I will have to write about the whole experience soon, but I am worn out from a wild night of enjoying Taylor Swift’s concert. Let me just say that I believe she deserves the Entertainer of the Year award from the CMA and I don’t think it will be the only year she receives it. Great show, great performer. That’s my friend Joey with us who was thrilled to get to go see this show… he was already a fan.
I had some friends asking about the radio station I work for. I’m sure it is confusing, even to people that know that voice-tracking exists, to picture how I do my work each week.
The man that owns the radio station I do work for (down near the coast) has offices in Austin for a video company he runs. Within that office is set up a computer and a little mixing board that connects the microphone and other equipment to the computer. Programs are available now that show you the music (just like iTunes or any other playlist of music) but also allow you (me) to record something between the songs. Not only record, but place my voice exactly where I want it to be over the end of this song and the beginning of the next song. It’s pretty simple in this world of computers. The system we use is a little more simple than what I’ve used in my previous 10 years of doing this. I prefer the more sophisticated system, but this serves the purpose.
My little microphone and board are not really in a “radio station” or in a “studio.” It’s really just an office and there is no soundproofing and that’s why I go up there at night or one weekends to do my little midday show that airs Monday through Friday.
I was there last night and I’m beginning to wonder about ghosts. This office building is just a small, typical office building, like you’d find maybe a real estate agent or a very small practice doctor. It has an entry with a stairway and elevator and wings down each side that have maybe four offices per wing. Not big at all, and not old. But I’ve been working up there now for three months. Every time I am there, I hear the cleaning crew out in the hallway. I am aware of it because I wondered at first if they had a key to our offices and if I would be interrupted by the cleaning crew. Once they didn’t interrupt me, I kept noticing it quite so much. A couple of weeks ago I was there in the early evening and even saw the cleaning crew cart with the big trash can and various cleaning products out in the hall. I almost said something about “Hey, I’m always hearing you, but I’m glad to actually see you,” when I realized that, one, that would sound pretty stupid, two, they probably didn’t speak English so it would really sound stupid, and, three, there was no one with the car to say it to anyway.
But last night I was working and, again, I hear the cleaning crew. Just that sound of the cart being bumped down the hall and doors opening. This time I started thinking about the times that I am up there. Sure, it might be normal to hear cleaning crew at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday night. But on the weekends I am up there on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and, this week, Saturday night about 9 p.m. I doubt that cleaning crews even work every weekend in a small building like that. Wouldn’t they do their final clean on Friday and call it good?
Last night I got up my nerve and went and unlocked the door and looked out and up and down the hall and saw no sign of the cleaning crew. I hadn’t heard it too recently, so maybe they were through? No, I went back to work and heard it again before too long. Now I’m beginning to wonder if it could be the sound of something else? Doors thudding as air pressure in the building changes when someone come in or out? The thing is, no one else seems to come in or out when I’m there, it is very quiet. It is a mystery and one I expect I’ll have to continue to explore. Or not. I may just keep to myself in that locked office with all the lights on.
It is ACLFest weekend and the traffic is there to prove it. It’s the talk of Austin as it is every year, but I’m glad I don’t have to be a participant any more.
I went back to my blog from last year to see what I wrote about it last time around and somehow I didn’t write about it at all. So I will this year.
The first year of ACLFest was 2002. That was the best year ever. I was only a part-timer at the station, but the festival was really trying to get the word out and wanted lots of participation from the radio stations so they needed lots of stage emcees. Since I worked with some of the laziest men in the industry, many of the introductions fell to me. I introduced Asleep at the Wheel at the noon opening show. I guess that was on Saturday because back then it was just a 2 day festival.
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Well, I knew that would happen. I was thinking I should go check my diaries to be more accurate. So I looked at an online diary I’ve had for almost 10 years now and I don’t mention Asleep at the Wheel at all. I’m thinking now that they may have been one show that the lazy men did introduce since they were friends or because they had more prestige or something. So scratch what I said there.
I did – for sure – meet and introduce the South Austin Jug Band for the first time. So I got to meet James and Will and whoever replaced Warren on fiddle and Willie Pipkin. Now Willie has been part of Mark’s band for several years.
