes stumbling and

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falling down a couple of times. And getting back up

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on your feet and realizing I'm not going to do

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that again. And then the next day you find something

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else to do that you wish you hadn't done. But

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I think that you know, this is a life of

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mistakes and rewards.

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Speaker 1: What's so inspiring about you? How is the way that

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you used your name to have fun with it? You

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stepped out of that third dimension and became a fourth

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dimension player. Basically, we tuned in for your energy, for

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what you had to say, And I'm thinking, my god,

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that's exactly what we're supposed to be doing.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 2: You know, I when I was a kid sixteen and

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when I started and I ultimately dominot into a job

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at a big radio station in Dallas, and it happened

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to be owned by a phone named Gordon McClendon. And he,

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as I understood it, liked people to have broadcast names.

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And so even though I was a guy who collected

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requests for music outside the glass window of the disc

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jockey that was on the air, they gave me.

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Speaker 3: The name of Roger Randall.

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Speaker 2: Now, there is nothing that could be further from my

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name than Roger Randall, but that's.

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Speaker 3: What they gave me.

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Speaker 2: And you know, as I went forward in this business,

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at some point when I got on the air in

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Houston doing news, I thought, you know what, if Vulner

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Kronkit can have his name, well can't Hal Eisner have

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his name? And I just started using my name. It

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actually turned out to be a good name for broadcasts.

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It rolls out the tongue, it's memorable, and I was

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very happy to start using my name as soon as

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I could.

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Speaker 1: Oh my mom was upset. I mean, she held out

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of that grudge for many decades. And I kept saying, Mom,

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I'm just an actor and I would always use John Wayne.

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I said, that's not his real name, Mom. He plays

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the role of somebody named John Wayne and then changes

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it to be somebody else in a movie.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think there are lots of reasons

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to go behind what we call a pseudoname. And I

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think that, you know, pseudonyms also are for authors as well.

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But I think that, you know, it depends on really

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what your sense of your job is. I always felt like,

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and this is not a reflection on anybody else, but

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I always felt like, if I'm going to be credible,

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and credibility is the only thing that we own in

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this business. Then I'm going to age gracefully, I hope,

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and I'm not going to do botox and I'm not

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going to dye my hair. And it was the same

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thinking I think when it came to my name that,

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you know, I felt like, you know what if people

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were to trust me, I guess I want to say

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who I really am, and I just chose to try

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my own name out and it was great. I think

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it would have been hard for me to live with

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Roger Randolph the rest of my life.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't that also include the development of your voice, because

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so many people think that we've got to sound like

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radio people or even TV people, And it's like, when

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did you decide that. It's like, you know what, God

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gave me this voice. I'm going to use it the

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way that I need to use it. I don't have

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to sit there and pull off a Randy radio and

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try to sound like somebody like a boss jock of

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the sixties.

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Speaker 3: I guess it was when I was a little kid.

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Speaker 2: And Mom, I want to partial you know, and I

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you know, and I I guess, you know, it is

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what it is. And I was blessed with a voice

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that as I communicated, you know, to the public. It

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just got better and better. And you know, if you

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listen to tapes of me going way back into the

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prehistoric days, you laugh.

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Speaker 3: You know. I think it takes time to develop who

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you are.

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Speaker 2: Look, any skill set takes time to refine, whether that's voice,

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whether it's.

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Speaker 3: Surgery and you're a surgeony and well whatever it is,

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it takes time to refine your skills.

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Speaker 2: And I think that that goes along with your voice.

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Speaker 1: Well, look at what you did going from radio into television.

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That's two completely different personalities. That's going from theater the

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mind to actual physical, moving pictures.

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Speaker 3: And that was difficult.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I it was you know, I believe that

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we don't do anything in a vacuum. I believe that

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people opened doors for us, and it was incumbent on

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me to do that as well. It's why I started

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at camp in the year two thousand for aspiring news

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reporters and anchors.

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Speaker 3: But I think that you.

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Speaker 2: Know, we just we just have to, you know, kind

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of look back at what we do and who makes

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a difference in Larry Lamont was my news director at

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an all news radio station in Fortwood, Texas, and later

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years later, he became a bureau chief of CNN, and

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he became the bureau chief for a Laws Angeles and

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Heart even without television training, that I could do this job. Wow,

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And he hired me and I went to LA from Texas,

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and I will tell you it was one of the

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toughest transitions I have ever had in my entire life.

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Speaker 1: Did you ever have a consultant or an operations manager

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that would take your passion? Because I do feel your passion.

