Brainstorm Breakfast

Monday October 27th, 2008 - Chicago, IL

This is the first Monday in a long time I didn’t have to take a train or drive into Chicago to be on WLS with Jerry’s Kidders. It started to hit home as I sat in a restaurant with Jerry and his wife Ann at 9am brainstorming ideas of what they can do next. We’ve been doing meetings like this for years and it’s never fun but it’s become a kind of morbid tradition.

We’ve both been fired in radio so many times and had to start all over again we lost our count. We briefly went over a few previous meetings and tried to at least remember which towns they were in but then it became one ugly blur and we stopped. It‘s all a big mess.

Radio can be a very cruel mistress and it makes no sense sometimes. This is an example of that and all the second guessing in the world won’t change anything. What happened is not going to reverse itself and it’s time to move forward. Jerry and I give each other a day to be miserable and angry and then we know it’s time to plow ahead. It’s that time now.

Jerry and Ann and the kids are like family. We’ve been through so much together we’re both familiar with each other’s history. I’ve known them going on 20 years now and have seen them move all over the country just like I have. This was the first time in years we’d had a chance to live in the same town. Now it looks like that’s not going to happen either.

Chances are they’ll have to move. Again. The kids are in school and settled in and they are at an age now where another move isn’t going to be pleasant. Ripping them out of yet another town they’ve just settled into will cause stress and I feel really bad for all of them.

Nobody ever thinks about this part of it when they decide to fire someone in radio. It’s a knee jerk reaction to save a few bucks and the ugly part of it doesn’t cross the mind of the monkey who pulls the trigger. Max moved his family to Chicago from Omaha for the gig at the Loop and then a year later had to move again after we got torched. It was very ugly.

I keep using that word but it totally fits. Radio is an ugly business and there’s no reason it has to be in my opinion. The Loop could have found jobs for Max, Spike and me in the company SOMEWHERE. They always say how much they care about their employees at the time but when we get blown out nobody gives it a second look. I think it’s SO wrong.

Jerry’s company could have done the same thing. OK, they want to bring in Mancow. It will be a huge mistake and he’ll tank the ratings in six months or less but if that’s what an out of touch imbecile in New York thinks that’s fine. But they didn’t have to blow Jerry’s two years of hard work and sweat out the door. They could have found a place for him.

As of yet they haven’t. And they probably won’t. I’ve seen this happen to both Jerry and me several times now and every time it happens I get more and more disillusioned with it all. This was a real wake up call and I know I need to work on my own projects more than ever. It really is all about the money unfortunately. Those who have some can buy time to decide what to do next. I wish Jerry’s family well in all this. They all got screwed again.