Sorry But I Just Can't Do Corporate. It's Been Proven Time and Time Again.

Ever wondered what it's like to be fired from your dream job and still find the silver lining? Join me as I take you on a rollercoaster ride through my rock radio career, where my love for REM kept me going during the exhilarating days at WQDR in Raleigh, North Carolina. From the joy of discovering new music with colleagues like Katie Schroeder and Tripp to the surreal and somewhat amusing moments leading up to my unexpected exit from the morning show, you'll get an insider's look at both the highs and lows of life behind the mic.

Switching gears, I share my gritty experience working at the Chandler Center for the Performing Arts, where I tackled everything from scrubbing restrooms to scaling 50-foot windows. Despite the grueling nature of the job, it came with its own surprising sense of fulfillment—albeit short-lived. When a paycheck that didn’t even cover a quarter of my rent made me question my path, I found myself at yet another crossroads. Tune in for a heartfelt recount of labor, self-discovery, and the relentless pursuit of passion amidst life's unpredictable turns.

Chapters

• 0:19 Fired Radio DJ Begins New Chapter
• 11:25 Finding Fulfillment in Everyday Work

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

that is a track from REM, one of my very favorite bands. Name of the song is World Leader. Pretend. It's just one of the tracks from the album Green and no matter what, if you release more than one or two or three songs at a time, it's still called an album, even though it's not an album anymore. It's probably a waveform or it's probably in some kind of a video or some kind of a release or something like that, but it's still called an album even though it's not, and I do love that.

Speaker 1: 0:49

I actually went and counted. I went through the entire REM discography and counted all the REM songs that I ever played in my rock radio career and it came to 45 songs. Most of them came from being played at the world's finest radio station, the world's finest radio station, wqdr, in Raleigh, north Carolina, and this was what I got into the business for. New albums would come in every day. All the guys would jump into a room, listen to them and say, hey, that's a good one, that's a good one, let's play that one, let's play that one, let's play that one. There were no singles involved at that time and I joined in with WQDR in 1980, and they'd been doing that for eight or nine years at that point, happy to have that job Greatest job I ever had in my career, I do believe, except for the custodial job when I was cleaning toilets. But more on that. Coming up in just a couple of minutes, 45 REM songs that's how good that band was, not to be forgotten.

Speaker 1: 1:53

World Leader Pretend is the name of that December 2012,. I'd just gotten off my morning air shift with myself. I did the morning show by myself with a couple of other people Katie Schroeder, funny girl and some sports guy. I forget his name. I think his name was Trip and I can't remember his last name. But that didn't work out very well. That worked out for about a month, I think, and I think I saw the guy, tripp, announcing a. I saw his face and recognized him. Can't remember his last name I wish I could, but he's just a Carolina Country Club boy and he got a job doing a preseason game for the Carolina Panthers and I was watching the Panthers game a couple of weeks ago and I watched him do the announcing on this. That's pretty cool and, of course, if it's a buddy of yours that you worked with on radio, you always think to yourself I could have done that a million times better and I I know for a fact I could have. But that's okay. Congratulations to him. He did, he did great, and he was with Steve Smith, the receiver for the Carolina Panthers. How fun that would be. But at any rate, I had just gotten off the air.

Speaker 1: 3:03

I did the morning show that morning and the program director, whose name was Foster at the time, meets me as I'm walking out of the hallway, trying to get out of there before I give him an opportunity to meet me, to tell me he wants to talk to me, like he always did every single day. Half the time I'd say, no, I don't have time, I'm teeing off here in 20 minutes, thank you, and I, and I just walk out of the building, you know. But this is when I say listen, phil Zachary, the general manager, wants to talk with you. So could you meet me in the conference room? And so you know what that is. If you're in radio, you know what that is. You're going to get blown out Shit canned, as we say in the business, is it OK? Well, today's the day I'm going to get fired. So I said well, listen, why? Because I understand if you're going to fire me, that's fine. Why do I have to talk to him? He said just meet us in the conference room in a couple of minutes. You don't know what he has to say. Yes, I do. I've known the guy for, you know, 20 years, worked with him. I wish you could remember his last name, but I can't. It was 11, 12 years ago, mike's. I can't think of his last name.