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Willie just HAD to be up here on the desk as I wrote this and found his spot on this hugely crowded desk. Then he rolls over and forces the keyboard off the desk and into my lap. This won’t last long…
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I also met the Derailers for the first time at ACLFest 2002. I knew Scott, the drummer because he and Mark were friends, but it was my first opportunity to meet Tony, Brian, and Ed. Tony Villanueva told me that they often listened to me as they drove home from gigs (I did all nights on the station back then, but it was all recorded). That thrilled me to no end that Tony Villanueva knew ME! He was one of my first interviews when I did afternoons. I think that may have been the only interview I ever had with him since he left the Derailers after that next album.
I also got to meet Reckless Kelly that day. I had heard a lot about them, but didn’t know what they sounded like and I liked it right from the start. I shared that introduction with Bryan Beck from KGSR. He was a good friend and fan of theirs already. I think I was willing to let him do the intro, but he was nice enough to share. My diary says I introduced Cross Canadian Ragweed that day, too, but I have no recall of that whatsoever. Weird, huh? I know I had heard of them at that point, but I can’t even picture them at ACLFest.
That was a great year for me at ACLFest because, like I said, the organizers wanted radio to play it up big so we had parking passes, admission, and free food and drink in a lovely VIP area. I also had backstage access to every stage. The weather was hot but nice that year and the crowd was manageable. Hard to get a wristband if you weren’t a VIP, but for me, it was great. It got less great the next two years once they didn’t need us anymore and those years I had to broadcast from the park, which is not nearly as fun as people think it is, but I’ll save live broadcast stories for another day.
This big cat has just about come over into my lap with the keyboard so I’ll go to bed. And for those asking, Nathan’s test results will be with us Monday. He’s feeling okay and eating good. He purrs and sits on the patio.
Okay, I didn’t literally marry my father, but sometimes I am amazed at the similarities between Daddy and Mark. And I know Daddy used to groan and not particularly want to be compared to Mark, just like Mark did today when I said, “I married my father!!”
I have been attempting to do some voice work for my dear friend Steve who I’ve worked with at Mix 102.9 in Dallas, ABC Radio in Dallas, and StarSystem here in Austin. Now he owns a radio station in Gainesville and I’ve done a couple of commercials for him, but I still haven’t gotten my “studio” tweaked the way I want it to be to sound right when I record for him. Upon his advice, I bought a good piece of equipment to process the signal and make my voice sound warmer and fuller. Mark brought me a great microphone (well, he’s brought me a couple actually). But the sound still didn’t sound right. Steve’s advice was that I needed a microphone filter.
Everyone has heard someone POP their P’s when they’ve been on a microphone. It’s something that disc jockies learn to control and radio station equipment is also designed to eliminate that burst of air from making a sound through the mic. Steve sent a link to one he recommended, but I hadn’t wanted to invest yet.
I asked Mark about his thoughts on a filter for the mic and where I should go to get one and asked if he already had one (that’s a great thing about Mark, most things I ask for in the way of wires, cables, audio equipment, etc., he already has it!). Mark said, “Here’s what you need to do. Get you one of those round things that you do needlepoint or whatever in.” An embroidery hoop? “Yeah, that. Get one of those and pull some pantyhose across it and you’ve got yourself a filter.” No way! “Sure, that’s all they are.” Right. Am I going to believe that?
So today he needed to go to Guitar Center and I tagged along. Then I thought about needing a microphone filter and figured they would have them. They did: At $20, $30, $50, and $70. So I asked what was the difference between the lower priced models and the higher priced models. The clerk was knowledgeable and said, basically, these two cheaper ones, they are like, just a hoop, with, like, nylon hose pulled across them. Incredible! Exactly what Mark had said. So, did I rush home and get my embroidery hoop and pantyhose and save $20? No, of course not. I still wanted the cool looking filter that attaches to the mic stand and looks impressive. I paid the $20. No, I let Mark pay the $20. Thank you dear.
Now why is that like my Dad? I’m sure I have other examples of Daddy saying the most ludicrous statements and thinking he was either losing his mind or just was simply mistaken, my favorite happened only 15 years ago or so. I say that so you’ll know I wasn’t just a rebellious teenager that refused to listen to my parents. I said something to the folks about not having any tomatoes on my big tomato plants despite a lot of blooms. Daddy said, “Here’s what you need to do. Get your broom and go out there and just wail the tar out of those bushes.” I thought he had to be out of his mind. He didn’t offer any explanation. Would the tomatoes cower in fear and say, “Okay, we give, here’s your stinking tomatoes”? I think I did do it and I don’t really remember if tomatoes immediately popped up, but one day I was listening to a garden show on the radio and someone had the same problem. The host offered the solution of going out and shaking or striking the tomato plants in order to shake up the blooms and the pollen and get things going. Unbelievable, Daddy knew exactly what he was talking about.
