Early one morning about seven years ago, I was sitting at my desk at work, reading the Journal Sentinel online, as was my habit to start the day. As I read Tim Cuprisin’s column about television and radio, which I enthusiastically looked forward to each week, the one that day got me quite fired up. Tim had the temerity to suggest that the Smooth Jazz radio format I loved did not make viable business sense as a radio station’s sole music format.
I felt compelled to send Tim an email disagreeing with his opinion. Even though I had never met him, it seemed that since I was in the business, and that his email address was included in the article, dropping him a note would be appropriate.
To my total and utter surprise, about 15 minutes later, my phone rang. It was Tim, calling to discuss the situation, relishing in a spirited dialogue about the radio business that was both enjoyable and insightful.
That was the kind of journalist, the kind of guy, Tim Cuprisin was. We lost Tim last Wednesday to complications from melanoma at the far too young age of 53. Tim was special, and along with the other remembrances posted on various web sites, I would like to dedicate this column to Tim’s memory.
Tim wrote his column ‘Inside Radio & TV’ for the Journal Sentinel for the last 15 of his 23 years at the paper, then took their “too good to pass up” buyout in 2009. He went to OnMilwaukee.com where he wrote his ‘On Media’ column through the week before he died.
Tim was witty, with a hint of sarcasm that I adored, yet he was also quite grounded and realistic. But his most endearing quality to me was that he never took himself too seriously. He considered it a privilege to write about what he loved. He answered emails, tweets, Facebook posts; he was never too big to recognize that his readers made him successful. And he treated them with respect.
It seemed that Tim always had the scoop when there was a big media development, either locally or nationally, for example when WTMJ4 was about to become the first to air a broadcast in HD locally (their 5AM news) or when Simon what’s his name announced he was leaving American Idol. His columns had news, they had wit, and they had spin.
In 2007, when Tim was asked if he had the best job at the Journal Sentinel, he answered: “I can just, theoretically, sit on my couch and listen to the radio and watch TV. The upside is that they pay me to watch TV. The downside is that I have to watch TV or listen to the radio — to a lot of things that are garbage that other people might not listen to. And while that’s entertaining in some ways on its own, it’s a job. But I love it, and I can’t believe that they pay me to do it.”
Since that first email, we kept in touch over the years. One of my most memorable experiences was running into Tim at the Milwaukee Wine Festival summer before last. We sipped wine and talked about TV and radio, what else. I vividly remember him saying how tough it was to leave the Journal Sentinel, but that their buyout opportunity allowed him to continue to write about what he loved. I also remember how fervently he said how blessed he was. So were his readers.
In his last blog for the Journal Sentinel in 2009, Tim wrote: “Among my favorite parts of the business has been the knuckleheads who’ve been given the ability to spout freely and anonymously in this age of the Internet.” This knucklehead will sure miss him.
Oh, and re Smooth Jazz, even though as a musical genre Smooth Jazz is still strong, there really aren’t
enough listeners to keep it alive as a radio station format.Tim was right, of course.
