Good Luck With That, Sherman

Sherman Murdock is out of his mind. The Tennessee State University senior has vowed to stay on-air at the campus station until he gets a job in broadcasting.

Murdock, who graduates on May 9, started a marathon airshift on May 1, and as of this writing, is still on the air. He has been offered a job, but it wasn't the one he wanted. "I've been offered a production job but I want to be a broadcaster," Murdock told The Tennessean.

Murdock hopes to land a broadcasting job in a top 25 market — his first choices being Chicago, his hometown; Los Angeles; or New York, he tells the paper.

Now I'm all for stunts designed to call attention to your hireability (if that's a word)—I once orchestrated a postcard campaign to lobby for what would turn out to be my first job in Nashville—but Sherm, think about what you're doing, son. 

Professor and station manager Joseph Richie has high hopes for Murdock, an honors student. "I think he's going to get a job because he's not going to stop until he gets what he wants," said Richie.

Professor Richie, what are you teaching these kids? Don't you know that a production job is your student's best shot at broadcasting in Chicago, L.A. and New York?

If Sherm can master production, he can write his own ticket. After all, voice tracking, which is nothing more than glorified production studio wizardry, is the wave of the present and future.

Heck, with Sherman's willingness to work hard—as evidenced by his marathon air session—he's already knocking on Ryan Seacrest's door. If he's willing to broadcast non-stop, without even stopping for a shower, he's a future radio star in the making. 

Further sealing his fate, Sherm's LinkedIn profile says he's already interned for Clear Channel in its Chicago cluster. Bada bing!

If I seem particularly critical of Sherman's future, it's only because my first radio job was doing weekend nights at a station in Parkersburg, W.Va. With Clear Channel's recent move to a decidedly less local model—and the rest of the radio business de-emphasizing home grown talent—guess who would still be a speech pathologist in the Wood County, W.Va., school system if it weren't for live and local?

On the other hand, I don't think they're outsourcing the morning announcements at elementary schools. Yet.