Six years ago, I got the phone call many in our business dread. Suddenly, after decades in radio, I was on the outside looking in. I had no idea what was next. For a while, I thought I had lost my career. What I eventually realized was that I had only lost my address.
For years we’ve conditioned ourselves to think:
“I work for ___________.
“I’m an employee at ________”
For a long time, many of us believed it. So did I.
You work for your career. The company is simply the place you’re currently practicing it.
Many of us have tied our identity to the station logo on our business cards. I know I did. The problem comes when we begin believing our career and our employer are the same thing. They aren’t.
Today, and over the past several weeks and months, some of the best programmers, personalities, producers, promotion directors, and managers in America woke up unemployed. Yesterday they were successful. Today, their email stopped working. Their building card didn’t work, BUT – Nothing about their talent changed overnight.
Radio companies eliminate positions. They don’t eliminate talent. Those are two very different things. They cannot eliminate what you spent years becoming.
This may be the first time in years you’ve been forced to ask:
What do I want the next chapter of my career to look like?
Don’t spend the next month doing nothing but searching radio job boards. Spend it reinventing yourself. Craft your story. Rewrite your résumé. Update your LinkedIn. Reconnect with people. Learn video if you don’t already know it. Start posting regularly. Call people you’ve been meaning to call. Teach. Consult. Mentor. Learn. Create. Volunteer. Stay visible.
Don’t wait for permission to stay relevant. And don’t let your age get in the way. Relevance has no age. To quote my long-time radio friend Cat Thomas – “Age doesn’t make you relevant. Being relevant makes you relevant. The horizon brings opportunity. Winners are just those who seize it.”
I know exactly what many people are feeling. Not because I left. Because I expanded.
Today…
I still coach.
I still teach.
I still produce.
I still write.
My paycheck changed.
My purpose didn’t.
The Layoff Doesn’t Get the Last Word
If today was your last day at your radio station or if last month was, whatever, let me remind you of something the paperwork cannot ever say. It cannot eliminate your creativity. It cannot erase your experience. It cannot take away the relationships you’ve built. It cannot silence your passion for communicating.
A company can eliminate a position. It cannot eliminate your potential.
Your career didn’t end. It simply turned the page.
For decades, radio people believed success meant finding one great station and staying there. Today’s reality is different. Not because radio failed you—but because your skills have become transferable. The skills that made you valuable in radio are still valuable. Communication. Creativity. Leadership. Coaching. Storytelling. Relationship-building. Those didn’t disappear when your email account did.
Your value was never printed on your business card.
Your business card may change. Your calling doesn’t have to.
