A personal announcement

I have been blessed with many opportunities in my life. I am very lucky to work in the media and to also have a career as an entrepreneur. Over the past few years, I’ve somehow managed to juggle both, with a lot of help from other people and a lot of support from my wonderful family.

But I made a decision a few months ago that I’m sharing today. I’m no longer going to be hosting a four-hour daily radio show. This wasn’t an easy decision, because I love radio. And I thoroughly enjoy working at 1310 NEWS and Rogers TV Ottawa.

I’m doing this for a few reasons: First, the truth is that I’m a little too busy. I enjoy everything I do and I have a hard time saying no. I’ve always liked being busy and active, but my life has become a bit of a high-wire act and it really isn’t sustainable.

The second reason is that I’m starting to have more opportunities as an entrepreneur and I’m finding that really enjoyable and rewarding. Ottawa has a thriving business community right now and I’m involved in a few companies, I’m coaching some business owners and executives and I’m doing some work with Invest Ottawa. And there are other new opportunities that I’m very excited about. So I’m looking forward to spending more time in that space.

Finally, I’ve talked many times about how lucky I am, and how so much of life is based on the circumstances into which you were born. I want to spend more time fixing the inequities and barriers in society that prevent other people from having the same opportunities as I’ve had.

But I’m very glad to say I’m not giving up radio entirely. I’m happy to say that starting in the new year, I’m going to continue hosting a new one-hour version of Ottawa Today. I’m extremely grateful that even as I strive to have more balance in my life, I will still be able to indulge my love of radio, something I have been doing for almost 35 years.

My experience at 1310 NEWS and with Rogers has been one of the absolute best of my life. Having a daily conversation about what’s going on in the world, getting to chat with newsmakers, journalists and experts is incredibly rewarding.

I want to say an enormous thank you to all the people throughout Rogers who have been a part of my journey at 1310. I’m grateful for the support shown by many people, including Julie Adam, Scott Metcalfe, Mark Campbell, and Glennis Lane. I want to say thank you to the producers who have worked very hard to make this show sound good: Mike Murphy, Matt Krupovich and Andy Pinsent. And I want to pay tribute to all of my colleagues at all of the Ottawa radio stations. It’s an incredibly talented group of people and I’ve been lucky to be among them.

And I want to say thank you to you, the Ottawa community and 1310 listeners, for all your support. I appreciate every note and email I’ve received. There are very few jobs like this and I’m lucky to have one of them. I’m really glad our conversation will continue.

The final four-hour edition of Ottawa Today will be two weeks from today, on December 20. After the Christmas break, I’ll be back in January with a new one-hour edition of the show, including many of the same features, guests and contributors that I’ve been grateful to have as part of this show. And I’ll be doing more of the other things I love, including more entrepreneurial ventures, more volunteering, and more time with my family.

As I’ve said many times, I’m a very lucky person.