From Military Service to Morning Radio: E.T. Thalerand's Jacksonville Journey
Hometown Jax
E.T. Thalerand shares his transformative journey from serving seven years in the U.S. Coast Guard to becoming an on-air producer for Jackson
Key takeaways
- E.T. Thalerand served as an avionics electrical technician and Creole translator in the U.S. Coast Guard.
- Following medical retirement, he utilized military benefits to earn two bachelor's degrees and a barbering license.
Main topics
- Military service and transition
- Radio production and broadcasting
Notable quotes
If you crack that door open for you, boy, I'm going to kick you down.
Conclusion
A motivating episode highlighting how resilience and a commitment to c
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) We're your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler. We Speaker 3 (0:02) like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. Speaker 2 (0:08) So grab a seat, tune in, and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jax. Speaker 3 (0:14) ET, so glad to have you here. I'm so excited that you came to Hometown Jacks. Thank you for taking the time. Speaker 1 (0:21) No, no problem. Thanks for having me. You know, Speaker 3 (0:22) when I was telling you in the hallway, I didn't realize how famous you are. Like, I was doing some research and like, man, you're all over the place. Speaker 1 (0:30) Just because I'm all over the place don't make me famous. Speaker 3 (0:32) Well, I really appreciate that. A mutual friend of ours introduced and I'm excited to find out about your journey. I've done some research. And also, what is it like being in talk radio and being a... producer and all that fun stuff. So let's get into it. So where'd you grow up? Speaker 1 (0:49) I like to say all the time that Duval pays me, but Clay raised me. So I'm from Clay County. I grew up in Clay County, graduated in Clay County, joined the military shortly after, but eventually I returned and to this day I still live in Clay County. Speaker 3 (1:05) That's right. That's right. That's really cool. And I did see about your military. You were in the Coast Guard. Speaker 1 (1:09) Seven years in the Coast Guard. Speaker 3 (1:10) That is really cool. So you were on ships, I'm assuming. Speaker 1 (1:13) I was on a 270-foot cutter. Speaker 3 (1:14) Oh, my gosh. So tell us some of the stuff you did in the Coast Guard. Because the Coast Guard always seems like a pretty fun job. Speaker 1 (1:21) I mean, it was pretty cool. But I say this all the time also, and all of my fellow Coasties who I served with will know. I was the captain of morale. I just kept the spirit. Right, right. You know, I kept everybody low. Like, what I do now is what I did when I was in the military. You just bring good spirits, good vibes to everybody. But like my main job, I was an avionics electrical technician. And basically what that is was I worked on avionics on helicopters. And when we were on deployment, we would deploy on different ships and we did a lot of drug and migrant interdiction. Speaker 3 (1:54) And Speaker 1 (1:55) with me being Haitian, I was a translator because we served in the Caribbean. So there's a lot of Cubans, a lot of Haitians. Speaker 3 (2:01) Right. That's interesting. I didn't know you spoke Haitian. That's awesome. Speaker 1 (2:05) I don't speak Haitian. I speak Creole. Okay. But Creole is the dialect of Haitian people. Okay, good. Thanks for correcting me. No problem. Speaker 3 (2:13) So you spent a lot of time in the Caribbean when you were on a ship, and that's a pretty big ship. Speaker 1 (2:18) Yeah, it's a pretty decent size. Speaker 3 (2:20) Do you remember some storms that you were doing your prayers on, or did that not really happen down there? Speaker 1 (2:27) No, not really. There were some waves. It would get a little rough, but nothing too. crazy. Uh-huh. Speaker 3 (2:33) Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:34) What Speaker 3 (2:34) drove you to go into the Coast Guard? Did you know that was where you wanted to go? No, I Speaker 1 (2:38) needed a job. Uh-huh. I needed a job at the time. But so I worked once I graduated high school, I worked in the cell phone industry. Okay. And I was slinging cell phones. Uh-huh. But I wanted a little bit more. I had a family member who was real close to me. He went off to be in the NFL. And we were always like compared, like people would compare us. And like... I wanted to do something where it meant something. And so that's when I chose, you know, I did some research and decided to join the military. And the Coast