Near the end of a semester, I went to the instructor's office to turn in a paper I'd written. I'd put a lot of effort into it, in addition to studying for finals, so I felt somewhat frazzled. The instructor, the general manager of the NPR affiliate at which I worked, wasn't in his office. The program director was there, however, so I spoke to him.
Half-sarcastically, half-seriously, I told the p.d., "I'm turning in the paper I wrote for Mr. D.'s class. It's my analysis of a Florida radio station's situation and my recommendation for a format change. As far as I'm concerned, it's excellent."
"How lucky for the powers that be, then, who would heed your advice," the p.d. responded.
How lucky, indeed. What commercial radio station powers that be wouldn't see fit to heed the advice of a 22-year-old who, at the time, had worked solely in noncommercial radio?