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I've gone back to watch the videos. I see your passion.

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Everything about you is passion. But those consultants sometimes will

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sit there and say, I don't have time for your passion.

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You're interfering with my cash and flow. Did you ever

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have to face something like that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean anytime you've got a consultant, they've been

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hired to fix something, whether it's broken or not right,

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and so you know, they will come in with things

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that they think are good, and you know what, legitimately

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they do have ideas that are good. And you know,

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sometimes I would find it kind of a little offensive

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because what's wrong with me? But I think that you know,

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we have to sort of learn how to live with

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each other and work with each other and listen to

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ideas that people have and learn from them. I learned

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something new every day. That's kind of my mantra. I

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learned something new every day. And I think that. You know,

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when a consultant comes through, hired by the corporation to

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help improve the product, you know, it's incumbent on people

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like me to listen to them, see what I can

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learn from that, and decide if that's something that makes

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me a better product.

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Speaker 3: But I didn't. I really didn't have too many people.

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Speaker 2: I had a couple they really tried to punch me

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into shape a different way.

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Speaker 3: And you know, you know, you smile and your brain says, darn.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. But don't you love those moments though, when you

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learn every day and all of a sudden, a little

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nibblet of something will come up and you go, oh

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my god, I've got to do a story about that.

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Where did it come from? I don't know, it just

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came to me.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's a little conscious thing sitting on

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your shoulder, right and it's talking to you in your ears.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: You come up with ideas all different kinds of ways,

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and you know, I think that you know, we are

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blessed to have brains that are constantly working and constantly

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thinking and constantly creating. And you know, the day that

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we stop thinking and creating and inventing, then you know

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it's over. And I think we always have to try

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to be as energetic as possible. You know, I've been

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your age several times, and I feel syuthentic that I'm

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like in college.

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Speaker 1: Yes, well I'm still a seventeen year old inside a

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little punk radio station in Building's, Montana. I mean, it's like,

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you want me to do what All right, I'm gonna

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put this twist on it. If you don't like it,

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just tell me. I'll change it, and then you're back

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to doing your same stuff again.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, your guideline for what works is your lunch.

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Speaker 2: And how long you're on the air in any particular

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market is really a tribute to a testament to your

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skill sets. You are not there because of having a

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pretty face, although you might be, But.

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Speaker 3: You're there because you produce ratings.

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Speaker 2: You're there because management sees you as an asset. You're

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there because you improve the brand, and because you do

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those things. These are things in your brand that you've

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developed over time, and that time is the answer to everything.

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And the more you do, the more you learn, the

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better you get, and you become the best version of yourself.

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Speaker 3: See.

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Speaker 1: And that's the stuff that I wish I could take

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to all of these broadcasting students because it's no longer

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a broadcasting school and they always call it a media

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school now because they want to cover everything. But I

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mean when you talk about resilience and dedication, that to

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me is saying if he does not get this book

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inside these media centers where they're teaching people the future,

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I mean, that's school is losing out on something that

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is so valuable because you lived it well.

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Speaker 2: You know. I have talked to a couple of professors

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who think it could be a textbook, and I would

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encourage you to talk to some of those in your

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community and see if they might find it the same,

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because I think it does map out the career of

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one broadcaster, and it does show the twist and the

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turns of one's broadcasting life and how one got into

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it and how one when was when he was ready

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chose to retire. And I think that, you know, in

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my case, I did a two prong retirement. I retired

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from daily news reporting on January segment of twenty twenty five,

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and that was a forty third anniversary.

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Speaker 3: On my first day on TV in Los Angeles. And

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then I.

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Speaker 2: Stayed on the job for another six months, so I

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semi retired. I stayed on the job for another six

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months during the Sunday show that we had called Fox

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Love of News and Depth. And you know what, that

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made it easier because after so many years, nearly sixty

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years of working, all of a sudden, just stopping it

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and turning out the light switch would have been really, really,

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really hard on me. But by breaking it down and

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my general manager and all the people involved in in

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my station's management was on board with me, and by

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stepping off part way and then stepping off the rest

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of the way, it made it much more. It made

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it much easier for me to do.

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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for coming back to the conversation. The name

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of the book an accidental Career. This is more than

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just being a broadcaster. This is an every day book

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that you can exercise in whatever position of life you're in.

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We're talking with Hal Eisner. How many of those moments included, oh,

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four or five o'clock show up time at the television

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station or even the radio station. You know that something

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went down in the new and now it was time

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for you not to necessarily go in there and be

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how who's who's on the television show, but rather to

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be the journalist that has to make that connection, like

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a Walter Cronkite, like those broadcasters of the past.

