DUNK CAM! FROM THE BASKETBALL HOME OPENER | WWW.thetOWerlight.com
Published by Baltimore Student Media for the Towson University Community
November 16, 2009
TYLER WALDMAN
Associate Arts Editor
Many students struggle to find employment after graduation,
but in the last four years, one Towson alumnus has had more
than 200 jobs and counting.
Mike Rowe, a Dundalk native who graduated in 1985, is best
known as host of the Discovery Channel series "Dirty Jobs."
But long before he took on tasks such as pig farming, garbage
collecting and mining, he was a communication studies major.
Rowe said he felt very indecisive about what he wanted to
do when he came to Towson in 1982, transferring from the
Community College of Baltimore County, Essex.
He took classes in English, speech, philosophy and theater. Rowe
joked that he "majored in everything," and didn’t decide on
communication "until the last possible second."
"[Towson] was just a place to go learn and try
to figure out what the hell to do,” he said. "It
wasn't about getting a degree. The degree
was a symptom, actually."
One of Rowe's favorite professors
at Towson was Richard Vatz of the
department of mass communication
and communication studies. Vatz
recalled Rowe as a hard worker
and an active voice in class dis¬
cussions.
"He was one of those people
who was energetic, but never ever
hostile - he just enjoyed his role
of the inquiring and participat¬
ing student," Vatz said in an
e-mail. “He was curious about
everything... I would guess he
has a very broad range of
interests today.”
Rowe described himself as
"lost" and somewhat discon¬
nected from Towson as a transfer
student and as a commuter driving
from Dundalk every day.
"I got a lot of parking tickets," he
said.
When he was set to walk across the
stage and collect his degree, he wasn't even
in town. He was at Madison Square Garden see¬
ing Pink Floyd.
“When it was over, I didn’t have an emotional con¬
nection to the school," he said. "It was more merce¬
nary than missionary."
After graduation he started looking for work. He
auditioned for the now-defunct Baltimore Opera
Company, where he spent the next six years per¬
forming, enjoying the music and meeting women. His odds were
pretty good, he said.
“There were maybe 30 guys. Twenty-five of them had no
interest in any of the girls. The other five - well three were
married and the other single guy, he had a mole on his eyelid
with a lot of black hair growing out of it," he said. "So basically,
it was me."
One night, during an intermission, Rowe left the Lyric Opera
House and went across Mount Royal Avenue to the Mount Royal
Tavern. He sat at the bar to watch a football game, still wearing
full Viking regalia from his performance. The bartender had on
the QVC Cable Shopping Channel. When Rowe asked why, the
bartender told him QVC’s talent hunters were coming to town
the next day.
“I tell him I think that sounds like the end of
Western civilization, and he bets me that I
couldn’t get a callback," he said.
Rowe bet $100. He won - QVC hired
him on the spot. He then spent three
years on the graveyard shift, from
midnight to 3 a.m., a time slot
that he called "the best TV in the
world ever."
He sold everything from Spam
to eel skin wallets in what he
described as a hybrid of sales
and stand-up comedy. Videos of
him hawking bargains survive
on YouTube.
"I wasn't exactly proud of it,
but later in my career I realized
just how important those three
years were,” he said. "By the time
I made it to Hollywood in 1993, I
had a unique training program in
home shopping."
After years of pitching and host¬
ing, Rowe convinced the Discovery
Channel to give him his dream job.
"I've always wanted to be ‘The
Discovery Guy,'" he said. “I’ve always
believed the way to work in television is not
as a host but as a viewer."
In 2005, they hired him and sent him to
exotic destinations, including Mount Everest and
the Egyptian pyramids. They asked him to do some
specials to introduce him to the viewers. He pitched
"Somebody's Gotta Do It," which produced three epi¬
sodes with nine jobs, earning a massive response and
viewer requests for Rowe to cover their job.
“It was not supposed to be a hit; it was not supposed
to be a series. It wasn't even supposed to be a show," he
See DIRTY, page 18