Obviously, I immediately began believing everything my father advised from then on out (NOT!) and I’m sure I will do the same with Mark.
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I have just begun a new family history project. If you want to follow along on the progress, you certainly can. Right now it is just off-the-cuff, writing from memory, and I will fill in more details as I go. We will call it Janice’s Big Family Project and you can find it here.
I know how to take a hint.
When Brandt was a baby, maybe 6 or 8 months old, I remember rocking him and singing the title song of the musical “Oklahoma.” Brandt solemnly looked up into my eyes and then reached up and held my lips shut. I got the point.
Now my cat is doing the same thing. I bought a piece of audio equipment so I can do some recording at home. It has to be “fine tuned” so I’ve been practicing some commercials and adjusting the knobs trying to make it sound right. So I am ANNOUNCING and talking very loudly in here in my office. I did this the other day and Nathan Jr. came through the house meowing LOUDLY and marched right in here. The thing is, Nathan Jr. is not a talking cat. Wilburt is the talking cat and his voices his thoughts quite frequently. Nathan Jr. rarely meows, but, man, he was coming through the house sounding like an alley cat in heat. He came in, jumped up on the desk and began biting my arms. Biting is another thing he just doesn’t do.
Tonight I was giving it another try and ANNOUNCING in my office. Here came Nathan Jr. meowing and he once again was nipping on my arms. This time as I played it back it was peaking and way too loud and there was bad feedback, too. Nathan was down around my feet biting on my ankles. I get the message. The cats will have to be confined to the porch for the next attempt at recording.
Saturday morning, Mark read the paper (online) before I did and let me know that Emmis Communications had had a big layoff and Susan Castle was gone. I have been bummed about it ever since. And even more bummed as I learned of other friends/acquaintances there that were also let go.
Susan is such a pro. She had been on the air on that station for 20 years, since its inception. In fact, I met her about that far back. I lived in Dallas and my friend Jamey Karr, a radio guy from Amarillo, came down to Dallas to see Del Amitri (I think). That was in the days when a record company would wine and dine and entertain you in order to promote their artist. Jamey took me to the record company dinner with the band before the show. Susan Castle was also there and I enjoyed meeting a cool woman that was doing well in radio in Austin. By that time I had “retired” from radio and was doing other things in Dallas, but missing radio a lot. I began listening to Susan and “Star 107″ whenever I came to Austin to see my grandmother.
Eventually we moved here and I met her once again at a Blues on the Green. Then, as I started working with “Unplugged at the Grove” every Thursday at the Shady Grove I got to see her there when she was the host. She was always fun to hang out with and easy to talk to and encouraged me to come get a job at KGSR on weekends.
Lady Bird Johnson and the Johnson family owned KGSR and that group of radio stations (KLBJ FM and AM, 101X, and the hip-hop station) forever. I’m sure many people in Austin have no idea that the Johnsons don’t still own KLBJ. When they sold those stations a few years back, just before Mrs. Johnson’s death, I knew it was the end of an era. They had already taken on a partner in the stations, so they were already turning corporate. I worked there, oh so briefly, in 2001, and there was a pride of working for the Johnson family, but there was already lots of layers of incompetentcy between her and us (or at least me, the lowly weekender).
They had a round of layoffs while I was still at KVET that let loose Peg, one of their long-time, KLBJ-FM jocks. They had layoffs about the time that I got let go and let Loris Lowe go, again from KLBJ-FM. They also let Bobby Ray go from nights at KGSR, but I understand there was more to that than just a lay-off. Just a few months back, they let Big Jyl, their promotions director for KGSR, go, and Jeff Carroll, who had been with the stations for 20+ years. And now another big group of on-air folks (and others less visible I’m sure). Susan, Steven Pickering from the news station, who I did not know, but I certainly knew his name on the radio, and again, poor Peg that had come back to work for them again. I know how that goes, don’t I? Three layoffs from the same company for me. Also, my friend Jonna Hayes, who had been laid off a couple of times at my company and was working weekends there. She and Peg were weekenders. Paid hourly. No benefits. I don’t know why a company needs to lay off weekenders. Usually, they let a full-timer go and then put a weekender in that slot at their hourly rate and they’ve cut their expenses down to practically nothing. They also let go a promotions woman, Jen, that I had just met a few weeks ago and was thoroughly impressed with.