Guard was the route that I took. Speaker 3 (3:11) Excellent. Excellent. Well, we appreciate your service. That's awesome. Thanks for your support. Did you have a yearning and an interest from sports from day one? Oh, yeah. I thought I was going to be Speaker 1 (3:21) an NBA. Okay. But, you know, all young kids who grew up, you know, have either hoop dreams or things that are going to go into the NFL. So I grew up wanting to be a basketball player, not knowing that I was short. Right. And, you know, I just didn't care. But I grew up wanting to be a basketball player. But ultimately, I was a better football player than I was a basketball player growing up. Speaker 3 (3:43) Okay. Speaker 1 (3:44) But I always had a love for sports, a love for sports knowledge. Speaker 1 (3:49) Who knew that it turned out to be what pays my bills? Speaker 3 (3:52) That's right. Well, I mean, kind of a dream job, it sounds like. Except the 4.30 in the morning thing. 3.45. That's right. What high school did you go to over in Clay? Speaker 1 (4:02) Shout out to Blue Devils, Clay High School. There you go. Okay, Speaker 3 (4:05) shout out to the Blue Devils. That's awesome. Well, that's great. So let's fast forward going through. So you were eight years in the Coast Guard. And did you kind of come to a conclusion like, This isn't what I want to do forever kind of thing? Well, actually, Speaker 1 (4:20) I was medically retired. Unfortunately, some things happened with my health where I was considered not fit for full duty, which I wasn't going to be able to recover from. So I was medically retired. And at that point is when I decided to go finish my college degrees. The military wasn't going to pay for it, so why not? Speaker 3 (4:36) So Speaker 1 (4:36) I went to school, got two bachelor's degrees, as well as a barbering license, all on the military. What were your two Speaker 3 (4:44) degrees in? Speaker 1 (4:46) The first one was in Converge Communications. The second one is Radio and TV Broadcasting. Speaker 3 (4:53) Interesting. So you kind of had a knack for that kind of behind-the-scenes, technical, producing kind of thing. That kind of started to come out a little bit when Speaker 1 (5:02) you were in the military. Kind of. Producing was all about creativity, and I was always that person. And once I started working with 1010, They taught me what I needed to know, but going back to school was kind of like the exclamation point. Just polishing certain things that helped me advance in my career. Speaker 3 (5:24) Right, right. And you said you had a barber degree too? Yeah, Speaker 1 (5:26) I got a barber's license. Speaker 3 (5:27) You know, I had a barber on the podcast about a year ago, and he said he went to school for like 120 hours. Speaker 1 (5:34) 120 hours. I went to school for 1,200 hours. Speaker 3 (5:38) Maybe it's 1,200 hours. Yeah, 1,200. I was blown away. Speaker 1 (5:42) It takes more time to get a barbering license than it does to get a real estate license. Speaker 3 (5:47) Oh, my. Well, yeah, that's for sure. And definitely a loan officer license. But that is wild. So did you think maybe you wanted to cut hair? That was kind of a plan? Speaker 1 (5:57) It was a cool thing. It was a phase in my life. I really enjoyed it because this is somewhere I spend a lot of time of my life. I'm at a barbershop once a week. Right. And the barbershops, like you go to a good barbershop, those are some of the funnest places. Some of the best conversations happen in a barbershop. And it was just somewhere where I fit in really good just because I'm a people person. And there's no feeling better than. giving somebody a fresh haircut and you give them the mirror and they give you that smile. Oh, yeah. That's Speaker 3 (6:25) right. You know, it's just a great Speaker 1 (6:26) feeling. Speaker 3 (6:26) You go get your haircut every week. So do I. I don't have any hair, but it always makes me feel good when it gets trimmed. Absolutely. If you're in a bad mood, you got to look at your hair. It'll change it. I mean, oh, Speaker 1 (6:37) man. Yeah. You get that haircut. And hey, man, I'm about to go walk. I'm going to Walmart and Target because I got to take a lap. Speaker 3 (6:44) Got some spring in your step. Well. So you went to, I think you went to FCJ, right? Yeah, Florida State College Speaker 1 (6:49) of Jacksonville. Awesome, awesome. And a full sale also in Orlando. Speaker 3 (6:53) Okay, okay. And that's, once you graduated, what was that first job that you got out of? I was reading a little bit about it. Speaker 1 (7:03) So right out of