CHRONICE MAGAZINE

In the early 1980s, CHRONICLE, a popular daily magazine show on Boston’s WCVB-TV, hired me to do satire and social commentaries on any subject I wanted. It was my first taste of local celebrity. It was also my first experience with the impact of television on the human imagination. People would sometimes stop me on the street after one of my pieces had aired and congratulate or criticize me for things I had never said or done. One major sponsor of the program was so upset by a comment they thought I had made they threatened to pull all their advertising from the station. I’ll never forget how the General Manager defended me. “If you ever pull your advertising from my station,” he yelled at the sponsor, “I’m never going to let you advertise on my station again!”