Life after radio

[newguy16]

Curious about something — people on here that used to work in the industry who either chose to leave or were victims of budget cuts, what does life after radio look like for you? Are there aspects of your current career where your radio background comes in handy? Do you have any passion for the current industry you work in, or are you there just to pay the bills? I’m especially interested in whether you’ve been able to find a similar sense of fulfillment outside the industry, or if that’s been harder to replace. (As an introvert without a robust social life myself, having a job I enjoy has always been key to getting something out of life. But that’s just me.)

 

[radiofan2023]

I work for myself, and it’s ok. I like helping people, but it’s stressful sometimes. I have to juggle lots of things at once in my head and on paper, so that’s one aspect of being on air and behind the scenes I still use.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

I spent a long time working as a radio newscaster/reporter, but that ended many years ago.

Now I work in a role that includes technical writing. So quite a few skills transfer over. Telling my story succinctly is still useful.
But I had to unlearn the tendency to use power verbs. "Greenpeace activist storms out of Thursday meeting with Governor" is a good headline, but bad for tech writing.

While I miss the aspects of reporting that allowed me to rub elbows with people I wouldn't have met by chance, my current career is less stressful, in the sense that the pay is much better and I'm not out all evening reporting on a city council meeting that went 3.5 hours.
I also miss reporting on the nuts and bolts of government. 'Parks board awards $2 million contract to refurbish Wesley pool' isn't a super sexy story, but it's shedding light some place important, especially when you see stories like that several times a month.

 

[radiofan2023]

Another bonus is, I finally stopped having the nightmare where nothing works in the studio and the station is dead air!

 

[Weiserguy]

Let me know if you ever stop having the dream where it's finals day and you can't find your pants, so you have to take the test in your underwear.

 

[Kent]

Curious about something — people on here that used to work in the industry who either chose to leave or were victims of budget cuts, what does life after radio look like for you? Are there aspects of your current career where your radio background comes in handy?

In terms of whether radio experience comes in handy, yes, it absolutely does. Public speaking? That's the number one fear; death is number two. Theoretically, most people would rather die than speak in public. If my department needs someone to present, I'm the guy. Adaptability? Comes in handy in my job today, too. Working in IT, I never know what I'm going to do from day-to-day. I need to be able to prioritize, get the most important tasks done first, and switch between tasks depending on what else arrives. I learned that in radio. Basic computer skills? Who taught me AudioVault, Cool Edit, SAW, how to run a board? You probably know from your own experience that I taught myself most of it. We don't always have solutions spoon-fed to us. Radio teaches us how to manage. Stress management? When the EAS is going off, the phones are lighting up like a Christmas tree, and you're just wanting to go home after a hard day at work, you know how to deal with it. You won't last if you don't. Comes in handy in other jobs, too.

Do you have any passion for the current industry you work in, or are you there just to pay the bills? I’m especially interested in whether you’ve been able to find a similar sense of fulfillment outside the industry, or if that’s been harder to replace. (As an introvert without a robust social life myself, having a job I enjoy has always been key to getting something out of life. But that’s just me.)

I more or less like the work I do today. I do accept that I sometimes have to do things I don't want to do so I can do other things I'd rather do later. We're really not supposed to have a passion for work. I wouldn't do the job I do today without a paycheck, but it's a good job that I don't mind having to go to everyday. In terms of fulfillment, I work in IT. It doesn't exist in that line of work. You know that going in, and the burnout rate is high. I left corporate IT 15 years ago next month, and that was part the reason. Part of it was also that I was moved to another team that didn't gel very well, and my efforts to change that were met with hostility. Now, I at least get to teach IT and math once-in-awhile, and I feel like I'm doing a job that helps people and helps society in general. The IT Department of any organization, however, is always the punching bag. People will call you when something is wrong, but you rarely know if the solution you suggest to a user's problem helps. If you work in IT, you need to find fulfillment somewhere outside of work. I play trivia one night a week with friends I don't work with and most of whom don't work in IT. It gives me a way to stay competitive, have fun, and, when we win, we get to celebrate. I even met my partner of two years at trivia when she played against me on an opposing team.

Another bonus is, I finally stopped having the nightmare where nothing works in the studio and the station is dead air!

I still have that one occasionally, and I last cracked the mic in 2009!

 

[thenetwork]

5 years ago, when I looked back at being so gung-ho on getting into radio from college, I wished I also dabbled more with Television: Anchor, Reporter, or Weatherman.

At least I could have had a potentially viable career that would've lasted up until now, where the big TV conglomerates are now weeding out the dozens of tenured employees.

Back to what I did fall back on post radio: living near Cleveland, I did everything I could to get a job at the Rock Hall there -- from volunteering, to temp work, then FINALLY a full time gig once the museum opened up. This was even BETTER than any radio shift and I thought this was the answer. About 6 months in, internal politics came into play (a novel in itself), so I had to leave while I was still sane.