And Susan was the music director of the station. They say they eliminated her position and that is why she was the one to go. Couldn’t they have eliminated the music director position and kept her on as a disc jockey at a cut salary? I wonder if they ever even offer that? When you’ve got a “rock” station or a “country” station, there are consultants and corporate people that can do a fine job of putting a station on the air and making it sound “rock” or “country.” Go to any town in the U.S. and you will find a country station that plays George Strait and Brad Paisley and Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts. There is a formula and a list and it is successful. But when you’ve got a station like KGSR, it is like a lush plant that needs tending. The staff and jocks learn from being there over time and interacting with their audience what will work and what will definitely NOT work. Why does KGSR play Charlie Robison and Robert Earl Keen, but not Kevin Fowler and Jack Ingram? It’s not just a whim, it is an identity they have created. They have let a vital link in the chain go by letting Susan “leave.” Believe me, they will hire someone for that position again, maybe not this year, but eventually. Sadly, a lot of listeners will not really know what has changed, but they’ll start experimenting and finding out that KUT plays a new artist they like, or that their iPod does a better job of keeping them company at work.KGSR hasn’t had a large audience in a long time. Their ratings are not stellar, but they are a devoted following that is a demographic that has money. Losing someone like Susan may help the bottom line today, but there is no way it is going to help or improve their station or their ratings over the long haul.
I wish I could offer Susan all the lessons that I have learned in this 18 months of radio unemployment, but I don’t know what they are. I know I can get by without radio and I am grateful my whole identity wasn’t based on my radio persona. I don’t think Susan’s is either, so I know she’ll not have difficulties there. But now I have an inkling of what some of my listeners felt when I was let go. It is just a total disbelief that they don’t recognize the value of what they had. She and I share a similarity in being so identified with ONE station that it is unlikely you’ll be hearing her elsewhere on the radio. Not that she wouldn’t be fabulous doing it and that she couldn’t do it. I hope she finds work that she loves again.
By now you have probably heard that Paul Harvey passed away at the age of 90. Who among us hasn’t heard MANY of his newscasts? In a way, I became a country music fan because of Paul Harvey. Certainly I learned many things about radio, how to deliver a punchline, and, primarily, how to do an effective live spot, from Paul Harvey.
I began listening to him in 1975. I was between my sophomore and junior years of high school. That summer I babysat a little one-year-old named Stephen every day. His dad had worked for my dad at the gas company for a time and was going to school and Stephen’s mother worked at the college library and was going to school, too. They were so young and so poor. They had the tiniest little house in Canyon. Every morning, I would drive into Canyon and get Stephen and every afternoon I would take him back home. From 8 to 4 five days a week and I made $20 a week. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And I know we (Mother!) had food for him every day and bought a few diapers here and there and did a lot of providing for him. It was worth it all. What a great summer that was and I learned a whole lot. I love those memories and I love Stephen. I kept him on and off until he was five and he was a sweet little boy.
When I would drive to Canyon in the morning, I got in the habit of listening to the short Paul Harvey newscast. Since that took my dial to KDJW, the local country station, I would end up listening to a few songs on that trip. That was the summer (it seems) that David Allen Coe’s “You Don’t Have to Call Me Darling, Darling” came out and that kept me listening. I’m sure there were others, but that one comes to mind. I discovered “Pop a Top” by Jim Ed Brown (and didn’t know until years later that it was already a “classic” by that time).
My favorite Stephen and Paul Harvey story: Every day I would feed Stephen at noon. We had a tall stool (that I have inherited) that I would put him on and I would tie a cup towel around his neck for a bib. I would turn on the Paul Harvey noon newscast while I fed him. It was a daily ritual. One day, for some reason, we had eaten a little bit earlier and lunch was over. The radio was on, though, and when the familiar voice of Paul Harvey came on, Stephen toddled over and pulled the stool to the place by the table and picked up his cup towel. Like Pavlov’s dogs, he was ready to eat at the sound of Paul Harvey.