FSCJ. Oh, yeah, that was Cox Media Group. That's Speaker 3 (7:09) right. I Speaker 1 (7:10) was working at Cox Media Group as a board operator. Speaker 3 (7:12) And that's where they told you your voice wasn't good enough for radio, right? Oh, man, Speaker 1 (7:15) you did your research. I did. I did research. There was a gentleman there who was a program director at the time. I won't say his name, but he – because I knew I wanted to be on air. That was ultimately my goal. Like, I want to be on air. I'm a personality. I'm not a behind-the-scenes guy. And I was doing air checks over and over. What's an air check? An air check basically is like your resume is a sizzle reel in radio. So how you come in and out of breaks, what you sound like, what type of personality can you put. Almost Speaker 3 (7:43) like a jingle. Basically like a jingle. Speaker 1 (7:46) But so there's different ways you come in and out of breaks, going to commercial, coming from commercial, what's coming up next, so on and so forth. So I was practicing my air checks and I finally submitted an air check. This man knew. I was working on air checks. He told me to work on my air checks. He told me to get with so-and-so to work on your air checks. And then when somebody approved, all right, I think you're ready. Submit this to the higher up. When I submitted it to the higher up, he was like, I just think that your voice is too mature. Too Speaker 3 (8:15) mature. Interesting. Speaker 1 (8:17) Those are the words that he said. That's an Speaker 3 (8:18) interesting criticism, too mature. Speaker 1 (8:20) Yeah, yeah. My voice is too mature. Well, Speaker 3 (8:22) like everybody in life for the most part has a motivating moment. And I think that was one of yours. Oh, Speaker 1 (8:27) definitely. Like I said, I remember the man. I know his face. I know his name. It definitely pushed me. And this mature voice has gotten me to some places and into some rooms. Speaker 3 (8:39) For sure. So you were working for Cox doing the air checks and the things along those lines. And then what happened next? Speaker 1 (8:47) I took an internship with 1010XL. Okay. Speaker 1 (8:52) And basically that's kind of like where I was kind of found a little bit. The jobs weren't all that cool as an intern, you know, folding T-shirts, Speaker 3 (9:03) going Speaker 1 (9:03) to the Jaguars games, but not allowed to go into the game. Just a little stuff like that. So I just made it work. I was very interactive. I'm real social. You put me around people, I'm going to make it work. Speaker 3 (9:14) And Speaker 1 (9:14) so that was kind of my job on game days, just, you know, playing the. the cornhole games and letting people win t-shirts and stuff and just making it fun. Speaker 3 (9:22) And Speaker 1 (9:22) so I did that internship. And then when my internship was over, I was, mind you, I was already a listener of 1010. But when the internship was over, I'm like, oh man, I got to go back to Cox Media Group. And I sent an email out a couple of weeks. And this is a lost art for you young folks. Remember. Write letters, send thank you emails. And that's what I did. I sent Tom Fridley a thank you email for allowing me to intern at 1010. And I let him know, hey, if anything ever opened up, keep me in mind. And about, I don't know, two months later, I received an email about an interview at 1010 for a show that's called Jaguars Today, which is still on air right now. One thing about me, if you crack that door open for you, boy, I'm going to kick you down. And I interviewed. The next thing you know, I was the producer for Jaguars Today. Speaker 3 (10:16) Wow. That's amazing. All because of that too mature voice, right? All Speaker 1 (10:19) because of the too mature voice. Speaker 3 (10:21) You know, that is a great lesson. We'll get into that at the end. Like some, just some tips of people, especially young people today, they don't realize the value of just that follow-up, you know, that little extra touch point, like not assuming that that person, oh, well they know already. Like, no, just go ahead and do it. You never know. Speaker 1 (10:40) You never know. Speaker 3 (10:41) Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, I think a lot of people think that being in radio and TV is super glamorous and all that, but. Everything I've heard when I talk to people, it is a lot of work. A Speaker 1 (10:54) lot of behind-the Speaker 3 (10:55) -scenes grunt work. Is that correct? Speaker 1 (10:57) Absolutely. I'm pretty much babysitting. My two show hosts, I love them. Dan Hicken and Jeff Frost, I love them. It's