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Radio Layoffs and "Back-up Careers"

CTListener said:
So your evil news director was the guy who left radio to become a flack for the phone company, eh?
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No, not at all. He left KTRH after seven or eight months. At the time, Packer claimed that it was because he couldn’t sell his house in California. Yeah, riiiiiight.

Toward the end of the year after I moved to San Francisco, my job moved to suburban Pleasanton for a little more than a year. By that time I had moved to Oakland, and drove to Pleasanton every day, about a 35-minute trip. One day I was using the scan function on my car radio. It landed on 860, which then was still based in Modesto. I heard a familiar voice reading news. Yep, it was that guy. He was working for KMPH(FM) in Fresno, with KTRB in Modesto simulcasting. So I tried to avoid using the scan function on my commute again, at least for a while.
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
The great thing (for me, at least) is that all those experiences I had in radio give me a unique advantage that the 20 and 30-somethings I work with now don't have. When I got laid off from my last job, some of us met for a "pity party" brunch after we were locked out of the building, and my manager gave me a bear hug and she said (tearing up) "I have learned...so...much from you." It's also cool to be able to interject into a heated discussion about Taylor Swift and say "really? Have you talked to her? She's really quite bright."
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Yeah. The perspective makes a huge difference.

When I got caught in the January, 2020 layoffs at iHeart, it was the Wednesday of a week-long nationwide RIF. The Market President, EVP/Programming and PD were people that I'd developed a close working relationship with, and the EVP and PD were and still are close personal friends.

When I got the call to stop by the Market President's office, I knew what it was. They were genuinely sorry and I, knowing it wasn't personal and that I'd be fine (my contract had a generous severance provision), was able to tell them that I felt bad for them. I only had to have that meeting once that day---they had six more after me.
 
michael hagerty said:
Yeah. The perspective makes a huge difference.

When I got caught in the January, 2020 layoffs at iHeart, it was the Wednesday of a week-long nationwide RIF. The Market President, EVP/Programming and PD were people that I'd developed a close working relationship with, and the EVP and PD were and still are close personal friends.

When I got the call to stop by the Market President's office, I knew what it was. They were genuinely sorry and I, knowing it wasn't personal and that I'd be fine (my contract had a generous severance provision), was able to tell them that I felt bad for them. I only had to have that meeting once that day---they had six more after me.
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This reminds me of what I went through. I'd heard that layoffs were coming, and when I got the "hey buddy, you got a minute?" call from the VP of programming, I turned off my computer and headed down the hall. It wasn't personal. Just business. I felt bad for the acting HR director who had to walk me out (I had my "go box" ready) and said so. She was baffled. "You just lost your job, and you feel bad for me?"

She was laid off a few months later.
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
This reminds me of what I went through. I'd heard that layoffs were coming, and when I got the "hey buddy, you got a minute?" call from the VP of programming, I turned off my computer and headed down the hall. It wasn't personal. Just business. I felt bad for the acting HR director who had to walk me out (I had my "go box" ready) and said so. She was baffled. "You just lost your job, and you feel bad for me?"

She was laid off a few months later.
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At iHeart, they'd already let the HR person go, so I was dealing strictly with my superiors. I actually prefer it. The HR person isn't someone that, if you're doing your job right, you're likely to get to know very well while you're employed. So there's that whole dynamic---your supervisor feels compelled to be "professsional", yada, yada, yada.

My first layoff was during the '82 Reagan recession. I was six months into my first TV job. Last hired, first fired. We didn't have HR, just a bookkeeper. My boss was way more distraught over it than I was...told me he'd bring me back the moment there was money in the budget. I thanked him, but didn't believe it. Ninety days later, he was on my phone with a better position and more money and I went back.
 
Deus Ex Machiato said:
Helps when you have friends at the label, I guess.
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Correct. This kind of thing used to be more common in radio. Today it mainly happens in the country format. Now that she's a pop star, she doesn't visit radio stations any more. Her old record label had a very active promotion department. The owner of her label used to do radio promo for other labels.
 
michael hagerty said:
Okay---I have to mention this. Your posts hit really different with that avatar. It's almost like that's the face you'd make saying that.
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IMG_1870.gif
Deus Ex Machiato said:
I actually skipped meeting her when she was on her radio tour. I saw this tall, curly haired blonde kid down the hall and was like "nah, I'm busy." A few years later after she'd blown up, I got to talk to her. Helps when you have friends at the label, I guess.
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My avatar is probably similar to the face you made after she hit it big and you realized you could have met her! 😀
 
cc333 said:
So I guess it comes down to this: do I pursue what I enjoy and accept that I won't make as much money, or do I go for the money making career and enjoy a reliable income that can fund my favorite hobbies?

c
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Consider reading this (gift link, should work), particularly the first of the five principles mentioned under the subhead, “Doing the thing you’re passionate about is overrated — for the young”:

 
CTListener said:
Radio professionals don't usually act like teenage fanboys (or, in Swift's case, pre-teen fangirls) when told a performer is available for an interview.
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And after awhile, it becomes almost normal. They're just people, after all. Reminds me of the time when I saw a label buddy of mine (who worked under the Big Machine umbrella) as he was walking a "new" artist around the building. He introduced me to her (stunning blonde woman) and I started needling my friend and telling jokes about him right away. "Do you know his nickname? There's a reason we call him that" and such. She was really sweet, and I said "it's nice to meet you" and walked away.

