Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Book Review: "It Shocked Even Us"

Being a broadcaster does have at least one minor down side.  I spend all day with my nose in a computer, reading the news and writing the news.  Recreational reading has taken a back seat, and that troubles me a great deal.  I did try to remedy things during a recent vacation.  I recently reviewed a book on "Match Game."  Today, it's something completely different.

I bought "It Shocked Even Us" by Frank Cipolla several months ago, and I let it sit on a shelf.  Big mistake in litting it sit, unread.  I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, and I loved every page.

Frank Cipolla is a New York City kid, who got his start in radio at a tiny, now defunct, radio station in Washington, NJ-- just over the Pennsylvania line.  He went on to work in cable TV news, plus more radio and WWOR TV in Secaucus.  While the stations were different, he and I encountered many of the same types of characters and situations over the years.  Some of what Cipolla mentions is "inside baseball."  For the most part, even people outside of the industry will get what Cipolla writes about.  You'll enjoy it.

In the small world category, Cipolla has pages dedicated to his radio adventures with Jim Bosh.  Cipolla and Bosh worked together in Elizabeth, NJ.  I used to listen to Bosh during his time at WILK in Wilkes-Barre, though we never met.  Cipolla also tells a Joann Pileggi story.  Joann and I worked together for years at WYOU.  There is also a paragraph on Frank Deom, a former WNEP photographer, who did a stint at WWOR

And, one of the biggest kicks of all-- my book came autographed, and Frank enclosed one of his business cards.  I dropped him an email, to say how much I loved the book.  He replied quickly, and that was really neat.

If you really want to know what happens when the cameras are off and the microphones are dead, buy this book!