The Road Not Taken: Good Night And God Bless

This post is part of #Theroadnottaken series.

This isn't so much a story of the road not taken as it is more the road abandoned. Since I was a child I had always wanted to be on radio. It combined two of my greatest loves, music and entertaining people. The feeling I get when I make someone laugh or smile fills my soul with happiness while music has always allowed me a way to express my most private moments and feelings in a very public way.

I did some college radio while I attended Siena College (88.3 WVCR in Loudonville, NY) and volunteered at the radio station for Nova University in South Florida (WNKR cable radio). I was good enough to be inducted into the first WNKR's radio Hall of Fame class in 1991. I even did some radio on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) while doing work ups and a deployment back in the late 90's. Radio was never far out of my thoughts. In the meantime, I was enjoying life as best I could sailing the seven seas as a member of The United States Navy. Then a miracle happened, at least as far as radio and I were concerned. In November of 2001, I won a contest for a pair of hockey tickets from a radio station in Norfolk, VA. I had just transferred back there from Maryland and was listening to 96X, a stationed that I was familiar with and had loved during my previous tour of duty in the Hampton Roads area.

The show was a new one and I quickly became friends with the two hosts of the program. To make a long story short, I ended up becoming a part of the on air team. This would eventually allow me the opportunity to have my own show and for five years I was on top of the world doing my dream job. It was everything that I though it would be. I was making people laugh daily. I was getting to interact with some of the biggest names in the alternative music scene of the time. I was growing my fan base. I had a reputation as a party dude with an incredible amount of musical knowledge. I would eventually be featured on two shows, the top rated Mike and Bob show where I got my start and my own top 10 show, The Alfredo Torres Debacle. I had it all except for one thing…money.

There is the one dirty little secret about radio that very few people outside of the business really know, and that is radio personalities make next to nothing. You have a couple of top tier guys, you know, the Howard Sterns and the Rush Limbaughs of the radio world. The voices that are known all over the airwaves. Many radio jocks fall into the middle tier. They are the local voices who make some good money. The long time local radio guys that are legends in their home town who really make their coin doing voice over work and local appearences. Then there is the rest of us. The bottom of the barrel, who management feels can be replaced by some eager intern who hasn’t spent 15 seconds behind a microphone. Unfortunately for me, that was the category that I fell into. Regardless of all the success that I had, I just never made any money at it.

I worked at two different stations and when I got canned at the last station due to a format flip (going from active rock to top 40), I was left with a very hard choice. I could keep chasing the dream of what was essentially a young man's game or call it a day. I did have talent. I've been told I have a solid radio voice and a great sense of humor. What I didn't want to do was to keep waiting for a break that might never happen or to lose opportunities because of threatened egos. I couldn't keep living like a "frat boy" at 40 trying to wait for a big break that might never come. I had what I called "big people" bills. I have children that I needed to support. I couldn't continue to live a life as a 23 year old disc jockey worried about the next club gig. So I did what any reasonable person would do, I went back to school.

Now I wasn't Thornton Mellon and this wasn't a movie. (10 points for anyone who gets the reference, 25 points if you saw it in the theater...when it first came out.) I had the GI Bill which allowed me to get a second bachelors and a masters and proceeded into getting a big boy job. One that allows me to utilize my communication skills and combine it with another passion, helping people achieve goals and dreams.

I can honestly say that I love what I do. I help people gain confidence in themselves. I allow them to realize that their dreams are within reach and that with hard work, positive attitudes and a little bit of luck, any thing is possible. I honestly believe that and in a way I did achieve my dream also. I was successful as an on the air radio personality, well other than the money but at the end of the day it was just time for me to grow up so to speak. I have no problem abandoning the dream as I feel it was time. I don't look back thinking "if only I would have sent out one more demo" or "maybe if I move to a different market". I'm glad for the experience and I have memories that I wouldn't trade for anything, but the show is over and I sign off the dream the same way I signed off the air..."Good night, God bless and to my children out their...don't forget daddy loves you. LLLLAAATEERRRR DDDDDUUUUUDDDEEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!!