Post radio careers?

[blueboy]

Like to hear from folks who moved on to something else. What did you do? How long did it take to discover a new career? Looking for advice. I recently found myself unemployed and unable to relocate. In my 40's with 20 years on the air I must look to a new dream and find a different career. Any advice? If you have a horror story, well I would rather not hear it.

 

[radiophiler]

After 14 years in radio news, I left at age 35 to go into print media. Knowing how to "write short" was a benefit I was able to use in the particular print (and now online, too) medium I went to. That was seven years ago.
Guess what? Pay is better, I get all (instead of some) major holidays off, and my benefits improved. But the emphasis is on better and improved - which doesn't mean the same as fantasitc.
I made the jump while I was still employed. I notice you say you just lost a job. That may make your situation more urgent.
If you can afford to collect unemployment for a little while, aim for something with a decent bump up in salary. Unfortunately, there are companies out there that will look at a radio resume and say to themselves, hmm, we may be able to get this person cheaply. And that may be what they try to do ... give you only a 5-10% increase over what you were making in radio. Try to hold out for more. You have transferable experience to other careers. Don't let anyone tell you that you lack experience.
I miss radio, but I remind myself that, like many other things in life, there have been trade-offs. I left my first career love, but I got a better schedule, and slightly better pay and slightly better benefits. And I like the work I'm doing now. Not sure I can say I love it.
Good luck to you. There is life after radio.

 

[Matt]

Well, I guess I'll start this. All together, I put about 14 years on the radio airwaves over a period of about 18 years. Twice I found myself out of a job. In those interims, I tried life insurance sales, long-distance trucking and managing fast food. I always seemed to find myself back on the air.

Then I felt the call to the Ministry, and the opportunity to go back to school to re-educate myself for it. One of my part-time jobs while schooling was as a TV Master Control operator...all the technical acuity of radio, without the showbiz.

I was a church pastor...fulltime for six years, then part-time for another two. Then my wife had a serious injury that has required much time for her recovery. Things were difficult, and the powers-that-be made the strong recommendation that I give up the Ministry while she recovered. Reluctantly, I complied, against the desires of my heart.

Needing a way to support the both of us while she was in residential rehab, I began looking at things I knew how to do outside of Ministry. I spent six months delivering school buses from a manufacturer in North Carolina to destinations from Texas to California...good money, but it put me WAAAAY too far from my wife for too long at a time.

On a lark, I stopped by the local LPTV station, then known as WXIV, and met the owner. Several days later, he called me and said he needed a Master Control operator to work about 50 hours a week. The $$$ about equalled what I was making in my best days in radio, so I took the job.

Eight months later, the station was sold. The new owners were very glad to have someone who knew the operation of the place, and some handle on how the previous owner ran it. The night they took over, an engineer came in to convert us from operation on Channel 14 over to a new Channel 39. When I suggested that the call letters WXIV would not suit a station on the new channel, they gave me the job of picking the new calls. I researched the FCC database, and recommended WGSR. They agreed, so those became the new calls for a new TV station. Over the next four months, they gave me increased responsibilities for the daily operation of the station. That fall, the owners officially named me station manager. Money-wise, they treat me well.

Some months, things are nip-and-tuck...after all, this is low-power TV...but they seem to be happy with the way the station is progressing. We are doing local news, our cameras are all over the region, and sales are supporting what we are doing.

One other thing, as my wife's health has improved we became open to do ministry again. As it turned out, there was a church in this county that was in need of an assistant pastor to aid an aging senior pastor with his church. We took the challenge, and have found the combination of work and Ministry to be rewarding on many fronts. The conflicts of time have been minimal, but workable.

I do not know how long we can hold down both corners of the tent, but for now, it works.

Later....
Matt Smith

 

[CrapThunder]

I am working PT at a station here on Long Island, I have been looking into the private sector for a job to bring in money, However most private sector employers WONT TOUCH a radio guy/gal, because we are looked upon as job jumpers and wont stay at one job too long, so instead of going through the hiring process again, they simply wont hire you. Im in the biz 20 years and have been FT most of it, this past year the asswipe GM at my old station killed me,and here I sit.
Tough times ???

CRAP THUNDER

 

[RickSklar77]

What an interesting idea for a thread... I put in 23 years as a major market talent, PD, and GM. When I got bounced from my last position last fall, I had no desire to get back in. But I found it incredibly hard to convince anyone that I could do anything other than radio.

I happened to be doing some side-consulting while I looked for my great post-radio career, and came across a group of investors who liked me (for reasons still unclear). They offered me a job running a small manufacturing plant of theirs, and I absolutely love it. The fact that I met them was a combination of perseverence and luck, but the point is, I'm so much happier in "the real world", and finally... FINALLY... I can listen to the radio just because I want to, not because I have to.

The jobs are out there... keep looking, and good luck!

 

[Bob_Hudson]

Having spent 30 years on the air, my best advice is, "Marry for money...or at least for health benefits."

It is tough: radio announcing doesn't provide you with a set of skills that easily transfer into anything else. During my years in radio I always did something else when I wasn't on the air, and I have been able to make a living doing other types of media production from video to websites, but I'm self-employed and that means no benefits.

I will actually get $450 a month from AFTRA in another ten years, which - should I live that long - will make me one of the relatively small percentage of on-air people who evers gets a retirement benefit from it, however small the benefit. It is sad to see the continuing parade of long-time radio people who kicked out the door and have little or no prospect for a future job now that half the stations in any given market are owned by one company (and the other half by another company).

Sadly, radio announcing can no longer be counted on as a career. I would say that after a certain age (35 maybe) that you resist the temptation to do do just one more radio gig because, we know that one too will end and then you'll just be that much older and trying to make the transition to something else. If you have to fall back on radio again, try to get a morning gig, which leaves you time to explore other options.