4 - Friday, March 6, 1987 - North Shore News rE Bob Hunter @ strictly personal ® 77 OFF TO UBC to take part in a panel discussion about careers in the media. It’s a glorious Saturday morning and of course I should be out on the boat or out in the garden. What am I doing? The problem was | had answered my phone at random a few months back. Normally, you understand, [| leave a message on the answering machine and ignore all calls. But this time | got caught with my ears down and invited out to the Centre for Continuing Education. Ah, but you always learn something when you venture out into the world, don't you? A co-panelist turns out to be Carole Taylor, the intelligent lady who was the first female host of W5, who recently hosted Pacific Report, and is now a Vancouver alderman. She described her experience as a big-time television personality Down East. With several years of TV work behind her, she was one day prevailed upon by the brass at CTV to take on a new prestigious job as a national net- work host. Ske took the job, naturally. The pace was so frantic she even- tually got around to having a clause written into her contract giving her two days off a month, although, she says, she never ac- tually got to take them. To be at | the top you have to be on call all the time. Her co-host turned out to be a chap who’s wife employed a stop- watch to measure the number of seconds of screen exposure her husband got compared to Carole’s. There were loud com- f plaints to management if they weren’t exactly equal. Fur. The day finally came Brief endorsed CLE when the male co-host flipped out about) something and stomped out of the studio yelling: “You can take your (blank) dollars a year and stuff it!" Whereupon Carole discovered the fellow was getting paid precisely twice what she was get- ting. For that exactly equal screen time, When she approached the net- work moguls to complain, the answer she got was: ‘Face it, Carole, life isn’t fair." A con- (tract was a contract. No raise. Stardom wasn't all that hot, she concluded. All work, no play, relatively little pay, and having to deal day after day with truly gargantuan egos. When it was her turn to speak, another panelist, Gail Hulnick, a co-host on CBC's Early Edition radio show, gave a neat example of how not to do a live on-air in- terview. She was working in some prairie city when a big story broke about a rich Dutchman who was rumored to be planning to buy the local hockey team. The news department geared up to pounce on this major event, There were further rumors that the Dutchman had actually arrived in town and was lurking in a hotel room. Calls were put out to nearly every hotel in town until, bingo, the man’s last name and first ini- tial showed up in one hotel regis- try. An aggressive male sports reporter got on the phone right away, the mikes whirring, or NORTH VANCOUVER City Council has endorsed a brief say- ing the ‘container clause’ between port workers and their employers is not in the public’s best interest. The Greater Vancouver Regional District brief endorsed by council Monday says the clause in the agreement between the Maritime Employers’ Association and the Heirloom quality Pacific Rattan dining, sofas, love seats, etageres, coffee & end tables, much, much more. _ All stock sold as is at these tremendous savings, whatever it is they do. Lo and behold, a man's voice — with an accent yet! — answered sleepily. The radio reporter's question- ing was blunt and fierce: ‘*Mr. So-and-so, are you or are you not going to buy the local hockey club?"* Answer, a laconic: ‘No.’ Not to be thrown off so easily, the reporter: ‘* But you are plann- ing to, aren*t you?"’ “No.” “But rumors afoot?”’ “"¥es."" Obtrusively, the reporter pressed on with half a dozen more questions, each phrased more cleverly to squeeze oul a reluctant confession. It was only after he had thus been on the air for many long minutes that it dawned on the reporter he had the wrong man, to wit, a sax player with the same last name and first initial as the man he really wanted. The sax player just happened to be in town to do a show, not buy a hockey team. Ho ho. Much embarrassment broadcasted all around. Judy Lindsay from The Sun pitilessly warned the continuing students how hard they’d have to work if they signed on with a newspaper. And I was orutal in my explanation of what the odds were against being a successful | freelancer. But the truth was, us print { types realized after listening to the other two panelists, television and radio are for people with different tolerance levels for stress entirely. Back to my word processor. Answering machine on. Whew. denying plans are you're not that these International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union should be removed, The clause ensures Vancouver dockworkers maintain a share of container work. Ald. John Braithwaite agreed. “I think we should leave it to the two parties to get together on this.”” [ That’s drive away a Brand New 1987 Honda or a Quality Pre-Owned Auto today! 1984 Pontiac Sunbird 1985 Nissan Sentra pastas wares SQ DOWN pure seer 5QQ oown 1985 Mazda RX7 5QQ OWN sox. ga This offer won’t last! So hurry down and see us today. 5 spd Fully loaded. 1985 Toyota MR2 5 spd. GSL-SE 599 DOWN *C.A.C. (on approved credit) — y ‘ th 725 MARINE DRIVE NORTH VANCOUVER 984-0331