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Speaker 2: End.

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Speaker 1: It is now about sharing the moment.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and being in the moment.

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Speaker 2: Because when the North Red earthquake happened, you know, I

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took care of my family and then I got in

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the car and then I went to work.

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Speaker 3: And that's what you do when you're a first responder.

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Speaker 2: It's your job to get to the scene, to tell

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the information on behalf of your company in order to

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be a community leader and to share what everybody else

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needs to know. And so, yeah, getting up at odd

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times and finding yourself in the middle of situations that

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ours you should be asleep, that happens. But then again,

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this is something you sign up for. This is something

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you know getting into the business that this can happen.

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And when it does, you know what, it's not a

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cup of coffee. It's the adrenaline that gets you going.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, it it just reminds me so much

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of when when Ronald Reagan was shot. I mean we

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were newly weds, my wife and I in Lewistown, Montana,

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and I looked at her and I said, I gotta go,

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and she goes, what what do you mean? You don't

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go on the air till seven o'clock. I gotta go.

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I know that I'm not supposed to be here at home.

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I gotta go.

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Speaker 2: I remember a bush fire that was heading in our direction,

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and we packed up the minivan and aimed it outside

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towards the street. And once I knew everything was fine,

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I left and went to work, and my wife took

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large yep.

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Speaker 1: So now when you take viewers and readers into the

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behind the scenes look at broadcasting, it's almost like showcasing

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the wizard behind the curtain. What was that like for

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you to write about that? Because I mean that wizard

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of what we experience is not the same one that viewers,

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you know, for c.

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Speaker 2: Look, we're all human beings, we all have lives, We

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all from the time we cry our first tears, you know,

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are mapping an experience, a human experience, and so you know,

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my experience is going to be different than your experience here,

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and it's going to be different than other people's experiences.

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I think for me, the experience of you know, growing

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up how and being able to, you know, suddenly get

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into a business like broadcasting, and to suddenly find myself

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not just reporting a high school football score on Friday nights,

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which is how it all started, but actually becoming a

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major broadcaster in Los Angeles, which is the second largest

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market in the country, is a journey that I would

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never have dreamed could have happened.

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Speaker 3: Ever, No, and yet it did. And why did it?

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Because I followed the detours.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, those are wise words right there.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if we just you know, move forward

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with our eyes open, we have a chance that not

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stumbling over a puddle in front of us.

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Speaker 1: All right now, you're going to take me into an

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air that I kept saying, don't do it, don't do it.

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But I have to do it because you set me

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up for it. You are a visionary and I was

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so afraid to bring that up because people go, no,

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I'm living in the moment of now. But everything that

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I have read about you, I just feel like that

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you envision things and then you stepped into it because

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mentally and physically you prepared yourself.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 2: I think we all should do that. I mean we

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all have a capability of being able to do that.

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You are able to think ahead and say, I wonder

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what this is going to be.

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Speaker 3: Look, I didn't know.

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Speaker 2: I've been doing these interviews about the book with different

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people across the country, even in Europe, and got a couple.

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Speaker 3: Of times in Canada.

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Speaker 2: And you know what, I have now done an interview

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like this where I've gone from one station to another

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station to another station within a chain of stations, and

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you know, I tried to think.

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Speaker 3: How do I prepare for that?

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Speaker 1: You know what?

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Speaker 2: It's as you get on the freeway and you dodge

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the cars that are heading in your direction. You know,

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it's just, you know, I feel like I've had such

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a wonderful experience talking with you and with others this morning.

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Nothing I've ever done before like this. And I think

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that you just plan ahead, but you also leave room

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for flexibility.

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Speaker 1: All Right, I'm going to give you the question that

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nobody else is going to ask you, only because I've

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been struggling with this with Alexa, and that is is

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that I don't know what to do with all of

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the sound, all of the interviews that I've collected for

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forty six years. And I ask you the same thing now.

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Alexa told me that I can bury it in the

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ground in this forest, but she says, put protective things

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around it, because it does not belong to us. How

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it belongs to a future that needs to experience what

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you and I have gone through.

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Speaker 2: Well that alexas talking about a time capsule, and I

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think that there should be lots of time capsules. Yeah,

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but you know, time capsules in many ways can be

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a book like an accidental career, because really this is

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a history book of stories and humans in Los Angeles, Californias,

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and Texas and Pittsburgh and Dallas, and you know, we

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have repositories of information on the shelves of bookstores, and.

