What If?

[Bryan Simmons]

That being said, sure seems like a lot of radio people leave feet first, on a gurney.

Bryan, with all due respect, that just tells me that the scope of your experience is in radio.

I've worked in retail sales, several warehouses, print shops, call centers, steel fabrication plants, newspapers, a film company, and various and sundry other enterprises over the past 35 years, and the bottom line is this:

It sure seems like a lot of people, regardless of their line of work, leave feet first, on a gurney. Radio, in and of itself, is not the specific cause of any disease.

It's not radio, it's those in charge that create stress. Bottom line, as I said in my above post, you can work in any business and be stressed to the point that it affects your health, radio just has bosses that seem to do a good job of bringing it on. As I also mentioned, heredity has it's hand in our health as does diet and lifestyle. Radio has always been a high pressure, cut throat business. I was told that by my radio teacher when I started. I've certainly seen the business chew up and spit out people, very good ones. But hey, I love radio, and I've had the good fortune to work for some very good people over the last 34 years. I've been lucky and while I have had my health concerns, I'm still kickin'...

 

[LKellerIII]

For the last decade, I've worked in a public sector agency, and I've seen a lot of premature death among fellow employees from heart attacks, strokes, etc. Though some of our jobs could be called stressful to one degree or another, I'd say that most aren't. Most of the premature deaths where I work have been traceable back to "lifestyle choices" - primarily the diseases caused by overindulgence in food.

Having said that, I can tell you that two of the worst episodes in my life involved losing my job (one my fault, one not). Job insecurity is difficult to deal with, and that's got to be hard for people working in radio.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

...radio just has bosses that seem to do a good job of bringing it on. ... Radio has always been a high pressure, cut throat business. I was told that by my radio teacher when I started. I've certainly seen the business chew up and spit out people, very good ones.

Does anyone think that radio has the market cornered on @$$hole bosses? It doesn't, and it's nowhere close. Try working in sales. Try working in customer service. Try working in retail. Try working in a restaurant.

The hundreds upon hundreds (upon hundreds) of people I've met in radio have been overwhelmingly nice human beings. The ratio is probably 75:1 nice people to orifices.

And not all of the jerks I've met in radio were in management...

 

[calguy]

...radio just has bosses that seem to do a good job of bringing it on. ... Radio has always been a high pressure, cut throat business. I was told that by my radio teacher when I started. I've certainly seen the business chew up and spit out people, very good ones.

Does anyone think that radio has the market cornered on @$$hole bosses? It doesn't, and it's nowhere close. Try working in sales. Try working in customer service. Try working in retail. Try working in a restaurant.

The hundreds upon hundreds (upon hundreds) of people I've met in radio have been overwhelmingly nice human beings. The ratio is probably 75:1 nice people to orifices.

And not all of the jerks I've met in radio were in management...

Does anyone think that radio has the market cornered on @$$hole bosses? Not cornered, but it seems to have more than it's fair share. Yes, there are plenty of nice people working in the industry. More nice than not. However, personal experience has shown plenty of tools in the biz, in every department. Doesn't matter where you work, there's always a jerk or two there. I've had horrible bosses (GM's & PD's) and really nice ones too. Some of the biggest a&% holes were other jocks with massive ego's. So, you were lucky, that's cool, but believe me the jerks are there.

 

[michael hagerty]

...radio just has bosses that seem to do a good job of bringing it on. ... Radio has always been a high pressure, cut throat business. I was told that by my radio teacher when I started. I've certainly seen the business chew up and spit out people, very good ones.

Does anyone think that radio has the market cornered on @$$hole bosses? It doesn't, and it's nowhere close. Try working in sales. Try working in customer service. Try working in retail. Try working in a restaurant.

The hundreds upon hundreds (upon hundreds) of people I've met in radio have been overwhelmingly nice human beings. The ratio is probably 75:1 nice people to orifices.

And not all of the jerks I've met in radio were in management...

Does anyone think that radio has the market cornered on @$$hole bosses? Not cornered, but it seems to have more than it's fair share. Yes, there are plenty of nice people working in the industry. More nice than not. However, personal experience has shown plenty of tools in the biz, in every department. Doesn't matter where you work, there's always a jerk or two there. I've had horrible bosses (GM's & PD's) and really nice ones too. Some of the biggest a&% holes were other jocks with massive ego's. So, you were lucky, that's cool, but believe me the jerks are there.

I always found that the massive egos weren't the biggest stress-inducers...it was the clueless managers.

By and large, the big egos did what they needed to do to win....and that usually produced ratings.

Clueless managers who didn't understand the medium and how people use it were likely to make decisions catastrophic to the survival of the station and your future employment as a result.

 

[SFStatic]

Well said, Michael!

 

[calguy]

Plenty of clueless managers in radio that's for sure. Funny, the guys with big egos that I had problems with didn't win. They let their egos rule them to the point that they couldn't see that what they were doing didn't work. A few of them became managers and ruined more than a few stations...