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BY: So then how did the lessons that you learned around that -- I know that you eventually had your own company, media company. So can you talk a little bit about that?

SM: Well, that was accidental. When I came back after six years at Pacifica Radio, I could not even get interviews in any of the local media. And so it was disconcerting to me, but people that I knew started saying, "Oh, while you're waiting to get a job, why don't you just do this little project for us?" So then people started handing me short term consulting jobs. And one thing led to another and I thought, oh, I can just do this. So that's how my Spectra Communications started and I eventually got partners and it became a decent sized small business. But I never originally planned on going into business for myself. There was no outlet for me here, and I was insistent I was going to stay home in Seattle.

BY: I know you also did a stint with HUD. Can you talk a little bit about that? Was that right, HUD?

SM: Yes.

BY: Okay, yeah.

SM: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That was kind of a fluke, too. The Clinton Administration wanted their cabinet secretaries to look more like "America." I.e., at that time, President Clinton appointed more diverse cabinet officials than ever before. And those cabinet officials, in turn, wanted their subcabinets to also be reflective. And Henry Cisneros was secretary of HUD, he had filled many of the positions, he had nobody from the Pacific Northwest. And among three remaining subcabinet positions he had was somebody who was a communications specialist. So he had been mayor of San Antonio years before, so he called his old friends Mayor Rice and several members of the, former members of the Seattle City Council, and he gave them his criteria. Oh, the third criteria was that he didn't have, he only had one Asian American. So Asian American communications, Pacific Northwest, that was basically me. So all of them listed me somewhere in their list of people that they gave him. So when he saw my name on all of these lists, then he sent for me to come for an interview and that's how I got that job. [Laughs]

BY: Okay, great.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.