Three years later I was working at KDJW’s sister station KBUY and learned more about how Paul Harvey was delivered to the stations. In those days, you HAD to backtime to the top of the hour and hit it at straight up noon o’clock. These days, radio stations can be lazier and Paul Harvey is automatically recorded and plugged in by a computer into another computer and it plays somewhere around 12 o’clock, not exactly anymore. So that’s why (in Austin) you might hear “It’s high noon in Austin, Texas…” and look at your watch and it is 7 after.
He was certainly a legend and I’m glad he worked as much as he did until recently. I think I heard him actually doing the noon broadcast within the last few weeks. I had posited a couple of years back that they had an imposter doing his broadcasts and had cryogenically frozen him. I guess not. I have been dismayed at some commercials they run during his broadcast that I KNOW are imitators. They don’t say “This is Paul Harvey…” but there certainly is the implication. I resent that. When you are one of a kind, don’t let there be cheap imitations.
I have an audio bit that someone did years ago. I don’t know if it was someone at our station or if it was passed on by someone else. Probably every disc jockey in radio has a copy of it now. It is a cleverly spliced “live” commercial by Paul Harvey advertising a bong. Yes, a bong to smoke marijuana. Deftly, someone took a news story about a bong and Paul Harvey describing it and its use and they wove it into some other live spots of Paul Harvey’s, primarily for the Bose music system, and made it a commercial for a bong, with the phone number 1-800-BONG or somesuch. It is just funny to hear a classic voice like that selling drug paraphernalia.
Now I wonder what ABC will do with that noon news. Ron Chapman, legendary Dallas disc jockey, has been doing the noon news for months and months now and he has the same style, humor, intonation, etc., that Paul Harvey had. Not a voice imitation, but a similar style. And what about “The Rest of the Story”? Those are timeless, of course, and many of the ones you hear now were not “new.” But already they have a tired feel to them. When the “punchline” is . . . “And that man? heh heh heh, was Desi Arnez…and now you know the Rest of the Story,” and the only people in the radio audience that have a clue who the person is/was are over 40? 50? 60? then it is losing its relevance. I predict the noon news with continue with Chapman, but stations will slowly start scaling back and by the time he retires (again) or is gone, there will be no replacement. And I expect the Rest of the Story will be gone very soon.
I am glad I am not on the air with that series to have to eulogize Paul Harvey. I would rather eulogize in long form print. He was a legendary broadcaster. Are there any active broadcasters in radio today that will go down as “legends”? Certainly not on a public, national scale like him. Even the folks with national shows like Tom Joiner or Rick Dees or Blair Garner don’t have the loyalty and devotion of such a mass of people. They ahve their following, but not that “popular culture icon” status. One of a kind. For sure.
I have wondered why there has been a sudden uptick in the number of people going to my website (the main one). Now I realize it is probably people going there from Facebook. Pressure! I need to update it so there is something there to see besides sweet Nathan Jr., huh? Maybe this weekend (along with the taxes).
But speaking of recognition… I’m wracking my brain about a girl I saw last night at Lambert’s. She was coming up the stairs as I was going down the stairs. I recognized her as someone I knew immediately and thought she was one of the dancers or regulars that comes to see Mark play at various places. She said, “Hello Janice” and I said “You’re late!” because the band was just about to quit. We laughed, passed, and I went home. When Mark got home I asked who the girl was that came in just as I left. He said he didn’t see her or didn’t notice. He couldn’t remember any women that were there at the end that I hadn’t seen already. So now I am perplexed. Now I am thinking I know her from my radio days. I think she worked in our promotions department. Believe me, I worked with a lot of college kids through the years so it is easy to get them confused and forget names. But now I feel bad that I didn’t acknowledge her further if that was how I know her … since I might not be running into her again.
Then again, she might be cousin and I’m just losing all ability to remember faces.
The worst part about NOT writing is having to get started again. No way I can catch up so I won’t really try. Another bad thing is all of the ideas and subjects I think “Oh yes! I must write about that!” i.e. I’m listening to Jack Ingram right now on the “radio” (computer website iLike something deal). I went to see a movie a couple of weeks ago (“Milk”–excellent) and my phone rang just as the lights went down. I didn’t recognize the number so I let it go to voice mail and checked it when I got out of the movie. It was Jack. How nice is that? I want to tell him, “I can’t help you now, you don’t have to be my friend anymore!” Big ol’ hit-making #1 country star calling me.
