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7 Reasons Radio People Die Younger

Pardon me for not laughing. I'm thinking about the colleagues I know who died young:
Dave got cancer, beat it, but then died of pneumonia because the Chemo killed his immune system.
Bill was overweight, drank coffee and smoked. He also did morning drive. He had a heart attack.
Allen did drugs for years. He had a stroke, recovered, then died of a heart attack.
Leif died of a heart attack, with no prior warning of any health issues at all.
Randy died of a heart attack, also with no warning.
Ralph put a bullet through his head.
John was driving home from work when a forklift got knocked off a truck, and smashed his Honda.
I know I'm forgetting some others. Many of us went without medical benefits, but the lack of dental care might also have been a factor. Stress played a part too. Lack of sleep is also an issue.
All died right around age 54. That seems to be the magic number, and I'm getting close to that.
(I feel like I'm fixin to die....)
g
 
Sorry to hear about your friends...but radio isn't the cause. Diet, lifestyle, personality, stress (self-made and corproate induced) all played a role.

I too am in my mid 50's...both my Father and his brother had heart attacks in their early 40's. Both smoked...a lot...and both could have lost a few pounds. NEITHER was in the business but both had highly stressful jobs and lives.

There is no "magic number"...thining like that will put stress on you and that will kill you!

Still smoking? Stop. Forget the pills, potions and lotions....just stop.
Oveerweight? Eat a salad. Ride a bike. Drop the 20 or 30 and if it is more see a Doc.
Stress? Figure out the cause and either get rid of it, fix it or move on.

No medical insurance? Find a better employer. Any company that cannot provide medical insurance isn't worth working for. As for dental...same thing.

If we all stopped working for pennies and stopped taking the abuse then things **might** get better. But so long as there is someone who will work for no beneifts and mininum wage we all have problems.
 
justareporter said:
If you don't get time off for medical stuff it is time to find a new job.
Click to expand...

I agree. True story. An engineer at a major market 50kw station, on the day his wife was in labor, was told that if he left for the hospital, he shouldn't bother to come back.
 
My friend Calvin worked for Mr. Davis for more than 16 years, without health insurance.
Stinky Davis died, the station was sold. The corporate buyer insisted every employee have a physical. They found Calvin had diabetes. They amputated his foot. Then they took the other foot. Within hours he had a heart atack and died.
 
We all knew the risks when we decided to get into this racket.

Hey...some of us are likely to die of electruction or falling from a tower if we're not careful (or it's just our time to go)
 
murcuryvapor said:
You left out the diet of crap.
Click to expand...

Ahh yes. Friend/colleague says he got his diabetes from eating so many noodle soups and potato chip snacks at one of his old jobs.

He wasn't allowed a lunch hour, so he had to subsist on vending machine type snack crap.
 
Look...management continues to treat employees like garbage 'cause we continue to work for them. If they pay you crap and refuse to give you health insurance or no time off when your wife is in labor go do something else.

CC, Citadel and others are having a hard time finding good people because they have years of history treating people in many markets like dirt. It all comes home sooner or later.

And unionize. Nothing beats a good union vote.
 
Let’s see. Mike and Ken had diabetes, both had heart attacks. Tiny had diabetes, went blind. News guy went to rehab.. we buried a sports guy…Tim had a heart attack...died at 35. Last gig had a million watt weather radar sitting 20 feet above us…and asbestos in the stairwell. Nice. We used to hold fluorescent bulbs (the long ones) and watch em glow down to our hands from the RF at one group I worked for.
But, think about this: Read an article, years ago, about stress. ‘Said in a 4 hour air show..a jock had the equal amount of stress as a mid level executive’s 8 hour day, compressed into 4. Then, we deal with the other 6 hours of our normal broadcast day. Stress. It’s a killer.
Meanwhile, I’ve been sucking down coffee since 330 this morning. How about you?
 
Maybe there's a parallel with musicians. Check out Whitburn or any reference books that have biographical details about musicians and you'll see countless younger demises. Five original Temptations and only one made it out of their mid 50s? Hmmm
 
Too many people in radio (and other occupations, too, for that matter) take an "I'll sleep when I'm dead" approach to life and work. If they themselves don't take this attitude, you can bet their employers will do it for them! Problem is, this attitude and this "burning the candle at both ends" lifestyle will indeed lead to an early grave. Along the way, it might also include alcoholism, drug abuse, excessive smoking, a sedentary lifestyle (other than the "constantly on the go" mindset that radio seems to require from people), eating too much junk food, not eating a healthy diet, etc.

And yes, I think there is a parallel among musicians. Many of them do, indeed, "hope they die before they get old." Rock stars don't age well. Look at Keith Richards, if you can stand to! ;D Most of these guys want to die young, and be remembered as legends, rather than live too long and become Vegas lounge lizards, like Elton John has done, or record too many albums of cover songs, like Rod Stewart has done. Who would have ever thought that Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow would ever go after the same audience? ???
 
firepoint525 said:
Rock stars don't age well. Look at Keith Richards, if you can stand to! ;D
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, given all that he's endured, Keith Richards *has* aged well. Though it helps that he's got the dough, an apparently loving and enduring marriage, and the inherent style to wear his years with a certain grace.

He looks a lot better at 65 than a lot of radio dewds do at 45 or 55.
 
adma said:
firepoint525 said:
Rock stars don't age well. Look at Keith Richards, if you can stand to! ;D
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, given all that he's endured, Keith Richards *has* aged well. Though it helps that he's got the dough, an apparently loving and enduring marriage, and the inherent style to wear his years with a certain grace.

He looks a lot better at 65 than a lot of radio dewds do at 45 or 55.
Click to expand...
That alone is a scary thought! :eek:
 
that whole RF thing is a load of crap, what about people that live in neighbor hoods where the towers are, you don't hear about them not reproducing or dropping dead! LOL!!! RF is passing through us all the time if not from the towers near or far, it comes from the the suns cosmic ( just as microwaves) don't believe the hype!!
 
At my first radio gig, the transmitter sat not 10 feet away from the air studio.
I was warned by many, this will make me sterile.

Many years later, I'm the proud father of 6. So much for THAT theory.

Percentage wise, I don't think radio people have the dead thing over any other profession.
A certain number of us, white collar, blue collar, black, white, die young.
We're not different or special than anyone else. Just the way it is.
 
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