Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1433345
22 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Winter 2022 Ric Rambles and Reflects by Ric Teller As I write this, it is mid-October, and a tentative agreement has been made in our labor negotiations. By the time this is published, I truly hope a satisfactory contract settlement has been approved and we are working. In 1985, while I was on staff at KTLA in Los Angeles, we went out on strike. While we picketed the gates on Bronson and Van Ness Avenues, some of the older fellows recounted their early days working in television. In the spirit of their memory: Why did you choose this line of work? How did you start? What piqued your interest? Who inspired you to pursue this career? Why didn't you go to college and get a real job? OK, that last one might have been written by my mother. Everyone has a unique story. In conversations, I've discovered that a few of us dreamed of this life from an early age. Many fell into it from being a musician, some by working as a tour- ing sound engineer, others are following a family legacy, and a few grew up with the idea that carrying a Nagra on the beach was glamorous. Here's mine. Some of you know me. I'm an A2 and sometimes a game show PA mixer. My first IATSE job in television began forty years ago at KTLA. But how did I get here? (Cue the wavy lines and harp gliss) First, the earth cooled. That event was followed by a remark- able series of coincidences. In the fifth grade, my neighbor, Chuck Bauer, and I decided to play the trombone. His cousin was a trombone player, and that was reason enough for us. Straight, a Nebraska horn rock band, taping a television special in 1975