Speaker 1: 4:16

But they all waited around and we chit-chatted and looked down at the ground and I'm not saying anything and they're trying to make small talk and I sat in that conference room and waited to get fired for 40 minutes. In the meantime I was trying to get out of there. Look, I understand, I got to go, I got things I got to do. I'm getting out of here and I try to walk out and they'd say no, no, just wait, just wait, just wait. Okay. So I did that.

Speaker 1: 4:36

The least you can do, I guess, is is is hear the guy out. You know I don't know this for sure that he's going to fire me, but I know this for sure, if you know what going with it, you know, and he's got these other people around him and I'm looking at them. And I'm trying not to laugh because I know what's happening. I know what he's going to say. It's going to be some form of bs and a bunch of lies and you know a bunch of posturing and fashioning and statements and all this kind of garbage, you know, and and so about 15 minutes later, uh, I kind of got the sense by listening that this was going to be the end of it. He was going to try and wrap it up here and I heard his last six words, so I heard a total of 12 words of the whole thing. Didn't need to hear anymore and I looked up and I knew it just happened. I'd just been fired and I'd made it successfully through that meeting without laughing which I'm a good actor and so I didn't laugh, and so that was a successful thing.

Speaker 1: 5:38

And so I walked out of there. 10, 40, and that's the thing when you get fired, you don't say anything. There's nothing you can say. You know. I mean, if they're gonna fire you, then there's just nothing you can say. You just walk out and I took my little satchel with all my little bits in it from the day you know my notes and from doing the radio show and all that and I walked out and caught a tee time at 11 o'clock, I guess, down the road, I think.

Speaker 1: 5:59

That day I was playing at River Ridge Golf Course in Raleigh, north Carolina, and that's what I did every day. I'd get off the air and I'd go play golf. You know, there was a time there I was doing the afternoon drive and not the morning show. I'd play like 10 in the morning and then I'd do 18 holes and then I'd go and do my air shift at two o'clock or three o'clock or whatever that afternoon. So I played some um golf with a couple of friends. I said, okay, now what am I going to do? Well, the first thing you damn right, I'm going to do is collect unemployment, which I did, and it was good. I made like 500 a week, uh, in unemployment, and I think at the time time Obama was the president, I think they, they, they were giving it to people for, like you know, you know 56 weeks or something ridiculous like that, and I, and I think I actually cleared unemployment. I think I got checks for, I don't know, six months, seven months, eight months, I don't know something like that. What am I going to do after that?

Speaker 1: 6:47

The decision was to market the book that I had just written called there's Nothing Louder Than Dead Air. I'll just spend my time working full-time, marketing that book, and that's what I did. You know, I'd go to conventions and I'd go to literary meetings and I'd go to the bookstores and do live speaks. You know that kind of thing and I, you know, and I'd take my book stand with me and my books and I'd sign autographs and I had my blade live stand that I take to to the clubs at night and I'd sell books there and that'd be great and I talked to all the people and you know, and I went around town and and did public speaking events and sold books and I think for about six months, I think, I sold about a thousand books. You know I wanted to sell five to make a buck or two, but sold a thousand and then said, well, maybe I've just kind of tapped this market out. So what do I do now? Here's what I do now. I get the fuck out of here.

Speaker 1: 7:39

You know I've been in Raleigh since 1983. This was 2012. What's what? 12, 17, 29 years I'd been there. I'm tired of the radio business. You know, it was fun while it lasted. It's not challenging. I want to do something else, you know. So let's get out of here. The world is full of beautiful places. Why? And Raleigh, north Carolina, you know, for the last 29 years? Let's just get out of here. So I did. I told my family look, a girl I was dating at the time, look, I'm leaving. I'm going to go start a whole new life at the age of 52, somewhere else, and I don't know where. I ended up in Phoenix, arizona. Why not? I've always loved Phoenix Arizona. I don't mind the heat, and it was something new. The reinvention starts. Let me tell you.