After that I became a jack of all trades where I could use my talents (sales and customer service positions mostly) over the years since.

 

[radiofan2023]

I still have that one occasionally, and I last cracked the mic in 2009!

But does yours ever feature Robert Conrad as the station owner glowering at you through the studio window as he's watching you hit buttons and wiggle wires to no avail? Maybe that's just me....

 

[Mark Roberts]

There was a related thread six months ago that you might be interested in: Radio Layoffs and "Back-up Careers"

My own unauthorized autobiography: Radio Layoffs and "Back-up Careers"

All those words still don't answer the question in the first post of this thread: "Are there aspects of your current career where your radio background comes in handy?"

The ability to communicate effectively and quickly would be number one. You'd be surprised at how many people struggle to express themselves. Learning to write coherently under deadline pressure was great training for dealing with emails, Slack messages, and so on...even social media if that should become a part of your job.

Another is understanding the concept of knowing your audience. This is not just a communications skill, but also a skill in learning how to make a corporate bureaucracy work for you.

Yet another, which may be surprising, is relationship management. I actually thought I was bad at this until thrown into a situation at one workplace where I had to get two teams to stop fighting with each other and start working together toward common objectives. Though not a natural diplomat, I pulled it off, found I enjoyed it, and ended up doing something similar several more times in different companies.

One more skill was learning how to deal with high-pressure situations where an urgent response is required without getting frantic or disoriented. I spent 30 years in cybersecurity before retiring, so this kind of situation happened to me often. In radio, I was a reporter, anchor, editor, assignment editor, and news director...sometimes all at once, sometimes in more distinct roles. Handling breaking news in any of those roles had a lot of similarities to cybersecurity incident response.

I think I applied more energy to my first career (radio journalism) than my second. Some of that was a function of age, some of that was realizing that you can't get totally absorbed in your work; there are times when you need to take a step back to regain perspective on what you're trying to do and how you're trying to do it.

As I read what I'm writing in this post, it comes across to me as a little vague and maybe not all that practical, but I hope it's at least somewhat useful.

 

[radiofan2023]

@Mark Roberts
You make some really good points.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I spent a long time working as a radio newscaster/reporter, but that ended many years ago.

Now I work in a role that includes technical writing. So quite a few skills transfer over. Telling my story succinctly is still useful.
But I had to unlearn the tendency to use power verbs. "Greenpeace activist storms out of Thursday meeting with Governor" is a good headline, but bad for tech writing.

I bet you also had to make peace with the passive voice. The funny thing is, I hear the passive voice in more and more broadcast writing. I still have an allergic reaction to it, but sometimes it is the least clumsy way of trying to say something when it's more important to communicate what needs to be done rather than who needs to do it.

 

[davideduardo]

Another bonus is, I finally stopped having the nightmare where nothing works in the studio and the station is dead air!

That is related to the one where you are locked out of the studio and the song is ending….

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

Curious about something — people on here that used to work in the industry who either chose to leave or were victims of budget cuts, what does life after radio look like for you? Are there aspects of your current career where your radio background comes in handy? Do you have any passion for the current industry you work in, or are you there just to pay the bills? I’m especially interested in whether you’ve been able to find a similar sense of fulfillment outside the industry, or if that’s been harder to replace. (As an introvert without a robust social life myself, having a job I enjoy has always been key to getting something out of life. But that’s just me.)

It was a tough adjustment when I was "wished well in all his future endeavors" due to budget cuts, and it was complicated by this whole "global pandemic" thing that happened not long after, but I managed to find a new career working in the autonomous vehicle industry in 2021. Been there ever since, and yes, I have a passion for it. I work with self-driving cars, robots, very smart people, and since it's "the tech industry" a lot of my co-workers are half my age...which keeps me on my toes.

As Mark mentioned above, the communication skills are important, and since there are a lot of introverts in the tech space, it helps me to stand out. Also, the ever-changing environment is easier to navigate because I learned a long time ago (when radio was still all live) to improvise in unexpected situations. My best answer to the classic job interview question of "what was a stressful event that happened at work and how did you handle it?" starts with "so I was on stage as an emcee at this hip hop show in front of thousands of people when someone came up and told me that the next act was stuck in traffic and you need to keep the crowd entertained until their limo gets here."

An interesting thing that happened as well is that when I got out of "the industry," I also got out of the bubble. Started seeing things from outside of "the radio business" for the first time in decades and it's led to some...ah..."spirited discussions" on this forum about the future of radio in general. When the topic of new music comes up at work, I haven't heard anyone under the age of 30 say something like "bro, I heard this new song on the radio, and it was fire."

That said, I still have the "radio nightmares." The most common one is where all of the music in the studio has been replaced by a bunch of promotional singles from artists who never went anywhere, and the PD is on the hotline demanding that I follow the music log...