I first met Bud Stiker in1998 at a European broadcasters’ meeting in Madrid. Bud helped invent commercial broadcasting in Eastern Europe at Juventus Radio in Budapest. He understood radio sales and the oddities of post-Communist Central Europe. I wanted him on my team. Bud and I have worked together since then in places ranging from Serbia to the Republic of Georgia. Throughout our travels we became good friends.
Bud engages people. Rather than trying to sell them something he learns about them and their needs. He works that into a radio package. As a teacher he goes beyond the classroom and makes sales calls with station staff. He helped set up Serbia’s Radio Advertising Bureau in 2009, a diverse group of stations working together in common to promote radio. It is still going strong.
In retirement Bud hasn’t lost the touch, in Portland Maine, our next to the last stop, he engaged a young man who was helping direct tourists. The man talked about his several jobs and we learned he was innovative. The latch on the gas cover of his car was broken and he was darned if he was going to pay a couple of hundred dollars to fix it.
When you travel with Bud you learn about people. Bud and his wife Susannah met us at the dock. We spent the day touring including a Mexican Restaurant and the best lunch we’ve had on this trip.
Susannah is a docent at the Portland Observatory. It looks like a lighthouse but was a business set up during the days of sail. From the tower on the hill an observer could see sail at some distance and with a telescope see the ship’s house flag. He would hoist that flag on the observatory and the ship owner could prepare for his longshoremen to meet the ship and clear warehouse space. Families knew that their loved ones were coming home. Merchants paid for the service.
They took us to the Bug Light area where hundreds of liberty ships were made during World War II. Now it’s a pleasant waterside park with little sign of the heavy industry that lined the shores, except for the displays and a sculpture, to scale, of the prow of a liberty ship. It is great having a historian as a guide.
Posters from the Liberty Ship Exhibit.
We could have spent a lot more time with Bud and Susannah but we had to get back on board Volendam and they had a grandkid to cheer on at a baseball game so we sat on our cabin balcony and enjoyed the sail out. Here is a gallery of Portland shots, including the historic neighborhoods, some of the 1812 era harbor fortifications and a picturesque New England harbor.
