Their work is heard and seen daily by millions of people they will never meet.
Some are easily recognized on the street because their faces and voices are transported electronically, almost magically, into our homes. Others are the behind-the-scenes magicians who help create the product.
Love `em or hate `em, the broadcasting audience shares a distinct relationship with the television and radio personalities who bring us the news, music or laughs we`ve come to crave each day. The equipment enabling them to transmit their signals clearly is the most modern, sophisticated and expensive state-of-the-art technology on the market.
At work they`re spoiled by sensitive electronic systems that provide the clearest pictures and the crispest sounds. But back home, when the mikes are off and the cameras have faded to black, what electronic toys do media professionals play with? How do their media gadgets reflect their
personalities? And after working with caviar recording-studio sound all day, can they come home to a tuna fish eight-track player?
Each of the Chicago broadcasting figures interviewed has developed a different philosophy toward media rooms. WLUP radio`s Steve Dahl, a former recording engineer, is a gadget junkie, fascinated by equipment that makes life easier-or at least more fun.
WMAQ-TV reporter and anchorwoman Joan Esposito is attracted by the equipment with the fewest buttons, while WNUA general manager John Gehron`s Gold Coast apartment features several generations of recording equipment. TV commercial producer Bill Artope is in a different class of equipment junkie:
He`s a high-end aficionado.
That`s putting it mildly.
Bill Artope
The North Shore home Bill and Linda Artope moved into six months ago had to have a music room.
”Music is important to us,” said Linda, a former WBBM-TV editor, now a sales account executive. ”Bill wanted a room where he could listen to his music any time he wanted.” The Artopes actually have two media rooms: a TV/
video room on the ground floor and a room dedicated exclusively to music in the basement.
”It`s more than just a hobby with me,” Bill said. ”It`s a passion. And besides, it`s my business. I need to know what`s out there in the market. When you`re in production, you need to know how to make this level of sound happen.”
Their TV room is built around a 35-inch Mitsubishi supported by a laser disc player, a VCR, several amplifiers and six speakers that provide the Dolby Surround Sound found in cinemas.
Their latest toy is a Laser Karaoke, a kind of sing-along music video and one of the first of the Japanese systems designed for the home. The Artopes pop in a laser disc of orchestrations. This background music is married to a short video. The stage is set for the couple to transform themselves into domestic lounge lizards. Linda croons ”The Greatest Love of All,” while Bill chimes in for a duet. The words to the songs appear on the screen. Each syllable darkens as it is sung, easy enough for even Roseanne Barr to follow. The result sounds like a professional recording.
”It`s a great icebreaker at parties,” Linda said. ”Even shy people let it out. It`s contagious.”
Bill, a vice president of production at DDB Needham Worldwide, assembled his first stereo system at age 16 while growing up in Harlem. ”I was the first guy on my block with one,” he said. ”Music was my first love.”
The former trombone player and singer has gradually built up a sophisticated system in his basement, one that is off-limits to the Artopes`
three children. ”My goal is to try to get as close to the source as possible,” he said. ”That`s the challenge. You can never re-create live sound exactly the same. But the fun is in trying.”
Bill said it has taken years of experience and trial and error.
”Sometimes it`s just a matter of finding the right kind of cable,” he said. ”I`ve learned it`s not just the equipment you own, but knowing what to do with it after you`ve bought it. You need to know how to tweak (fine tune)
your system to improve it.”
Steve Dahl
Even a seasoned buyer and aficionado of high-tech electronic gadgetry like Steve Dahl has been burned in purchases before. ”We bought a Beta VCR, and we won`t get trapped into that again,” said the WLUP radio personality.
”Part of the reason I don`t invest in new technology is it all becomes obsolete in two years anyway,” he said.
Most of his gadgets are in his basement, the portion of the Dahl kingdom he was deeded by his wife, Janet, who rules the upstairs like a benevolent Evita.
The upstairs television, she pointed out, was made for mini-series, not football games.
But the comedy/talk radio veteran and TV movie producer doesn`t have to suffer in a dungeon torture chamber. The basement looks like it was designed for an upscale fraternity, a great place to be stranded in a blizzard, complete with everything from a Rock-ola juke box to a Mitsubishi wide-screen TV.
Listeners of his afternoon AM radio show would immediately recognize the Mitsubishi wide-screen TV he has frequently discussed on the air. Dahl bought the 50-inch TV equipped with Dolby stereo, cable hook-up and VCR three years ago.
