This show goes full-time December 8th...
Wow, I haven't been able to come here for three days at work. There hasn't been any time at work. I am really enjoying the hell out of my new responsibilities and it is exciting to get the benefits of several years of hard work. I get 2 weeks vacation right out of the gate and I earn three weeks after only the third year. Very nice. The previous employer I worked for didn't give you the third additional week until you had been there TEN (That's 10...X...) years. Bankers hours don't hurt and holidays are spread out over the year making many three day weekends possible. The benefits package with this employer far exceeds anything I have experienced yet. I am 100% certain now. My career as a full-time TV or radio production guy is absolutely dead so long as I can work at a place as nice as this the rest of my working life.
Yeah, TV was fun and doing radio was even more fun, but lets face it. There is no money in radio anymore. There is only money in packaging radio...ala Clear Channel. You don't sell formats, music or entertainment. Its all about selling focus group data and targeting demographics. The music you are allowed to hear on the radio is getting more and more watered down by the minute. Back in the day, there used to be a number of non-profit type radio stations run by colleges or other organizations that would keep the industry fresh by creating regional cult followings. In my musical search, I find myself going backward and finding the past a much more fertile ground for fresh musical ideas than anything you hear in the mass-marketed formats of today. Whole genres of music are dying and no one in the industry seems to care because there is no short term money in it. Well, even in the past, the cutting edge blues artists never made a fortune. It took many years of pioneering work (Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn...) to spawn an artist like John Mayer. Its sad that a guy whose best stuff is the blues almost has to hide it. The masterful guitar work he does in his live shows is squeezed out on his studio recordings so as to appeal to as many demographics as possible. Sure its good stuff...but will we ever experience real GREATNESS again? The answer is no...for the very same reason I am working at a bank! There's just not enough money in it.
Yeah, TV was fun and doing radio was even more fun, but lets face it. There is no money in radio anymore. There is only money in packaging radio...ala Clear Channel. You don't sell formats, music or entertainment. Its all about selling focus group data and targeting demographics. The music you are allowed to hear on the radio is getting more and more watered down by the minute. Back in the day, there used to be a number of non-profit type radio stations run by colleges or other organizations that would keep the industry fresh by creating regional cult followings. In my musical search, I find myself going backward and finding the past a much more fertile ground for fresh musical ideas than anything you hear in the mass-marketed formats of today. Whole genres of music are dying and no one in the industry seems to care because there is no short term money in it. Well, even in the past, the cutting edge blues artists never made a fortune. It took many years of pioneering work (Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn...) to spawn an artist like John Mayer. Its sad that a guy whose best stuff is the blues almost has to hide it. The masterful guitar work he does in his live shows is squeezed out on his studio recordings so as to appeal to as many demographics as possible. Sure its good stuff...but will we ever experience real GREATNESS again? The answer is no...for the very same reason I am working at a bank! There's just not enough money in it.