'Rock cop,' S & L closer explore unusual careers

by Melissa Wilson

SBJ Staff

And you thought your job was tough.

Chuck Yeager and Michael Esch both spent 11 years in jobs helping people who, they said, didn't always realize they were being helped.

"What I was doing for BMI (Broadcast Media Inc.), I considered to be helping people, some of them in spite of themselves. I looked more for solutions rather than confrontation," said Yeager, a former BMI licensing executive.

Yeager, who has a background in broadcasting, traveled the tri-state region dropping in on establishments to offer counsel on usage fees for music played in jukeboxes, onstage or over speaker systems.

"A lot of people think that copyright law only applies to someone who makes records. They don't realize that by buying a record or CD at a store, taking it to their nightclub and playing it on their CD player, they are creating a public performance," Yeager said.

Yeager said most establishments would work with him to make modifications in their music programs to make their use more efficient, and therefore, less expensive. "In that way, the job was more of a marketing, or counseling-type position, and not so much one of enforcement," Yeager said.

Yeager said he carried a copy of the Constitution at all times and would read from Article I to educate those who complained about paying the usage fees.

"There were times people would say, 'This is Communism,' and I'd say, 'No, this is democracy at its best,'" Yeager said.

Every so often, Yeager's attempts to offer a solution to resolve the situation were met with a "nonconstructive response." In the case of one Oklahoma bar owner: "I introduced myself and laid my card on the counter. He excused himself, went back behind the bar and pulled a Smith & Wesson snub-nosed .38, came back and said 'What the (expletive) do you want?' Yeager said. "I said, 'Not a damn thing'" and promptly left.

Former FDIC claims and settlements department head Michael Esch never had a gun pulled on him during his career, closing failed savings and loans, but said he spent many weekends working around the clock with no sleep, dealing with small-town bank customers and eventually overseeing the largest payoff in FDIC history of approximately 350,000 accounts.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, we would close the savings and loans on a Friday and reopen on Monday morning. That means the minute you walked in, you would have to be ready to go," Esch said.

Esch said if the savings and loans he was involved in closing weren't ready to reopen the following Monday, he and his coworkers would be taking the chance that they would cause a run on the bank.

"That's the last thing we wanted to do," Esch said.

Esch said the people working at the savings and loans in smaller towns were always very helpful and wanted to make a good impression.

"On the other hand, the bank customers in smaller towns were always more leery, and wanted to make sure their money was insured," Esch said.

Esch said he began working for the FDIC by sheer luck. "I worked next door to the building, and became friends with some of the employees there. The job involved a lot of travel, but that didn't bother me because I was young ... what I liked most about it was meeting people, and then accomplishing a job together," Esch said.

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