Anyone who has worked in radio has moved around a bit.
The nature of the business really is like the cautionary tale, sung by the late Harry Chapin (WOLD), where the announcer spends his life bouncing or drifting from one part of the country to another.
With a few exceptions, Radio People are invariably well traveled.
I myself have worked in Alabama, Indiana, New York and Florida.
Ahh...Florida.
There was an old saying in the business, that if you took a job in Florida they would be paying you in sunshine. Florida, as a mostly non-union State, was notorious for hiring radio professionals at less than professional wages. Station owners and managers would point out that there was no State income tax and that the climate was wonderful. I guess it didn't always work, since I never met anyone from San Diego working at a Florida radio station.
Now, they can add one more reason to the "Come work for us in Florida" sales pitch; at least you'll have a job.
According to the US Department of Labor Florida lost 78,100 jobs in the past year.
This may not seem like much, when you consider the state has a total population of 18.25 million, but it indicates a trend. According to the US Census Bureau, the State now ranked fourth in population in the country is expected to pass New York to become number three by 2011.
There will be no new jobs for these new Floridians.
Not even if they'll work for sunshine.



I often wonder what Harry Chapin would be singing about today.
His is a voice this Country could have used about now.

I still can't believe it.
Last weekend, I was heading eastbound on Interstate 4 through Downtown Orlando at around 60 miles per hour. The sun was shining, and the top was down on my '97 Miata, when I was passed by a golf cart.
At least, I thought it was a golf cart.
It turns out, the vehicle that zipped past me on the right like I was standing still was one of these.
They're called "Smart Cars", and they can really move.
On the other hand, I drive a car that acts like a bathtub toy in a heavy rain...so this thing seemed scary to me.
Yet, it was clean and bright and shiny and didn't sound like a motorcycle...or even an old VW beetle, when it slipped past me and exited at Lee road.
The fuel efficiency is good, but not really incredible; ranked fourth behind the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Honda Insight...and I might hesitate about driving a car first developed by the Swiss company that brought you the Swatch.
But you never know.

So what's your luxury item?
Or, more precisely, what luxury item have you been cutting back on in the current economy?
Do you buy more generic brands at the grocery store? Have you stopped going to the tanning booth or getting your nails done? Did you drop some cable movie channels? (Seriously, does anybody really watch Cinemax anymore?)
Or have you simply told Starbucks to hold the latte?
If you've been saying no to the upscale coffee pusher lately, apparently you're not alone. The company has announced it is closing 600 of its shops nationwide. I've seen no listing of the number of people who will be out of work as a result, but The Huffington Post offers a handy list of closing locations, so you can check if your own neighborhood will soon be Starbucks-Free. For me, the local Altamonte Mall will be losing the "baristas" but they will still be slinging steaming milk and espresso at the shop near the Wal-Mart on 434. The rent per square foot is probably cheaper there.
While I'm not exactly a fan of complicated java drinks, I can't help but feel a sense of regret that the fledgling coffee culture has been strangled before it had a chance to thrive in places like Seymour, Indiana, Pearl, Mississippi and Tridelphia, West Virginia.
In what is a sublime example of the Bush economy, it's nice to know that people with shrinking stock portfolios and Adjustable Rate Mortgages on their McMansions can still find a way to tighten their belts, by simply foregoing their daily grande-half-caf-double-shot-latte.
Especially since swapping that SUV for a Prius is probably out of the question right now.

I got home fairly early last night from a little get together with some friends from work.
It was good to see them all again.
After eight months of working at home, the chance came to go back into the office, and I took it.
Now, it would be easy to say I just decided on my own to resume a daily hour commute, just because I missed the people I work with.
Easy, but not entirely honest, since it doesn't address the downside of working at home...at least, for someone like me.
The fact is that my return to the office was a mutual agreement between myself and the "powers that be" at that office. For me, working at home was just not working out, and I knew it. I was getting further and further behind, and even putting in unofficial overtime wasn't helping me to catch up. Naturally, working from home, I assumed I was the only one having trouble trying to cope with the increased volume of work that the current economy was generating. It turns out, it isn't just me...but my particular situation had the advantage of containing a workable solution.

It seems I am one of those people who needs a deadline to get things done.
When I was in elementary school, the term Attention Deficit Disorder had not been invented. Teachers consistently said I was a daydreamer: a smart boy, with good manners, who was often living in his "own little world". The usual signs of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), but without the hyperactivity.
When you work at home, you can keep telling yourself you'll get the work done later. Why would I work like crazy from eight to five, when I know the system is open from 7am to 8pm? I'll get it done this evening, or start really early tomorrow!
Right...
Procrastination becomes a byword in the life of an adult with ADD, affecting more than just work.
I've been meaning to get back to posting here on Blogstream for months now, but work keeps getting in the way. Actually it never ends when what you do for fun (this) is in the same room where you work for a living (that)...and your eight hour day often runs to 11 or 12 hours.

So now, I get up and get dressed every morning, earlier than I had been, and drive for a half hour in rush hour traffic. This, at a time when gas prices are nearly twice what they were back when I started working from home. I work from 8:00 to noon. If I don't pack a lunch, I take an hour to spend nearly ten dollars for food that is filling, but rarely fits into my new diet. I try to always pack a lunch. At five I get back in my car and get on the Interstate, walking in my front door just after 5:30.

That's the glass half empty version.

On the other hand, I also get up around 5:30 every morning and make coffee. I find I am less distracted if I turn on NPR rather than Good Morning America, since it's always better to listen than watch if you want to multi-task. I am showered, shaved and dressed (in that order) by 7, and out the door by 7:30. I put the top down on the fuel efficient Miata, and enjoy the drive going against the traffic that is heading into Downtown Orlando. Even in July, the mornings in Central Florida are cool and the humidity is low. Yesterday the place seemed to be doing it's best imitation of Seattle, with thick, low hanging clouds. Not what the tourists were promised by the Chamber of Commerce, but I liked it.
At work, I have two computer screens, each larger than the lap top I had been working on...the screens are even larger than the one I am using now and are a necessity for what I do. I have my own office, and the computer, phone, office supplies and sufficient AC are all provided by the State of Florida. I work hard for eight hours and not a minute more. (If I do, it means overtime...and the State doesn't have the budget to pay that right now. The fact that it can subsidize Governor Crist's current trip to Europe will need to be addressed some other time.)

That's the glass have full version.

The fact is, that my at-home job had been slowly chipping away at the hours in my overall day. I would feel obligated to catch up evenings and on Saturdays, simply because I could; the line to work was right over there. (points to his left)
Now, it's another Saturday morning, and I'm listening to Barnes Newberry's program "Highway 61 Revisited" on WUMB out of Boston. Instead of trying to catch up on a backlog of work from the week before, I can return to putting these random thoughts on my blog for my own therapy and amusement.
It's a better life, worth the additional gasoline expenditure, when you can give your job the 40 hours you are contracted to provide...and not a minute more.

It's late...for me, anyhow...and I am about to call it a night.
MSNBC has Mr. Obama speaking in Texas, following his apparent victory in Wisconsin.
I hear the voice, and the cadence of the words, and I am suddenly convinced that I am watching history in the making.
I'm glad I'm here to be a part of this.