Reason # 108 On Why I Want A Job Soon!

I have applied for several dozen jobs in the past month, and I'm generally encouraged by the progress I've made so far. Some of the possible careers are in news (radio and otherwise)... some are in media relations... and there are others involving varying degrees of writing and P.R., among other things. I'm really anxious to see how this search is going to turn out for many reasons. First and foremost, of course, is that I could use the money! But beyond the obvious, there is also this... Friends, you may find this hard to believe (ha!), but I have opinions! The problem is, because I've worked in news, I have not been able to share most of those opinions publicly. Instead, the patient people I worked with in the WMAL newsroom had to endure my diatribes over the years.

So where am I going with this? See - I'm still reading the newspaper and scanning the internet on a daily basis, and I'm seeing plenty of foolish stories involving foolish politicians and other public figures out there. I'm anxious to find my next career path, because if it's not in news, I'm gonna open my mouth and let it GO! If I do go back into news, you won't hear a peep, because I can't be slamming people who I might have to cover again someday...

I can say this... Lord, there are a lot of TOOLS running our governments... and we only have ourselves to blame.

Good News For One Of The Good Guys!

A quick beachfront shoutout to my friend, Paul Duckworth, who decided late last year that he was going to end his 35-year love affair with radio, and retire as the Operations/Program Director at WMAL. Paul told us all at the time that he was going to "try" to stay out of the radio biz, but he didn't seem too convinced it would work. Well, his suspicions proved correct. Paul's retirement didn't take, and now, three months later, Paul is going back to his old job at the big 630. That's right - he's replacing himself! I've been warned by Paul and many other radio lifers that leaving the biz is easier said than done... We shall have to see about that. But in the meantime, WMAL is better off to have Paul back... and for the moment, anyway, Paul is no doubt happy to be resuming his affair.

My Kind Of Job!

There was definitely a time when THIS would have been for me!

Aggressive Street Reporters – Sin City

Oh the stories from Vegas. Celebrities, corruption, school violence, making ends meet, boom town, etc. If you’re a bust-your-tail, want-to-lead-each-newscast-because-your-stuff’s-so-compelling reporter…then the KDWN 24/7 local news team needs you in the entertainment capital of the world. Tools?…no problem. People?…professionally stimulating. Weather?…great.

Too bad I have a mortgage and a wife and two kids - and more to the point, an unfortunate affinity for blackjack! I fear splitting on aces and eights would be the death of me!

THIS JUST IN! - Yesterday's News!

Happy weekend, folks - Yes, even those of us in the world of the unemployed still enjoy weekends... That's because the wife and kids are around to help pass the time. I spent some of my time this morning reading the Sunday Washington Post magazine, and the wonderful article that lists 209 once-commonplace things that have become obsolete. Here's a choice example of something that has gone by the wayside, thanks, in this case, to the internet -

Doing Nothing at the Office
b. 1853 -- d. mid-1990s

The 20th century's best minds might have brought us many wonders fantastic (Decaf soy lattes! Shoulder-fired missiles! Plastic!), but what is truly stunning is the number of office hours Americans clocked during those same years doing . . . nothing much. Taking a cigarette break could sometimes nudge the minute hand a little. The water cooler was also created for this purpose. And paper clips. But in those many empty moments between tasks, much time was spent staring into space.

"When I started in the early '80s, there were word-processing centers," recalls attorney Howard Gutman, a partner at Williams & Connolly. "A 120-page brief could take two hours, and one mistake and you'd have to do it over again. Printing places would vie for business by having beds and food. If you were a young lawyer, sitting and waiting there really was your job."

Idle time's death knell was the Internet, which created a way to fill every moment while giving the appearance of productivity. The joys of making wastebasket two-pointers and using Scotch tape to extract nasal blackheads pale when compared with the minute-hand-massaging possibilities of Craigslist and YouTube.

According to Nielsen ratings, the average American visits more than 2,000 Web pages a month while on the clock; surveys by Vault.com suggest that close to 90 percent of workers spend part of their day doing Internet browsing that's unrelated to work.

This last factoid, of course, means that most of you are reading this at work... on the internet... the place where many more of you are now getting most, if not all of your news.... the place where advertisers are spending more and more of their dollars, at the expense of radio. Which explains all too well why radio news has joined the list of the obsolescent! Hmmm...

Unemployment - The New Fad Diet!

I was poking around this morning, following my new routine of starting the day by seeing what's new in the world of online job searching. When I googled "news jobs", the very first entry on the search page was this: "NewsJobs: Because you need to eat."

This made me laugh... Eating is something that is definately (or should be) optional for yours truly! But it gave me pause to consider that maybe the best thing that could happen to me in terms of my health and well-being is to NOT work, and therefore NOT be able to afford to eat!

And yes, perhaps Google was giving me a sign. The site in question, newsjobs.net, has not been updated in a couple of weeks, and had little to no value for me. This is better than Slimfast!