We caught up on our American Idols tonight. We had a lot of catching up to do after the cruise and all the long episodes they’ve had. Finally waded through to the end and they certainly put in all of the most obnoxious attention-grabbing singers, but I guess that makes for good television. I dearly wanted them to sit Tatiana down and say, “Sweetheart, you really can sing, but we can’t stand you so go back home to Puerto Rico.” sigh
I’ve seen some great music in the last few weeks. Catch Shurman sometime if you can. They just moved to Austin and a friend had been telling me about them. Finally got to see them on a really fun night at the Saxon a couple of weeks ago (and they’ll be back there on Tuesday night, 2/17). They reminded me of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Rockers, but not dance all over the stage kind of rock. And they TRULY had that “certain something” that an artist or band just has to have to make it. Something sexy and charismatic. In fact, an hour or two before they performed, I had already noticed two of the guys in the band, just hanging out, because that had that “something.”
I also saw Pat Green at his CD release last Friday at Waterloo Records. That was fun to see him and Clay Corn, Brett Danaher, and Brendan Anthony. I missed Justin Pollard, the drummer. Pat has such a sharp sense of humor and I haven’t gotten to experience that in a long time. He is a great entertainer. I did buy the new CD and can’t say that I love it. I need to A-B the new version of Carry On and see why it doesn’t move me (for the non-audiophiles, A-B means you listen to the two versions sort of side by side, switching back and forth to compare). I especially didn’t see the need to change the lyric from “Texas” to “my place.” Really? Does Texas in a song really send up red flags in Nashville? Still a great song and I love it. I tell Walt Wilkins how great it is whenever I see him since he has a writing credit on it, but he insists Pat wrote 90%. I think he just doesn’t want anyone to think he wrote his own name into a song.
I tried to go the Ben Kweller CD release, but the line was around the block. I did get the CD later in the week and I like a lot of things about it. Still a couple of songs that I need to get more used to, but I find myself singing “Fight” a lot and the one about the pretty head.
Well, I guess I haven’t seen that much music after all. I have the need and desire, just sometimes not the energy. I have been out to see Little Elmore Reed this week, too, but I like to keep that one secret (ha, like the whole town doesn’t show up every Monday no matter how secretive we all are!). Mike Keller did sing “No Blow, No Show,” on Monday and that made me very happy. I had discovered just this week where Mark keeps the recordings of their shows so I had already listened to about five different versions of that song (all by LER) that day. I’m going to have to make myself my own personal mix tape. I would have something so many people truly want–a Little Elmore Reed CD! I have heard the reason they don’t have a CD is because their leader is a perfectionist.
The past few weeks have been so incredibly busy for me, I have barely had time to watch 23 hours of American Idol, 4 hours of Grey’s Anatomy, 2 of The Closer, 2 of Lie to Me, 2 of The Office, 2 of 30 Rock, a Superbowl, and the news every day with Brian Williams (I have a huge crush on that younger man).
I was offered some new work when we got back from the cruise. It is difficult to describe, but it involves music and Billboard charts and finding songs that fit certain categories. It has been a BALL. I really feel in my element when I’m doing a job like that. The project continues and I hope it continues and grows! I don’t think that is going to happen, but it is fun to have a hand in something that makes me go, “Oh, yes! This is what I like to do!”
I was hearing some parts of the stimulus package today and I truly hope it works. I want the economy to recover, uh, yesterday. It can’t be soon enough to make me happy. I don’t know that any of the features will have too much impact on my immediately. Mark may get a little more money in his paycheck, but since everything I do is freelance, I don’t have taxes taken out of my checks and I won’t get that small amount that will be there. Also, they’ve extended unemployment benefits, but since I am working enough to negate that possibility, that doesn’t help me out. And there was talk about helping to pay for the health insurance when you’re on COBRA. My COBRA is just about to run out and we need to find other health insurance, so that probably won’t have an impact either (unless there might be some help for other kinds of insurance). I am an optimist and I feel recovery coming on.
I told someone the other day that we are all either optimists or in denial about the economy. I bought tickets to see Bruce Springsteen, for heaven’s sake. If I really believed that things would get worse and we would be in dire need later in the year, I wouldn’t have made that “investment.” (Hell, yes, it is an investment…. I am a music consultant, I have to see performances like this so that I can advise people, right?)
Okay, that’s my catch up and now we’ll see if I can get to some of the other topics in days to come. And pictures, too. I did take some on our cruise and I haven’t even looked at them!
