The Time I Dropped the F Bomb on the Air

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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I post this as I am confident that the statute of limitations has long passed since the incident.  I've already told my current boss the story and he's forgiven me, so I should avoid any trouble at work.  It was late 1998 or early 1999, and I was the news director as well as 6pm news anchor and producer and one-man band reporter.  As you've probably gathered, it was a small station. We all screwed up on a consistent basis.  Equipment failed as well. 

The combination of human and mechanical errors had come together one night in the early stages of the newscast.  My co-anchor and I would alternate reading stories and sending it to a soundbite or a package and no video would come up.  Since I was the producer too, we didn't have anyone in the control room to tell us what was happening.  That was the role of the director at this particular station.  And for whatever reason that night he wasn't communicating with us.

The gang

After five or six failures, a soundbite finally started playing.   That's when I blurted out in frustration "What the f*** is going on in there?"  Seconds later, the floor director's face turned pale.  He mouthed to me that my mic was open and my words went out over the air loud and clear.  I was so embarrassed and then immediately worried about my future in broadcasting. Not only had I dropped the F bomb on live TV, but I did it while the Alabama state school superintendent was on the air and supposed to be talking.  Instead viewers saw his lips moving with the F word loud and clear coming from my mouth.

As I mentioned the station was quite small and the management had a very indifferent attitude about things.  Little did we know at the time, plans were already underway to cease the news operations in a few months.  At any other station in the country I would have at least gotten into some kind of trouble.  My GM chuckled about it the next day as he recalled my foul mouthed message.  I think maybe one or two viewers called in, also punctuating the lack of viewers we had.  

But I learned a valuable lesson as a result. Even when you think the mic isn't open, it probably is.  I was lucky it happened at a station where the rules were more lax than other markets.  I didn't even get a slap on the wrist for the bomb dropped that night.

You're Fired

WOWL in February 1999

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

It's hard to believe that 15 years have passed since I lost my first on-air job.  I was working at WOWL-TV in Florence, Alabama and had been there for about 18 months when the station's co-owner and acting general manager, Bruce Lumpkin, was killed in a car accident.  We all knew that the station would eventually be switching from an NBC affiliate to UPN, thus ending the local newscast.  Bruce had asked us all to stay on board until the transition, which was scheduled for September 1999, and he'd keep those of us who couldn't find reporting jobs elsewhere on staff as sales and production members.

Bruce's accident happened in May.  That's when Bruce's business partner, who was in Atlanta, informed all of us that the promises made by Bruce went to heaven with him the day he died. That statement was made on a Thursday evening in late June. Friday morning there were memos in all the news employees mailboxes that there was a mandatory meeting at 11 a.m. Monday.

Hanging out in the newsroom

At that point, I was not only running the newsroom, but I was also producing, reporting, and anchoring the 6 p.m. newscast.  So I showed up Monday morning, knowing in my heart that we were all about to be fired, but went ahead and started setting up the stories for the day.  Zero hour finally arrived, and we headed to the conference room.  

The owner sat there and talked to us about all the changes that were coming to the station.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he said "Friday was your last show."  (We didn't have weekend or morning newscasts).  I think he wanted us to all start crying and carrying on at him, but we all sat silently. He finally looked at me and said, "Kevin, please say something."  My response, "I have nothing to say.  I have a wife who is four months pregnant.  I need to find a job now."  

He promised us all two weeks severance and any vacation pay that was owed to us.  So we all headed back to the newsroom and started packing our personal belonging as the HR supervisor wrote out our checks.  One of my coworkers noted that the check was just one week's pay.  So we all waited patiently as new checks were cut.

After leaving our now former employer, we all decided a drink or two was in order. So the entire news crew sat at one of the local establishments in town, drinking, laughing, and reminiscing.  It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  I can only imagine what the other patrons were thinking as everyone they usually saw on the news was getting lit up like a Christmas tree hours before the news was to start.  As Tom Brokaw signed off the NBC Nightly News and said stay tuned for the local news, the station rolled an infomerical. 

Some WOWL alum from way back when

Even though I wasn't fired for being a bad employee, my departure from WOWL still hurt.  I learned to stay positive and persistent, as I spent the next six weeks looking for work.  My wife, who as I mentioned was pregnant, was working at the time and had insurance.  She'd come home everyday for lunch and dinner was always on the table when she got home.  I'd watch Mama's Family reruns as I searched the web for jobs.  I was becoming quite the house husband, but then in mid-August I got an offer from WLFI in West Lafayette, Indiana.  

I still look back fondly on my days at the Owl and miss the friends I made while I was there.  It's been nearly 15 years since we lived there, and we've never been back.  I'd love to return one day and show the kids the area that helped mold me into the journalist I've become.