ETAOIN.

Twenty years ago, the president of KSL radio/television called to ask my help in writing broadcast editorials. The editorial director had resigned to pursue business interests. I was a freelance writer at the time, and the station offered $25 for each editorial broadcast. I agreed to write a few editorials, figuring the assignment would last a month or two, at most.

That was the beginning. Writing editorials was challenging . . . and often fun.

For example, the 1978 Super Bowl pitted the Dallas Cowboys against the Denver Broncos, then known as "Orange Crush." I wrote a very straight editorial about sportsmanship. The closing line was: "The important thing is not who wins but how the game is played. We should try to be objective." Then I had the camera zoom back to reveal a bottle of Orange Crush, which KSL's president and editorial spokesperson slowly poured into a glass. He had never done anything like that before. He was, as we say in the trade, a "talking head." Many letters and phone calls complimented him on his sense of humor. Dallas clobbered the Broncos. A young viewer sent an empty Orange Crush can, stomped fiat. I was a hero. My boss encouraged me to try more change-of-pace material.

Such editorials are fun - and difficult. There was the one about robins, drunk from eating fermented pyracantha berries. The one about fresh tomatoes contributing to world peace. The one about the computer promise of a "paper-less society." And many more.

Soon after my try-out period, they asked me to deliver the editorials on air. At first, I refused to go on the air, calling attention to my bald head and terrible voice. They sent me to a voice coach in Iowa. She said: "I've known people who spoke more slowly than you do . . . but they were all dead."

In the 90 seconds I am allocated, I can deliver 247 words, and so every KSL editorial for 20 years has been exactly 247 words long.

On January 2, 1998, I broadcast my final editorial. Twenty years, 5,706 editorials (not counting those rejected by the editorial board), 1,409,382 words.

It's been a great run for me. I can't think of many things I would rather have done with 20 years of my life, even if it did take 70 hours a week most weeks.

Norman Mailer once said: "A writer writes to find out what he's thinking."

I've been able to find out what I'm thinking about literally hundreds of subjects. I've also been able to find out what others are thinking, because my daily visibility in the community gives me ready access to the movers and shakers, as well as the "moved" and the "shaked." No one in Utah "forgets" to return my calls.

I dislike the public visibility, but I certainly appreciate the results. How else would a high school dropout such as myself have been able to consider as friends governors, bankers, senators, university presidents, police chiefs, and citizen-advocates? In fact, how else would a high school dropout receive a diploma? I gave the commencement address at Salt Lake Community High School 10 years ago. The principal heard I was a dropout with a Ph.D., and he awarded me my high school diploma, at last.

Other valued friendships came about through association with the National Broadcast Editorial Association and the National Conference of Editorial Writers. This kid from Utah would never have been able to travel the world had it not been for those terrific NCEW trips. Marvelous memories!

Leaving such a rewarding career is not easy. But it's time. As I said in my final editorial: "No matter how much one may enjoy a particular task, there comes a time when the dynamics change. The challenge fades a bit. The adrenaline rush subsides. The search for daily ideas becomes more difficult. I sense those conditions approaching. It's time to sign off. Thanks for watching. E-T-A-O-I-N."

(For those too young to remember, E-T-A-O-I-N is the first row of keys on a typesetting machine. At the end of every story, typesetters ran a finger down that first row to create one final line of type signifying the completion of one stow . . . and readiness for the next.)

I won't be retiring from Bonneville for a couple of years, but I'm ready for the next stow.

- ETAOIN -

NCEW member Don Gale is vice president of news and public affairs at KSL/AM-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah.