Morton: I was always a freelancer,
I was never an employee for Ion International,
the publisher of Ahoy! magazine. Ahoy!
came to my attention around October or
November of 1983. At the time I had been
a member of the Commodore section
of the New York City Amateur Computer Club (I
think that was what it was called
but I may be off by a word or two) for about
a year. I had joined the club shortly
after buying a VIC-20. As an electrical
engineer and electronic hobbyist I had
the technical training and the mathematical background
to become the club "guru".
My initiation as a writer began with a club demonstration
of a VIC-20 word
processing application by a local developer.
In exchange for the software I
wrote a review that was published in the club
newsletter. This was sometime
in the early part of 1983. At the time
Computer Shopper magazine used the
various club newsletters as sources for editorial
content. Computer Shopper
republished my review and paid me $25.
I was now a published professional
writer and an instant celebrity in the club.
Shortly thereafter an editor from the Baron's
MicroComputing Reports
came to a user group meeting looking for someone
to write the Commodore
insert for their newsletter. The publisher, Michael
S. Baron, and the newsletter
had no relationship with the well known Barron's
financial publication.
Note that the latter is spelled with two "r's".
I always suspected that the
similarity in names was not entirely coincidental.
The group immediately
presented me as their guru and celebrity published
author. I appeared
on the masthead of Baron's MicroComputing Reports
in the October
1983 issue as the Commodore Editor.
Around September or October word came to the user
group that a new
Commodore magazine with the unlikely name of
Ahoy! was starting up
and looking for writers. Ahoy!'s offices
were located on West 34th
Street in Manhattan, just across the street and
down the block from
the Empire State Building. Since I worked in
lower Manhattan and
already freelanced for another publication, whose
editor-in-chief just
happened to work out of an office in Manhattan's-
upper 30's, Ahoy!
seemed like it was worth a shot. The next day
on my lunch hour after
a ten minute subway ride I was there. This
was my first meeting with
David Allikas who was the real editor of Ahoy!
although his name
did not appear on the masthead of the early issues.
Ahoy!, or Ion International, was not what I had
expected. The staff
were not computer people. They were editors and
writers and they
had a talent for laying out a good looking magazine.
At the time
Ion International was publishing Feeling Great
magazine - a health
and fitness publication directed at working women
- and Chocolatier
magazine - all about gourmet chocolate.
As you can see this was
not high-tech stuff.
Dave knew his limitations. He also knew that the
best source of material
for this publication would be the users.
As such he looked to the writers
for inspiration. What I gave Dave was simply
whatever I was interested
in at the time.
The first thing I did for Ahoy! was the guided
tour of Inside the 1541 Disk
Drive. I don't think that the editorial
staff had a clue as to what it was all
about but they took my word that the story would
interest the Commodore
user community. I grew up reading publications
like Popular Electronics and
Byte Magazine and I did the article based on
what I had seen in these magazines
back in the '60s and '70s. I even supplied
all of the photographs used with the
article and spent some time with the Ahoy! art
department to make sure that
they got all of the overlays right. I was a bit
disappointed with how the
photographs turned out. This was Ahoy!s
first experience with
35mm slides.
I always supplied Ahoy! with the photographs for
all my articles. If you
look at the later issues you can see that Ahoy!
did learn to work with 35mm
slides. Eventually I even got credit for
the photography.
I knew that this article would interest the readers
as I was doing 1541
demonstrations at the user group. I did the demo
once and then I had to
come back and do it again. The part about changing
the drive's device
number, as well as the minor repairs I had described,
were hot items.
Ahoy! was not prepared for the response to this
article and I like to think
that this article was what made Ahoy! the success
that it was. Requests
for copies of this issue came in for months.
When they ran out of originals
Ahoy! was even able to sell photocopies of this
issue.
Paul: Who did you like best at Ahoy!
magazine? What duties did you enjoy best? What did you like least about
working at Ahoy! magazine?
Morton: I suppose that the best
part about working at Ahoy! were the people.
I cannot say who I liked best as they were all
really great people.
I suppose the worst part, especially towards the
end, was getting paid.
Fortunately, the publishers were able to stay
in business and I was able to
visit at my convenience. The squeaking
wheel gets the grease...
Paul: What was it like to work at Ahoy! magazine? What experiences can you remember that made Ahoy! special?
Morton: In 1985 I changed jobs to
14th Street in Manhattan. This put me
within walking distance of Ahoy!'s offices.
Two or three times a week I was up
there looking at what came and trying to get
the first pick of the lot. It was this
close working relationship with the magazine
and their willingness to let me do
what I wanted that made it a special experience.
Paul: Finally, how did Ahoy! change you and/or your perception of working for a magazine?
Morton: I like to think that their
editorial feedback has improved my writing skills.
Before Ahoy! my perceptions of the publishing
industry were glamour, glory and
wealth. After working for Ahoy! I found that
while there may be some glory the
job is a lot of work and very little wealth.
I was fortunate, I was able to do
what I liked to do. Having direct access
to Ahoy! also provided direct
access to new products as they were released.
Morton Kevelson