Ladue Grad Turns Beer Life Into a Champagne Career

Michael Golde, 30 of Olivette (Ladue High graduate) has taken a circuitous route to his job as KTRS (the Big 550) Radio’s only on-the-street reporter.

Golde graduated Ladue with good grades (3.5 gpa). But he partied too much, and drank too much and chain-smoked on top of that. He attended two colleges (Indiana and Mizzou) over five years but never earned a degree. He was without direction through his mid-20s until he made a decision to get his personal life in order.

That led to a certificate from the Broadcast Center of St. Louis and his first major job in broadcasting. Golde likes to talk, and fashions himself as some sort of entertainer.

This is what he told Patch.com.

Patch.com: So what were the early to middle 20s of your life like?

Michael Golde: “I was so misguided. I got in with the wrong crowd. It’s nothing to write a book about. Well, maybe it is?” Adding: “Direction, addiction--partied too much, I was a real mess.”

Patch: What turned things around?

MG: “I decided to go to the Broadcast Center. I don’t know if it was the training so much or the connections but thanks to John Carroll (career guidance person) I got my internship and I was on the Dave Glover show on 97.1 May 2009 to March 2010.”

The Glover show is a blend of politics and humor. “I kind of thought that would be my path to a broadcast career.”

“I always had an interest in broadcasting and wanted to be in the public eye. I do love to talk and people know that. They would tell me you should be in comedy, on radio, on TV. I think of my Twitter account as my comedy routine.”

Patch: What was your first paying gig in the St. Louis market?

MG: “I landed at KTRS in August, 2010.

Patch: What did you do for them?

MG: "I interviewed with Victoria Babu. They needed an overnight board operator. I jumped. I told them this would be a piece of cake. Compared to the board we operated at the Broadcast Center, it looked like NASA’s space command.

I did overnight and weekends for a year and half. I got an occasional reporting assignment.

During the primaries of 2010 I covered one of the many Ed Martin campaigns. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the reporting business."

This led to his landing an on-the-street reporters’ position at KTRS. There were reporters at KTRS before, but not at the time of his hire.

Patch: So what do you generally cover day in and day out?

MG: "I get a lot of leeway in what I do. Unlike other stations who go to Ellisville for a town hall meeting (and they are important). I like to cover more exciting things like the St.Louis mayors’ race or a plane making an emergency crash landing at Lambert Field."

“Of course I cover a lot of severe weather. That’s when people tune in their radios."

Patch: What’s next?

“Even though I love my job, the next logical step is to expand into television.”