Mike James Interview Published on: 13, Dec 2021

My childhood years was spent living in a Brooklyn housing project, so I don’t have memories of picket fences or back yards. But my family was middle class, so we were fortunate to enjoy some of the good things, like going to a baseball game. My mom was a New York Mets fan and we would take the subway to Shea Stadium to watch them play 4 or 5 times a year. Tickets were easy because my dad was a cop with the NYPD, and they always had tickets available for the families. My allegiance changed when I switched to the Yankees when I was about 12 years old. She didn’t mind because baseball was a great way to bring the family closer.

As a kid, I wanted to be an architect growing up. I always was fascinated by maps and I planned where to put buildings and streets on drawings I created. But when I was 14 years old, I was given an opportunity to get involved in TV production. I learned about how cameras, lighting and the control room worked. I learned about directing and producing. We put together stories and they aired on the middle school TV network. From there I became hooked. I began to change my focus to communications in high school and after graduating, I went to college to learn more about the business. I also learned that broadcasting was a very competitive business to break into. After college, I had to put off my dream for seven years, in-between becoming a US Army Reserve officer and working in a business office at a hospital. The burning desire to break into the broadcasting field was too great, and I made the switch in 1993. I volunteered with an organization that was dedicated to bringing diversity into the broadcasting field. They led me to a government access TV channel, where I volunteered for 1½ years. Eventually, it led to a part-time job at a TV news station, and I never looked back after that.

Not really. High school was not a good time for me growing up as a teen. I found that high school was a series of tribes that were broken off into different sections. There were the jocks, the preppies, the brainiacs, the geeks, and the outcasts. Having moved from Brooklyn to Long Island, it was a struggle meeting new people and friends. I covered this period in my new book, “HOLLYWOOD HOUSE”. Even though the story and the characters were fiction, the places and the events that took place were real, and I integrate them to an understanding of how life was like growing up back then. I returned to Uniondale High last month for my high school reunion. I missed my 10th and 20th anniversary because the bittersweet memories were too fresh. Eventually, I returned for my 30th and 40th because I realized nothing would bring back the past, and I needed to move on. Plus, people didn’t care anymore what you turned into.

I met my then wife, who was a Canadian in 1998. We had a distance relationship (I lived in Syracuse at the time, she lived in Brockville, Ontario) for a while and eventually decided to get married. She moved to the states and we’d go up to Canada on weekends to visit her parents. But in 2007, her father suffered a heart attack and died a week later. She wanted to return to take care of her mom and, I made the decision to move up to Canada a year later. I found my current job at Rogers TV-Ottawa in 2009. But it was a very, very difficult transition for us. She and I decided to divorce in 2015, but I made the decision to stay in Canada because I really loved my job. Eventually, I became a Canadian citizen in 2017.

I wanted to tell a story about the early days of hip-hop music in the late 70’s because I felt the story wasn’t being told properly. When I moved to Long Island, I became friends with a couple of guys who were heavily into hip-hop and wanted to start a DJ crew. I originally wrote the book as a screenplay during my sabbatical between TV jobs. I shopped it around to production companies and agents for years, with no takers. I decided to put the project on the backburner for 11 years after I began at Rogers TV until 2020, when the COVID epidemic was in full swing. My step-brother who is a published author helped me finish editing from a screenplay into book form it and eventually helped take me thru the steps up getting it self-published on Amazon Kindle.

Most of the research was based on the memories I had at Uniondale High School. But in the book, the two main characters discuss a DJ by the name of “Kool Herc”. “Herc” was an actual real person. His name was Clive Campbell. Many historians considered him to be the originator of hip-hop music. He began the genre in 1973 when he was tasked to provide music for his sister’s back to school party in the recreation room of the Sedgwick Apartments in the Bronx, New York. He pioneered the use of DJing by having two turntables, a mixer, an audio receiver and two or four speakers. Instead of one record being played, there would be two of the same records and a break part of a tune would be switched between turntables over and over. It became an art form and some DJs even challenged each other in battle to see who was the best. Eventually, rap music became part of the genre, but I was more interested in getting involved in the DJ portion.

With “HOLLYWOOD HOUSE”, there was very little story structure that changed, simply because the story in my screenplay stayed true to the finished book project. I find that allot of authors seem to do re-writes constantly. It’s alright to be a perfectionist, but for me, I like to keep most of my stories the way it is. If I edit anything, it would be to the extreme and I would just start from scratch. As a general rule, I like to start my projects either from the beginning of the story or the ending, then work my way to the middle of the story. I’ll then read the story over and do any adjustments on story structure. Once I’m absolutely satisfied that the book is complete, I won’t read it again, ever! It’s like that with my video projects, as well. I have no desire to re-work it. Why should I?