Then a few seconds later it hit me: "oh...that was Jewel. THE Jewel. Who Will Save Your Soul and such." She was promoting her country record, and it completely went over my head that I'd just met a huge 90s pop star.
 
This is a fascinating topic for me, especially because I've been going back and forth with a friend who's been looking for a new gig in the business and trying to get across just how much of a challenge that is in today's environment.

I don't know that I'm any great example of what to do, except for how to keep assembling enough work to stay afloat in and around radio without having had a single full time radio job since 1997.

In the years since, I've done TV news as an assignment editor and reporter, a bunch of industry trade writing (including my last "full time" job working remotely for Radio Journal/M Street Journal/Inside Radio until being laid off back in the aughts), 20 years of fairly regular on-air fill in work in public radio, and more recently focusing myself on contract engineering work, FCC consulting, station brokerage...

...and then a completely unexpected left turn into sales this year, when I was approached out of the blue to become the US rep for a European software company, which turns out to be a surprisingly good use for almost all the skills I was assembling in all those other pieces of a career I lovingly describe as "six side hustles in a trenchcoat."

It takes a lot of juggling to make it all work and there are still weeks where it's not immediately clear what's paying the bills, but at least if one piece of it falls apart, I have a lot of other ways to try to keep going for what I expect to be 15-20 more working years before I can start thinking about slowing down.
 
fybush said:
...and then a completely unexpected left turn into sales this year, when I was approached out of the blue to become the US rep for a European software company, which turns out to be a surprisingly good use for almost all the skills I was assembling in all those other pieces of a career I lovingly describe as "six side hustles in a trenchcoat."
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Sometimes you don't know what other people see in you.

One thing I left out of my long post upthread was something that happened during my brief public relations career. I was attending the Missouri Broadcasters Association annual convention. I think it was in St. Louis that year, but that part of the memory is now fuzzy. I was chatting up the various GMs and other attendees to promote my employer. One of them was Gary Schmedding, from KHQA-TV in Hannibal (really, Quincy, Illinois). He started pitching a sales job to me. That came totally out of left field. I never viewed myself as someone who'd be good at sales. I still don't. But I guess he saw something he liked. KHQA was owned by Lee Enterprises then. Though Lee was mostly known for newspapers, it had a few broadcast properties which were well regarded. So was Schmedding. In any event, this took me too much by surprise. Being someone who can take some time to process an unexpected event, I thanked him but went on.

A couple of years later, I made my turn toward computers and engineering and thought that would be my path. As my career progressed, it became apparent that I was also good at bringing people together and fixing working relationships that had become badly broken. As a result, I would be called upon to deal with some tough situations. I still don't think that means I would have been good at sales but it does mean that I was good at building relationships and getting people to work together toward common objectives.

I still can't visualize myself as having gone into TV sales but what if....?

fybush said:
It takes a lot of juggling to make it all work and there are still weeks where it's not immediately clear what's paying the bills, but at least if one piece of it falls apart, I have a lot of other ways to try to keep going for what I expect to be 15-20 more working years before I can start thinking about slowing down.
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I've been amazed at your ability to make it all work.
 
radiofan2023 said:
You’ve met Taylor Swift?!
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Someone I know once saw Taylor Swift in Tesco superstore in Congleton during her brief dalliance with local pop songster Harry Styles. (Fun trivia: TS has dated two men from the relatively minor English district of Cheshire East, which is also my original home - Harry Styles is from Holmes Chapel, and The 1975's Matty Healy hails from Alderley Edge, ten miles away.)
 
cc333 said:
So I guess it comes down to this: do I pursue what I enjoy and accept that I won't make as much money, or do I go for the money making career and enjoy a reliable income that can fund my favorite hobbies?
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This is me now. I have a reliable income from the university, and radio is a hobby. I've got involved with local LPFM, as a volunteer. I'm not on the air - I never enjoyed that part nearly as much as the off-air work, and it's nice to feel like I'm making a difference (the station is really diverse and multicultural, and works with all sorts of groups that don't normally get near a radio studio, like asylum seekers and local young people).

I get to have fun making radio, meet interesting people from around the world, and make my money somewhere else.
 
Miss Tuned said:
Someone I know once saw Taylor Swift in Tesco superstore in Congleton during her brief dalliance with local pop songster Harry Styles. (Fun trivia: TS has dated two men from the relatively minor English district of Cheshire East, which is also my original home - Harry Styles is from Holmes Chapel, and The 1975's Matty Healy hails from Alderley Edge, ten miles away.)
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So you're saying radiofan2023 has a chance if he hangs out at the local supermarket enough?
 
Mark Roberts said:
Sometimes you don't know what other people see in you.

One thing I left out of my long post upthread was something that happened during my brief public relations career. I was attending the Missouri Broadcasters Association annual convention. I think it was in St. Louis that year, but that part of the memory is now fuzzy. I was chatting up the various GMs and other attendees to promote my employer. One of them was Gary Schmedding, from KHQA-TV in Hannibal (really, Quincy, Illinois). He started pitching a sales job to me. That came totally out of left field. I never viewed myself as someone who'd be good at sales. I still don't. But I guess he saw something he liked.
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That happened to me.


They were dead wrong. I was back to programming for that same guy in three days.

Mark Roberts said:
I've been amazed at your ability to make it all work.
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Amen. Mr. @fybush is a force of nature.
 


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