Plan B: For those who have grown discouraged in Radio’s Job Market

   So you have a great package, e-mailed, or sent out some one hundred thousand of these “Works of Art”, waited months and months, posted “Situation Wanted” ads on every Broadcaster’s Association career page, and even scour places like CBS Careers, Clear Careers and painstakingly have gone to hundreds of individual station & network websites uploaded your CV & demo so many times it would get you admitted to UCLA’s Psychiatric unit faster than Brittney Spears for A Terminal Depressive disorder.


   No offers yet? OK let’s break this down a little bit. Great CV, Headshot, (preferably by Kevyn Major Howard- although it don’t have to be) Great Audio Demo (usually an Mp3  less than 2 min and 3mb in size) Stellar cover letter you paid a collage English Professor beau-coup bucks to write for you. (I still write my own, thanks) Included in that package, any other materials that is asked for. 

  

You still have no offers? 

   It’s time to manufacture a secondary plan of action, a “Plan B” if you will.

This is me, and I’m not the bitter type as I have been “on the beach” for over a year now from my former position as an air-talent, talks producer, and utility player from WZFG-AM in Fargo, ND. 

  I played a role in the launch of that 50kw state of the art facility, with the technical skill set that was needed in Programming, to help everyone including myself, through the extremely steep learning curve of a brand new station that nobody really had time to do “dry runs” or really learn how the equipment operated. I was really the only one who had a chance to work with the automation, Learn the delay system, IP console, Transmitter operations, that even the PD had to be brought up to speed on. 

   Anyway, the payback for this was I was able to identify numerous issues that needed to be repaired for the engineers, and was able to pick up on malfunctions that easily could have taken the stations off of the air during the day instead of overnight when we had fewer listeners.

   In 2009 the economic situation had reached a point where some cuts needed to be made. Every group in the market cut a few. The group I was with cut 8 initially back to part time from full time later the total became 16. I decided to give it a whirl, although I knew I would need full time to prevent from becoming homeless without a “Plan B”.

  I lived for a while off of my savings and a few pick up positions until the insanity had hit a breaking point.
I made a call to a former employer and bought some equipment that I needed to get my home studio running again, this time I’m in New Mexico and the economy is even more messed up than North Dakota’s.

The Plan:

   I had a few flashes of brilliance as I sat reading the trades, while doing what I described above. I had come to the conclusion on how a bitter broadcaster (not meaning myself) or a very discouraged one (we’ve all been there) could get revenge on an employer without them really knowing it unless they were told. 

First: Do not work, find a cheap apartment or place to live with little expenses. (Subsidized housing, Housing Assistance, HUD programs & Section 8 Housing)

Second:  Apply for benefits food stamps, state benefits. If you are working with a disabling issue, and are good at hiding I from bosses.. SSD/SSI Psychiatric doctors are dying to diagnose anxiety, PTSD from firings, bad employers… etc.          

Third:  Alcoholism, not a great thing, but it sure helps.

Fourth: Send those employers that you last worked for a “Thank You” card for allowing you to live on the taxes they pay to the US Government. In a way they are giving you a free living. I’m sure that will go over well with companies like Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, and CBS. Many “Mom & Pop” LLC’s may fume for a while also, but they made their bed… and the former employees now sleep in it. 

Brian Douglas Spieker

Delicate Thunder Studios

Owner/Producer/Audio Engineer/VO Talent