Nine Dollars Well Spent

I was a radio go getter.

I was that kid who worked for free from 9 to 5 as an intern three days a week, and then stayed at the station until midnight. I was the kid who came in on the weekend too. The station's production director trusted me in his studio, and I made the most of the opportunity he gave me.

I. Worked. A. Lot.

It paid off. I landed a gig, and then another, and another. Within three years, I was interviewing for a gig in L.A. In many ways, that's when my world came crashing down - but in time, I came to realize it was also when I put my life back on the right track.

I was sitting across the desk from the station's program director, and she asked me a question I was completely unprepared for - which is silly, being that her question was so basic.

After we'd talked radio radio radio, she looked at me and asked: "What do you like to do on your time off."

I talked about taping tv shows & renting movies for drops.

She asked her question again.

I said "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"You've got to have hobbies aside from radio" she said. "Otherwise, you're no good to me. I'd hire you, and a year or so later, you'd burn out - not to mention that your life outside the station only makes you more valuable inside the station. It's where you get new ideas from. It's what keeps you from becoming stagnant, and that's good for whatever station you work for."

It took me another year to realize she was right, though - for some foolish reason - I only applied the lesson to having a job. I didn't apply it to getting one.

A few years later, I was at a station that had what felt like a devastating book. We'd been on the air less than a year, and hadn't even made it out of the Arbitron cellar when we had a down book.

"OH $#!&!!!"

I decided to protect myself in case bad things happened... which, eventually, they did - though that was quite a while later (but I digress...)

I made a new demo and started shopping it - not so much to find a gig as to get my name 'out there'. I bought a spindle of cds, bubble-pack mailers, postage, and so on. I freshened up my resume. And I did one more thing that ended up paying off more than everything else combined.

I built a website.

My website sucked! I didn't know what I was doing, nor did I know anything about design. The domain name I bought was hard to remember, and it cost me a fortune! The software I was using to build my site was complex, and I was confused... but I did my best.

Over time it got better. The more I tinkered with it, the more I enjoyed tinkering with it... and the more I learned about design, and graphics, and photography, and all things web.

All of these things make me more valuable to a potential employer.

Well lookie there... that PD was right again.

These days, thanks to sites like godaddy.com, domain names cost as little as nine dollars. (Well, it's actually $9.20 a year after the fees) I may not have gotten any Janet Jackson nipple peeping during this year's superbowl - but the GoDaddy commercial reminded me how cheap domain names have become, so - I bought one.

I bought this one in fact and I moved my radio/media writing here.

For me, it's a fun hobby that only cost $9.

For you...?

It's nine bucks that could further connect you to your listeners via a blog (blog software is free these days, and it's everywhere... google one of these four for lots of info: blogger, movabletype, typepad, wordpress). It's a way to get your work into the hands of future PD's / GM's, etc. It's a way to market yourself.

Best of all, it's a way to keep learning.