Source: The Xavierite
I admit that I feel a little awkward writing a column for the alumni edition of The Xavierite because I never actually worked for the paper as a student at Saint Xavier.
What I did do was hang out at the radio station a lot.
I was on the air as much as possible, but I’d stay in the management office when I wasn’t hosting a show or announcing a game, doing my homework, watching TV, or listening to whatever was on WXAV. Most of my time outside of class seemed to be spent in that room.
That made it easy for the newspaper staff to find me.
Every Monday night, I could expect to see one editor or another amble down the hall to tell me that they were short that week and could use someone to fill space in the paper. I soon found my byline in the sports section almost every week, to the point that I wondered why exactly I wasn’t on the staff.
I didn’t aspire to become a writer, but I didn’t mind being included.
The power of the press was confirmed to me when I consistently got more reaction from my newspaper articles than I did from my radio shows.
One week, after writing about my displeasure with the Chicago Cubs, I got hissed at multiple times while walking across campus. Imagine being a pariah at a South Side school for writing negatively about the Cubs.
There was a brief time during my tenure at SXU when the administration considered moving the radio studio from the back corner of the campus (where we had always toiled in obscurity) to the wide-open and very public Shannon Center.
The idea was exciting for a moment, but it would have been a big mistake.
The wonder of student media was always in the apparent unimportance of our work. No one tended to interfere, so when a random dude like me ended up in the newspaper each week just because he happened to be watching a ballgame in the room next door, nobody said a word.
We got to make our own rules. That’s one of the reasons I loved working there. All of the things I got to do through the radio station and the newspaper simply because nobody told me not to remain my favorite part of college.
By the end of my junior year, I had obtained a broadcasting internship with the Windy City ThunderBolts baseball team. I got promoted to the full-time broadcaster position the year after and have worked for the team ever since.
For the last 15 years, the ThunderBolts have played a portion of their schedule on WXAV. That’s allowed (or forced, if you’re feeling negative about it) me to continue interacting with Saint Xavier student media each summer.
I also work for a lot of schools aside from Saint Xavier – though I’ll show some decorum by not mentioning them by name – so I continue to work regularly with student broadcasters.
Now, 13 years after I graduated and ostensibly stopped working for the campus media center, I spend most of my time watching ball games, writing about sports, and broadcasting college athletics. I guess that proves that time is circular, at least for me.
In fact, the editor of The Xavierite recently came to me and asked if I could write an article for this week’s edition, even though I don’t actually work for the paper. I just hope I filled enough space.
Written by: Terry Bonadonna