Jim Locke’s technology and marketing career started at WOUB

Jim Locke’s career took a turn after he graduated from the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University in 1966. But he still remembers his time working at WOUB fondly, and credits it as an essential part of the foundation of his technology and marketing career, at places like IBM and General Electric, was built upon.

“I think the fact I had a media background from Ohio University and WOUB helped me get in the door at some of the places I was hired,” said Locke. “It is what set me apart.”

Locke grew up in Champion, Ohio, near Youngstown, and chose Ohio University for his undergraduate education because he was interested in studying radio. Locke was impressed with the facilities Ohio University had and all the opportunities available for students to gain experience on the air.

“After I started at WOUB, I worked some on-air radio shifts, wrote TV copy for the evening newscast and worked as part of the studio production crew for WOUB TV’s children’s show Merlin the Magician.”

After graduation, Locke worked for a short time in radio near his hometown, but almost instantly returned to college to pursue a master’s degree.

“While pursuing my MBA, first at Youngstown State and then at the University of Akron, I worked in area radio stations in broadcast engineering. I was able to earn my First-Class Radiotelephone Engineering License, having some radio technical knowledge by studying for the Amateur Radio (ham radio) engineering operator exams during high school years.”

Locke was interested in using his technology interest and media background to pursue a marketing career. He combined those two passions in a master’s thesis titled "Toward a Formal Market Information System: (an aid to the management of marketing intelligence and the in the planning, direction, and controlling of the Marketing Operation)."

“After graduation, I received an offer from the Hewlett Packard Company as promotional services manager in the Corporate Marketing Communications Department,” said Locke. “The hiring manager had a major project underway to build and install a customer Marketing Information System!  I had mailed him a copy of my thesis before my interview trip. Talk about serendipity!”

In 1980, Locke accepted a position as product manager at General Electric (GE), where he did electronic data interchange market planning and development, product management, order entry systems product functional planning, and new markets opportunity definition and analysis. In 1985, Locke was hired at IBM and worked in product planning, software development planning, market sizing and analysis, application architecture, account marketing and development, bid and proposal writing, and pre-procurement marketing. He retired from IBM in 2001.

“In my corporate life, I wrote thousands of words in reports, presentations, meeting minutes/summaries, straw-man legal agreements, a couple of trade magazine articles, trade show booth hand-outs, print advertising copy, application requirements, product design specifications, and, most important, proposal writing,” said Locke. “Reading with comprehension and writing persuasively is a major structural part of consultative sales and marketing. The required and elective courses taken in the wonderful English Department at Ohio University helped me improve my writing and reading skills, as did writing succinctly for WOUB TV News. I would encourage any student, including engineering students, not to underestimate the amount of writing they may be required to perform in their professional work life. One never knows as a college student what actual path their work career will take as I found on my major corporation marketing and sales career path.”

When looking back on his career, Locke realizes his time at WOUB was a very important piece of his professional development.

“I think I gained self-confidence at WOUB,” said Locke. “I was nervous at first being on the air. But I settled down and developed more self-confidence, which helped with a lot of presentations I had to make during my career. WOUB was a great place where I made many friends and learned what I was capable of.”

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