A Voice in the Box: My Life in Radio

AFTRA

God help the American labor movement, for I am one of its leaders. In fact, for a brief time, I was a union president. I am a proud member of AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. AFTRA represents actors, singers, dancers, game show hosts, stunt performers, comedians, voice-over artists, models, news anchors, reporters , editors, producers, disc jockeys, announcers, play-by-play sportscasters, meteorologists, and recording artists. Tom Brokaw, Susan Lucci, Norah Jones, Jay-Z, and George Clooney are my union brothers and sisters. AFTRA looks out for the stars, but it’s the rest of us who really need AFTRA. I left NPR after collecting a sizable amount of NPR money obtained for me by Ken Greene, who works in Washington for AFTRA. The big names in broadcast journalism have personal services contracts with their employers that are negotiated by personal agents. At NPR, I had no such star power. I remained close to the lowest-paid NPR news employees by being part of the labor contract negotiated with NPR by AFTRA. So Ken Greene, in effect, is the agent for hundreds of NPR employees . When I got yanked off Morning Edition, Ken went to bat for me. NPR made huge mistakes, and Ken Greene took advantage. When NPR smeared me and lied about me, Ken Greene took the matter to NPR’s Ken Stern and got me more money. Stern was a formidable foe to Greene when the AFTRA contract was negotiated every three years— A F T R A 162 A V O I C E I N T H E B O X yet now Greene finally had NPR over a barrel and was enjoying himself . He kept coming back to me and saying, “What else have they done? What can I get for you?” I joined AFTRA in 1972 when I went to work for WTOP in Washington . AFTRA is a strong advocate for its members. Some of us are not very good at negotiating with our bosses for better pay and working conditions, so we need someone to do it for us. That’s what AFTRA does. It also unites us with the broadcasters doing similar work at other stations and networks—workers facing similar problems and challenges . If we have a conflict with our employers, we’re not alone; we have AFTRA looking out for us. GraduallyIbecamemoreinvolvedwithAFTRAandultimatelystood for election to the office of first vice president. It’s a dangerous thing to be the number-two man in a labor union because you just might happen to be put in charge one day. In 2007, AFTRA’s president, actor John Connolly, became the national executive director of Actor’s Equity, the union that represents stage actors. This necessitated his resignation from AFTRA and the ascension of the first vice president to succeed him. That would be me, the wrong guy at the wrong time. I was so busy with both daily and weekly radio programs that I had not taken a day off since I left NPR, and I was going to take charge of a labor union? I served as president for about seven weeks and found a way to abdicate in favor of the fabulous Roberta Reardon, an actor who was born to lead our union. She and our incomparable national executive director, Kim Roberts Hedgepeth, led us through one of the most crucial periods in AFTRA’s history. Roberta and Kim sacrificed time they wished they’d had for their loved ones and devoted themselves entirely to preserving a labor union serving seventy thousand working professionals. Today’s AFTRA is quite a contrast to the AFTRA of twenty years ago. At that time, we did not have the leadership that members deserved. We were not much of a union at all—actors and broadcasters were at each other’s throats. I got involved because I felt broadcasters were not being served by officers or staff members, who were concerned only with the problems of actors. One day we woke up and realized that all of us worked for the same people—Hollywood studios ran the movies , network TV, and the recording studios. Changes were made, and I 163 A F T R A began to take an interest in the challenges faced by actors and recording artists. The actors began seeing what broadcasters were up against. Today we are a mellow unit acting as one...