A lot of people want to know how to get a job talking about movies and television shows, as it just sounds like a dream vocation.  Well, it is!  It generally doesn't happen overnight.  Here's what my journey was like - things are different for different people, but this is how things worked out for me.

I don't recall a time in my life when I didn't want to write and talk about movies, television, and those who make their livings in front of one kind of camera or another.  Playing in a rock band (as a drummer with no musical talent) throughout my teens and early 20s, I had many opportunities to be involved with radio and television which led me to work at a campus radio station while in university back in the days when the earth was still covered by glaciers and the mountains had not yet been formed.  At the same time, I began writing freelance magazine and newspaper articles about people in the entertainment business, and was fortunate enough to have a national publication begin to buy my work.

That led to a "day-job" in the daily newspaper business with the then Southam Newspapers (now CanWest Global), and later as the daily TV columnist for the Sun newspapers in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Ottawa, as well as a regular column in such papers as the Fredericton Daily Gleaner, the Regina Leader Post, the Vancouver Province, the Victoria Times Colonist and the Calgary Herald for more than 20 years.  Vancouver/Victoria's TV Week Magazine is a publication with which I have had an ongoing relationship as a feature writer and columnist since 1980.  Radio and television followed quickly with a regular spot on a number of CBC programs including five years as TV reviewer for the network show Midday (now defunct), the former CKVU TV's Vancouver Show, and regular movie reviews on CBC News World.

Today I have the privilege of airing my views weekdays on CFAX Victoria and on CTV 2's CFAX Live, as well as weekly on CKNW Vancouver. What's the secret?  Well, I have always seen it this way:

-work cheap
-be on time
-don't get sued

That's pretty much the formula for working successfully in media!