Believe it or not, I’m not much of a book reader. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read newspapers and magazines. Of course, as a screenwriter, I’m a fan of Paddy Chayefsky’s work, especially “Network”. I keep calling him a “stinkin’ genius” for predicting the creation of how television news is today. Quentin Tarantino is another favorite storyteller of mine. Spike Lee, as well. But once in a while, when I have time out of my busy schedule, I’ll open a book from time to time. My favorite authors currently are Richard Wright, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, and Richard Matheson. So, I have a vast mix of authors I enjoy reading whenever I have the chance.

"Smooth Jazz and More" has been a labor of love for me. I started my internet radio station 20 years ago, when my favorite smooth jazz station changed music formats. Then, I saw a news story about a website called, “Live365”. It was an internet broadcasting network that allowed anyone to upload their favorite music and stream it on the internet to their audience. I’ve always wanted to work at a radio station and this was perfect. I created the station ID’s, promos, jingles and advertisements. I also offer independent music artists the opportunity to have their music heard where FM terrestrial radio wouldn’t give them the time of day. In addition, I maintain a blog and a podcast and periodically update it whenever I can. The blog more active during the NFL football season. I also write about current events and figure skating. YES…FIGURE SKATING! It’s been a struggle between maintaining the radio station’s administrative costs. I had to go independent after Live365 went under temporarily and keeping in compliance with music royalties. It’s been a long run, but thankfully, "Smooth Jazz and More" continues on.

Great question! Short answer, yes! I worked at WSTM-TV in Syracuse, New York and worked with some great people during my 12 years there. But unfortunately, it was a revolving door because of the stress and impossible tasks put forward towards many of my former colleagues. Much of it has to do with corporations consolidating their local news operations. Syracuse used to have a CBS affiliate with a dedicated newsroom operation. In 2009, they shut the place down and laid off all of their news staff, many who worked for over 30 years, some I knew personally. This business practice has led to less voices being heard, which is a danger to our democracy. In order for this trend to be reversed, two things need to happen. First, the FCC needs to bring back the “Fairness Doctrine”, or equal access to viewpoints. In 1949, the policy required TV and radio stations to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints. The second, to reduce the amount of TV and radio stations a corporation can own in a local market. That, right there, would stop the bleeding in local TV news.

From my first step into a government-access TV station, the broadcasting business has changed dramatically. When I first started, the main video format was either Beta or ¾ inch tape machines. Now video is recorded on IMX, SxS or even USB cards. Video editing was on tape, but now everything edited in non-linear, or on a computer The video monitors used to be these big, bulky heavy things that used “rabbit ears”. Now the TV are these huge 40, 50, 60 or even 80-inch screens in either HD or 4K. There are no more analog signals, everything that you see broadcast is digital. The broadcast field continues to change technically, and in my mind for the good. I like clean quality pictures. If there’s anything I absolutely hate, it’s the continued use of vertical video as they do on Tic-Tok. It drives me up the wall when I see it, because it takes away your depth of field when you project it on these huge monitors. (Just a pet peeve of mine being in the industry.)

I signed up with the US Army’s ROTC program after my second year of college in 1983. It was a challenge. I wasn’t sure if I could get thru the program, but eventually I was commissioned in 1986. I spent 7 years between the US Army Reserve and the New York and California Army National Guard having been trained as an Armor officer. But in order to get into broadcasting, I needed to make a change. Overall, I’m glad I did it.

Hip-hop music of the mid to late 80’s will always be some of the most innovative. Hip-Hop artists I enjoyed listening to were Run DMC, De La Sol, Biggie Smalls, 2-Pac. But one of my favorites was from KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions. The song, “Love’s Gonna Get Cha’” is about ‘material love’ or how a person who works his way up the ladder of success thru the drug trade. The story has a bit of reality, as KRS-One’s fellow artist, Scott La Rock was shot and killed soon after releasing their debut album in 1988.

I have three projects I’m working on. One is entitled, “The Education of Darrell Washington”, which is about a Navy veteran who, after being dishonorably discharged, reluctantly gets involved in the adult film industry. That story is also based on a screenplay I wrote and is about halfway complete. I hope to finish it by the summer of next year. The second and third are still in the planning stages. One is called “Voyeur, a Love Story”, which is about the webcam industry. The other is another semi-autobiographical piece which takes place in a TV newsroom called, “10 Minutes to Five”. I’ll have an idea when those two projects are completed once I’m done with the first.

Surprisingly very effective. Being a new author, I’m still working my way around promoting my book, so I take advantage of everything the website has for me. Being a broadcaster helps, because I know some authors haven’t a clue about promotion and marketing. It’s been great.