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Speaker 3: So I think that you could.

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Speaker 2: First of all, you have to remember that magnetic tape

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degrades very quickly. And I had a uptive tapes around

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here that I wanted to save, and I sent them

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to a place that digitizes, and there was nothing much

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to digitize because.

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Speaker 3: It had degraded it. And I think that's the unfortunate

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part of things.

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Speaker 2: Now we're in a digital era and things may be

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a little easier to preserve, but I think you try

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to save the things that you think are meaningful. I

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have a two inch videotape over here on one of

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my shelves. It's a big, old two inch reel with

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metal on either side. It was my first television resume tape.

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Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So in reality, you

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yourself have lived your mantra, which is the front door

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to history. Yeah, oh my god, that's so cool.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean you're in the front row and not only

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are you in the front wall watching history, you're writing

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the first page of that.

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Speaker 1: Yes. That's a lot of power.

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Speaker 2: How and you have to be able to control that power.

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You have to be responsible, You have to be ethical.

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You have to be able to say, I know, I've

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got this power, and I'm going to use it in

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the proper way.

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Speaker 1: How many people do you bump into that are in

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this newer age and they don't know what you've done,

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and they try to guess who you are and what

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you've done, and it's like, I can't tell him, I

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don't even know. I always tell people just go google it,

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because I'm not going to tell you you won't understand

399
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the journey. What about you?

400
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Speaker 2: You know, I'll take it a little broader if you

401
00:19:41,839 --> 00:19:45,519
don't mind. I did a couple of shows with Alex Trebek,

402
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and one of the shows we went to Vegas to

403
00:19:50,279 --> 00:19:53,759
do a show about It was an hour special about

404
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one of these short dissole shows, Miss Staire or Treasure Island.

405
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And you know, he was big fanatic about cars. He

406
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loved old historical cars. And there was a big, you know,

407
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museum of cars at the Imperial Palace resort on the

408
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Vegas Strip, and so we were shooting and doing things,

409
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and then, you know, one day said what would you

410
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like to go with me to the museum and go

411
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look at some cars? And I said, sure, of course,

412
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I'd love to. And so we got up the next

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morning and Alex and I start walking down Las Vegas

414
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full of or the main drag, and.

415
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Speaker 3: You could feel people pointing at him.

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Speaker 2: You could feel people saying, I know that guy, you know,

417
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one of the most famous faces on the planet. And

418
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we went to the museum and then we went to

419
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I like to play video kino, and so he wanted

420
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me to teach him how to play video can you

421
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imagine me teaching Alex Rebec anything. And so we sat

422
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down and I showed him a little bit about that

423
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and went over to get some coins from the change

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lady and she goes, is that Alex Rebec? Everybody was saying,

425
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is that Alex Trumac? And I talked to him about that.

426
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I said, you know, Alex, what is it about people

427
00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:08,799
coming up to you? Do you get annoyed? You want

428
00:21:08,799 --> 00:21:10,319
to just kind of walk away? Do you want to

429
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:13,279
say Google, Google anything you want to know about me?

430
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But I've got something busy that He says, No.

431
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Speaker 3: He said, this is all a reflection of my doing

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my job.

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Speaker 2: And if I got through the screen, the bad means

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that people connected with me, and I did my work,

435
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and you know what, I kind of felt the same way.

436
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But I adopted that same thinking that if people came

437
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:39,480
up to me, that was meaningful. And even today, even today,

438
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a year after retiring, people still come up to me.

439
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,599
And because they had four decades on TV and LA,

440
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they recognize the face and I will take time and

441
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I will when somebody. Just the other day, I'm in

442
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a store and somebody says, hey, how's retirement. I look around,

443
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I don't know who this is, but I said, hey, Hi,

444
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what's your name? And he tells me his name, and

445
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I introduce myself because I never assume people know my name.

446
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Speaker 3: I just look like anybody. And we talked for about.

447
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Speaker 2: Five or ten minutes, and then I moved on because

448
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I will talk to anybody who takes a moment to

449
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talk to me.

450
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Speaker 1: Wow, you got to come back to this show anytime

451
00:22:14,519 --> 00:22:17,079
in the future. How the door is always going to

452
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be open for you.

453
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Speaker 3: It would be my pleasure anytime. Just give me a holler.

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Speaker 1: You'd be brilliant today. Okay, sir, thank you so much.

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Speaker 3: You too,