Speaker 1: 8:33

It was tough. I had zero money. I went out there with nothing. I think I had $4,000 on me. I had a 93 Jeep Wrangler that I sold for $4,000. And that's the only money that I had and that went really quick after I'd found a place to live. So, as it turned out, I tried this job and that job and this job and that job, and it occurred to me after about two months, I'd be happy to have $20 in my checking account. I mean, I sold life insurance. I worked at grocery stores stocking shelves. I worked at Best Buys during the Christmas season. I did some acting. I taught a course or two at central arizona college.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Out here I did, uh, I was a janitorial manager at the chandler theater for the performing arts and I worked at dunkin donuts for a cup of coffee, as they say and I was even turned down for a subway job. They never told me why. You know why wouldn't you hire me? You know, I couldn't even get a subway job at that point. That's how bad it got. I think they wouldn't hire me because I think I was too old. I I just don't know how that works out, but you know, I almost took a job at u hall doing website stuff, seo and back end stuff, which I freaking hate, you know.

Speaker 1: 9:37

And then there was a dentist school, uh, that wanted a video editor and I'd gotten really good at editing video over the course of the last really like 10 or 11 years. It was kind of a side thing. I did, a hobby I did while I was on radio. I was editing video and I got kind of good at it. So I interviewed with them and this is where I knew that my opportunities were numbered, because it was a corporate interview and the hr people call up, they say we like to work and we think it's a good fit.

Speaker 1: 10:04

And, uh, can you tell us about a problem that you have solved in your recent past? That, uh was very, very difficult, and how you managed to solve it and how it affected others? And I was like thinking, no, no, no, I really can't. And I said that and I knew where this was going. If I lasted three questions, it would have been a miracle. And then, well, so what are your career ambitions in the video business? And I was ambitions, look. I was already disgusted after one question and I knew where this was going and I said, look, I just want to make a buck, hoping that this is the kind of HR person they would relate to that. But there was dead silence and that was the end of that. I didn't even make it through. Two questions hang up, click, you know. So the corporate thing is never, ever going to work for me. That was a very important lesson that I did learn that day.

Speaker 1: 10:55

And that very same day I got a call from the Chandler Center for the Performing Arts, nice, and they needed a janitor and I had $19 in my checking account and I said, sure, I'll take the job. And I was 52 years old. And they said, but look at your resume. You're a rock radio DJ for 30 years and you've done this and you've done that. And do you really want to be a janitor? And I'm like, yeah, sure, you know I'll do it, because I would have been happy to get, you know, like a $200 paycheck. At that point I was going to do anything. So they said, sure, come on in.

Speaker 1: 11:25

And so let me tell you something. I work nine hours a day for five days a week and by the time I got off of that job and I would drive to my apartment, stonebridge Apartments in Chandler, arizona, I would feel this sense of accomplishment that I had never felt before. I was picking up popcorn off of the aisles and in the seats, you know, from people watching the shows I was. I was, uh, you know, dragging chairs and tables from one auditorium to the next and and cleaning up green rooms, you know, and putting the popcorn and their vegetable plates in the rooms and scaling 50 foot windows and cleaning them and and and cleaning toilets, and that, wow, after a concert or a show at the Chandler Center for the Performing Arts. I mean, I mean I hadn't realized that so many people had so many problems in in restrooms and I there were some projects that I had that I had to clean up Wow, and and you know, and then you know you do one or two and you go, wow, what does it come to?

Speaker 1: 12:27

Is this what I'm going to do? Is this my lot in life? But then you get used to it and it's not that big of a deal. You know, when I'd leave at like nine or 10 or 11 o'clock at night and and I would go, this sense of fulfillment I didn't get it. So this is what a regular Joe is like. And so I did enjoy that job for about a week About a week, you know and I got that $212 paycheck and I love that and that helped me, you know, with a quarter of my rent for that month. What do I do next? Next up, the gambling problem starts here Working at Best Buy, selling home theater out of the Magnolia room and stopping by the casino on the way to work Wow,