It was one year ago today that I got laid off at the radio station. No sense going into all the bad details again, but it was a particularly bad day. While I truly had no inkling that layoffs were in the works, I had had some premonitions. That very morning, I woke up about 6 a.m. and laid there awake until I finally got up after a while. While I was laying there awake I was trying to manifest things by visualizing them. Primarily I was visualizing my boss being fired (or being hit by a truck). Anything to remove him from my life. I couldn’t just hope he would take another job and be gone because that had happened before and it obviously didn’t keep him from coming back. So I was visualizing him being fired and the happy dance I would do and visualizing the firing or exit of another co-worker or two. I guess what I was actually manifesting was “I don’t want to work with these people anymore.” Yes, my manifestation really works, as six hours later I was being exited to the front door, severance papers in hand.
Another funny thing about the year 2007. In numerology, it is said that we all go through nine year cycles, or seasons, just like a birth-to-death cycle in that 9 years. You find out what year you are currently in by adding the number of your birth month (March=3) and day of birth (15) and adding those digits together with the digits of the current year until you are down to just one digit (3 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 7 = 18 1 + 8 = 9) Since I first heard of this theory I have seen it “come true” through two cycles. In a “9 year” things “go away” in preparation for the new cycle. In 1989 I was laid off (hmmmmm, during a Bush administration) and had my best friend get married. I forget now, but there were several things that seemed to “end” or change with friendships and relationships. When 1998 rolled around a few things happened, but with the beginning of 1999 (a 1 year) new things certainly began as we moved to Austin suddenly and I had a whole new career. So as I was approaching 2007 I was leery of what the year would bring. Already at the end of 2006 Daddy had been sick and then died at Christmas. I felt like that was the bad beginning to my 9 year. We sold Mom and Dad’s house and she moved to her new apartment, a big “ending” when you don’t have the family home to go back to. It seems like there were some “endings” or changes through the year, but I remember distinctly thinking, “Well at least in this 9 year I don’t have to worry about losing my job!” Ha. The good thing about knowing you are in a 9 year and things are changing is knowing that the 1 and 2 year bring good things. I’ve read that the 1 year is a solitary year, a regrouping year, and then the 2 year is the year that the path for the whole cyle becomes clear. I’m counting on that!
But what has happened in this past year? While I would have loved it if another radio station had immediately called and offered me a job, that isn’t the way it works in radio (though every listener thinks that it does). I have a lot of people ask me if I am pursuing radio or trying to get back to it. I hate to say I’m not, because certainly that is what I am good at and I love doing it and would like to be a disc jockey again. That said, that station was really a good fit for me. Perfect. I was as close to what I think “real radio” should be as you’re going to get in this day and time…with the exception of KGSR, of course, which is without compare in Austin. That is the first station I did talk to about working, but nothing has ever come of that.
The real reason I loved radio was . . . no, not music, that’s what everyone always thinks…the solitude! I think when I did that first airshift and discovered I was on my own, doing a job, no one telling me what to do (during that time anyway) or bothering me, I felt like I had found my place. Later, as I moved to daytime shifts and took positions of responsibility, that changed. I hated that. People interupting me while I was on the air to ask about clients and meetings and trivial things. When I got back to doing nights again in Dallas, I was incredibly happy again. Once more, the solitude ruled!
I loved doing afternoons at the station. When I was on the air, I wasn’t bothered too much, really. I had my solitude and, yes, I do love music and that was all good, too. I have never been good, no, I have never been “at ease” with the glad-handing and emceeing and hosting remotes, etc., that came along with radio in these last few years. I had had very little experience at that in all my years of radio. Though I could do it, and I had to in order to make my income more than minimal, I never loved it. I didn’t dread it or hate it or feel it was a chore, I just didn’t feel the easyness I felt on the radio. So that is the part that I truly do not miss in this year of being out of the public eye. I have been asked several times to emcee an event or be on stage for something and I have declined everyone that I could.
In this year I have been doing some medical transcription, which I love, and some music booking and promotion, which is fun and I enjoy dealing with the people I got to know so well over the last five years. I am glad this one year anniversary is here and the lay off hasn’t “just happened” anymore. It is far behind me. I expect very good things to come along in the next year. A new President, a new hope in our country, new jobs being created, and new opportunity. The fact that Mark has supported us through this year and eliminated the need for me to go back to waitressing has been a wonderful thing. He’s allowed me the time to figure this all out and see where I might be going. I don’t know at this point, obviously, but I’m hopeful.
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