Frenchy's Rant

When the phone rings at 5 AM, it’s almost never good news, and this morning was no exception. This call brought news of worst kind. A freelance audio engineer friend called to tell me that Ron Scalise, one of the people most responsible for bringing me into the television audio fold, died in a car wreck sometime last night.

Back when I was a freelancing tadpole, Ron was the audio mixer, or A1, for NASCAR on ESPN. In my days BT (Before Television) I considered myself an avid, maybe even rabid racing fan. I would plan my Sunday around The Race, and watched nearly every single broadcast. When racing was on TV, nothing else mattered. Then it dawned on me that there must be a lot of people that worked on those races. To me, a HUGE race fan, what job could be better? And so, a very long and strange career in television audio began, with me taking whatever bull riding, bowling, or public access talk show job that was offered, with the one goal of eventually working on racing.

One day that opportunity came, and I lied my way into being an A2, or audio assist, at a Busch race in Nazareth, PA for The Nashville Network. Though I knew nothing about the mechanics of racing audio, I either did something right, or more likely lied convincingly enough, because soon after I was working on every Busch race TNN had. The racing audio door had opened a crack. Through those TNN connections, I managed to fake my way on to an ESPN Winston Cup race, which to me was the Big Leagues. I finally got my big break. I had a chance to work on one of the races that I’d watched for so many years.

Unlike today’s racing TV compounds, which can consist of a ridiculous fifty or more production trucks, back in those dark ages, we used just one single truck. And it was in Watkins Glen, NY, in that single truck, called ESPN EX-1, that I met Ron Scalise for the first time.

I still remember the meeting, clear as day. I nervously walked around that TV compound, without knowing anyone really, deathly afraid of screwing up this one opportunity. Ron, who had been mixing racing for ESPN as long as there had been racing on ESPN was finally introduced to me. “Frenchy, huh? Well good. Get to work.”

And that was it, for that day. A few days and several hundred thousand miles of cable later, Ron, almost offhandedly, gave me the break that opened the doors for almost everything that followed in my career.

“Frenchy, this is Donna, the head of ESPN’s Remote Operations (crewing) department. She wants to go out to the camera positions and see the track, and needs a driver. Since you aren’t doing anything, go get your golf cart, you’re going to be her tour guide.”

Whether Ron knew what he was doing or not, I’ll never know, but getting to talk one on one with the head of freelance crewing was the rarest of rare opportunities for a newbie, because crewers are the ones that hire freelancers, and to a crewer, most times a freelancer is just a voice on a phone that gets hired for a job. Ron set up a face to face audience for me, just like that. It wasn’t long after that race I started getting regular calls from ESPN, and what was until that point a scary, sit-and-wait-for-the-phone-to-ring, day to day way to scrape together some nickels to get by became an actual freelancing career.

Ron and I became friends, that is to say that I became one of ‘Ron’s Boys.’ It was pretty simple. If Ron liked you, you worked, and worked a lot. When the great sport of NASCAR left ESPN for NBC and FOX, Ron became ESPN’s Senior Audio Production Supervisor. We sort of lost touch at that point, as I’d moved on to work for the WWE. But, in the television freelance world, it’s never really ‘goodbye’, it’s more like ‘See you down the road.’ A few years later, he called out of the blue to offer me a position on the X Games. That call that led to several years of working on the X Games, as well as to NBA on ESPN and various other jobs.

Now Ron and I didn’t always agree on everything, didn’t see eye to eye on every issue – I think just about anyone that worked with Ron could say that. But at the end of the day, those disagreements didn’t really matter. At the end of the day, when we sat down for a cocktail or, as they were more commonly known, a ‘hydraulic dinner,’ the inside jokes would fly fast and furiously, and whatever else was soon forgotten in fits of laughter.

The Winter X Games a few years ago in Aspen was the last time I saw Ron.

It boggles my mind to even write that.

And now, because the television freelancer community is so small, our grapevine will deliver this sad news faster and more efficiently than CNN ever could. Shock and devastation will turn to sadness at our loss, but as always, the show will go on, because it must. It’s what we do.

Ron Scalise 1953 – 2007

Ron, I’ll see you down the road.

Another year, come and gone. Things have changed, things have stayed the same… It was the best of times, it was the… blah blah blah.

Like most crappy TV shows, I’m not above doing a lame-o retrospective Best Of the Blogs blog to close out the year.

First off, the motorcycle rides. I put well over 10,000 miles on the FJR this year. Baja, Angeles Crest, Sequoia, San Diego, a Group Ride, a Close Call, Rode to Work, Strayed into New Hampshire, Rode Across the US, and finally, Hit Key West.

I also took a few non-riding trips, most notably to Prague and Ireland.

I held a contest, which got a record NINE comments. Congratulations ColinD for winning, your prize is in the mail.

The Airline Safety rants seemed to be popular again this year, and at least once, I had a Record Setting Day, as far as blog hits on the Rant go.

And now, my Top Five Favorite Rants of 2007:
5) Ever have One of Those Days? I had a bunch of them, but this day was by far the worst.

4) I do love living in my little town, and my Small Town Life.

3) I fly. A lot. And I listen to countless millions of stupid Pre Flight Safety speeches. This is the only one that I remember.

-Tie –

3) For some reason, people don’t post a lot of comments here, but when I do get them, I appreciate them. This Anonymous Comment made my day.

2) You never know the strength of your Weirdo Magnet until you walk around a city.

And finally…

1) It was scary, in fact it was my Worst Nightmare, but oddly enough, it was also the single most read post of 2007.

And that about wraps up another fine year of Ranting. Thanks to all the Faithful Fifteen for sticking around, and to the Brave Few that actually posted a comment. Here’s to picking up both numbers in 2008!

Until next year, Happy Holidays, and remember, The Key to Happiness is clicking on a goofy Google Ad or three, lurking right below the title banner!!!

For this holiday season, you can help make a poor kid’s dream come true.

The dream?

Riding a motorcycle to Nova Scotia next spring, to take beautiful pictures and tell wondrous tales of this exotic foreign land.

The problem?

Ferry tickets, gas and beer are expensive.

The solution?

***CENSORED BY A FACELESS CORPORATE ENTITY – A word that rhymes with’ Frugal’ and a word that rhymes with ‘MadFence’ REMOVED UNDER PROTEST ***

And that’s where you, dear Faithful Fifteen readers, come in.

Only YOU have the power to affect positive change!

However, due to the heavy handed policies of Frugal MadFence, I am no longer allowed to suggest you explore some of the fine underlined sentences living below the banner.

Don’t let the corporation kill the expedition!!