The recently released movie “Pirate Radio” created some mixed emotions for Jim Goyjer. He was hired to be one of the pirate broadcasters depicted in the film, but destiny intervened and he had to walk away from the job.

Here’s the story: Fresh out of college in 1966 with his degree in radio, TV and film, Goyjer traveled to Europe and auditioned to be a deejay on one of the ships anchored in international waters and broadcasting rock ’n’ roll music to England. (Back then, the BBC tightly controlled the airwaves and barred rock music – even though that was the early era of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. That’s the subject of the movie.)

Goyjer got the job, and a great one it was for a young guy. He’d broadcast from a pirate radio ship for three weeks, then he’d spend a week in London, going around to hot clubs promoting the station. At $900 a month, it was good money back then, too.

Alas, a few days later he got word from his father that he’d been drafted into the U.S. Army. He never got to broadcast from one of the pirate ships – although he did get to broadcast from a military radio station in Fort Sill, Okla.

Goyjer, now 65 and vice president of media for the public relations firm of Carl Terzian Associates in West Los Angeles, said the movie was “kind of fun” but “not terrific.” (Many reviewers concur.) Still, it brought back memories. Some are not so pleasant; his decision to walk away from the job and go into the Army was the hardest he’d ever made. But he recalled: “What an exciting, incredible time.”

Banking on Tickets

Investment bankers, lawyers and executives at some of L.A.’s most promising companies gathered last week at the downtown offices of Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker to share their insights on the state of the market for initial public offerings.

Is it a great market? Well, not quite yet.

Alex Lehmann, Jefferies & Co.’s managing director for equity capital markets, summed up the nervousness of industry when he said 2010 “is likely to be a rocky year.”

Whether any of the companies in attendance go public soon remains to be seen. But if they do, they will need to hire an investment banker to underwrite the deal, and Michael Burke, chief financial officer of downtown L.A. engineering firm Aecom Technology Corp., offered attendees a bit of lighthearted advice.

In evaluating underwriters for Aecom’s 2007 IPO, Burke joked that he had one simple criterion: “Whoever had the best Lakers tickets.”

Staff reporter Richard Clough contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].