Charlie Wilson / Operations Manager

Charlie Wilson’s Bio

• While in college I started working as a helper technician at local radio stations and even did an on air shift now and then — mostly at night.  I worked for a company that transmitted HBO to hotels and cable systems, via microwave, before HBO had their own satellite.  It involved 7 studios around the country where we would “bicycle” the movie video tape from one to the next.
• Then I was hired by CBS news at the D.C. bureau in 1976 when they were switching from film to tape and needed technicians to help keep their new mini cams and portable tape machines working in the field, since the film cameramen had little experience in that area.  I worked mostly at the White House and traveled quite a bit.
• I left CBS in 1985 to go freelance as a Camera/Editor for news and covered Desert Storm for CBS.
• Then in 1993 I purchased a 100,000 watt FM station in Casper, WY. I was chief cook and bottle washer employing about 6 part timers including sales staff.  I had my own snowmobile to get up Casper Mountain when there was a transmitter failure.  The station had great ratings, but was always just making enough to pay the bills, but not making a profit so I sold the station.
• Next I took a job in Scottsbluff Nebraska as a Program Director of a 4 station group. Hot AC, News-Talk, Country and Oldies. It was fun but the pay was meager.
• For $100 more per month, I became News Director of the local ABC affiliate.
• Later, a friend who I used to work for wanted me to work on a project for Discovery Channel so I moved back to the D.C. area in 1999.
• I re-joined CBS news when the Discovery project was completed.
• BBC was next.  I got wind of a new BBC program that had several other CBS people involved, and it was a step up for me from video editor to producer/editor.  I took that position and loved it there.  The show was cancelled 4 years later when the budget crisis hit the BBC.
• I returned to freelance, mostly as an engineer for TV and radio and sometimes a consultant.  I mostly work for a satellite teleport (Uplink and downlink for TV networks in D.C) and as Media Manager for an upstart called Africa Today TV which will be on cable networks later this year.

And as Monty Python would say, that’s the show so far.