”It took six guys a half-day to get in,” he recounted. ”You don`t lose much in definition with the bigger screen. But the only drawback is the screen is plastic and the kids have dinged it.” The Dahls` three boys roam their spacious west suburban home with the curiosity of prowlers. High-tech and kids don`t always mix.
”I used to have a recording studio at home, but the kids were always getting into it and wrecking it; so I moved it to the studio,” he said.
”Besides, I don`t feel the need to have this big media room in the house because where I work they have better equipment.”
Even his sons are gadget buffs. Their rec room includes a Casio FZ-1 synthesizer, a mini-TV and a Nintendo set.
Dahl is intrigued by the clever breakthroughs of modern technology. ”I think this is pretty cool,” he said while switching on a Casio VF-3000 portable combination VCR/TV. Dahl lugs the small system, about the size of a bowling ball bag, on planes with him.
His sound system upstairs is modern and effective, he said, but not a sound freak`s dream. ”I`m not a real quality freak,” he admitted. ”I`ve dropped my standards some. Hell, I`m on AM radio.”
Joan Esposito
Joan Esposito has a simple, concrete, inviolate philosophy when shopping for high-tech stereo and video equipment.
”I buy the item with the fewest buttons to push,” the 36-year-old Channel 5 reporter and anchorwoman said. Her Gold Coast condominium is an homage to low maintenance.
Esposito does own a Mitsubishi 35-inch television and two VCRs, one Beta and one VHS. She understands tracking and has an 8 mm camera and player. But function and simplicity of form are what she seeks.
”Some people enjoy the fine tuning and complex capabilities of their equipment,” the Ohio native said. ”But I just want it to go on and off, to do what I ask it to do automatically. I`m one of those people who can`t wait till they come out with the 24-hour videotape, so I can just press the button, record and leave.”
Her two Manx cats, Sam and Lester, roam the spacious living room/dining room, one of them occasionally coming to rest atop a Digital computer perched on a glass dining room table. The computer links Esposito with the WMAQ newsroom and allows her to compose and send stories from the comfort of her home.
On the floor a frisky pup named Barney devours a Frisbee. Once Esposito owned several fancy remote control changers. But she has to keep an eye on the 8-month-old German shepherd/Doberman mix, who has consumed three changers in recent months.
She described the stereo in her bedroom as an ”odds and ends sound system” that includes a Pioneer 6-cartridge compact disc, Yamaha tuner and Sharpe cassette player.
Beside the sound system is her Sony Discman. The manufacturer isn`t as important as the color, she joked. ”My CD player is black, and my tuner and cassette player are silver. From now on I`m getting black ones. They work better.”
John Gehron
What can you tell about WNUA-FM station manager John Gehron from his media room?
That he`s practical, a survivor, a packrat and a guy who loves music. Gehron, who spent 12 years with former Chicago rock radio giant WLS, saves everything. His condominium off Lake Shore Drive reflects a little bit of the personality that has helped shape two decades of Chicago radio.
The 44-year-old Gehron, a native of Schuilkill Haven, Pa., started his career running sock hops for his high school. ”Until the mid-60s, all I ever bought were 45s. My first album was `Meet the Beatles,` ” he said. ”And I still have it.”
Gehron confessed he never paid much attention to equipment in those days. ”I was never an audiophile,” he said. ”Back then, it wasn`t how good it was, it was how durable it was. I`d pack it up and throw it in the trunk of my car again and again between jobs. I wouldn`t worry about it unless it broke. And when I needed something, I`d read up on it before buying it.”
Over the years he has collected and added stereo components to his system, such as his 20-year-old Crown 060 pre-amplifier. ”I try to buy things that will last,” he explained.
Gehron also owns one of the earliest Sansui digital tuners and a 15-year- old Dual turntable. ”I like to stack records and not have to get up for a while,” he said.
He stopped collecting 45s when he left WLS for Boston in 1987. And his record library has similarly changed, from the hard-edged rock of the past to the mellower sounds of New Age jazz, the format at WNUA, where he has been calling the shots most recently.
Gehron built shelves to accommodate his giant collection of albums, tapes and 45s. He`s especially proud of his early rhythm-and-blues records. ”A friend suggested instead of hiding them, I should display them,” he said. So he did.
Gehron said his philosophy of appliance acquisitions is similar to his theory of buying cars. ”I have a 1970 Chevelle convertible,” he said. ”And I don`t see any reason to get a new one until it breaks down and stops running.”
