It’s 6:32 on a Saturday morning and I would normally be on my way to work out. But today is the Hard Hat golf outing. It’s when a bunch of union guys and contractors get together and hack up White Hawk Country Club in Crown Point. I’ll swear, smoke a cigar, and piss against a bush. All with impunity.
… I am taking my own advice these days. The plan is to clean things up so that I can get quiet and figure out which way to go. As the three or four of you know, I scatter my focus. This is partly by design. As a trader, I would hold several different positions in several markets at the same time. This was easy for me. It was easier than holding one position in one market, which many traders do.
With, say, four different positions on, I could let the positions decide which one stays. If a position started to lose money – you’re out. If a position stayed stagnant and didn’t move anywhere – bye. If a position might be a small winner but it’s clouding my judgment on other trades – see ya.
What I could be left is the one position that has allowed itself to become a decent winner. Keep that one… and let it grow. Let it unwind. And look for other winners in other markets. It was a constant hunt and peck scenario. But at the core of it, you gotta let each trade tell you if it should stay or not.
To do that, you must be in tune with the market. You must be balanced physically, spiritually and emotionally. You must be able to listen. You must be okay with losing money, with failure. You must be able to breathe and be patient amidst chaos.
The issue is, for the last 15 years, I’ve been on a hamster wheel that I think I have to pedal furiously or it’ll stop, start going backwards, and ruin me. At least that’s how I feel. If radio is dying, then the only way to keep it alive is to work harder. Gut it out. Work through death.
The reality is that local radio is not dying. Many local radio stations, including WJOB AM 1230, do well. Maybe it’s not the heyday of the 50s and 80s, but we have been the heart and soul of our communities and continue to be.
But it takes a ton of work. In my case, it has taken all of me to keep it humming. And I get a ton of help from a core of really dedicated people such as Debbie Wargo, Ryan Walsh and others.
Through all of this hard work and constant dealing with the next issue, whether it’s a transmitter that clicked off or a news story that takes all of our concentration, we run the hamster wheel. It’s 24-7, and we like it.
My aim this summer is to get off of the hamster wheel. Or at least slow it down. We have developed several things surrounding radio that could help WJOB stay around for generations. Our streaming video is top notch. Thousands of people watch it every week. When you sit down in your living room and turn on Roku and there’s a mayor talking in the WJOB studio or a good high school game on, you ask yourself – why don’t more people know about this?
This has been asked to me many times. And how about when you’re driving down the Borman and there’s an accident and you pull out your phone and tell us about it on the HeyJED app? That’s innovation that’s working to save radio… and start a whole new genre.
Why am I not giving these innovations and others more attention?
Have you seen Kat and Ric’s television show from their basement? Check it out and you’ll be amazed. But where do we feature this? Where do we distribute this? They are the real thing. Many more people in the Region would watch them. I can see them getting picked up.
I need to concentrate on some of these things… not just running the hamster wheel.
I don’t have to explain this to the three or four of you – but I love radio. It’s what I do and think about at least once in every waking hour – and even when I dream sometimes. I am committed to making WJOB AM 1230 and, now also, FM 104.7 FM, be a part of the Calumet Region for years to come. The WJOB spirit is good and pure and beautiful and will continue to be so.
But the WJOB spirit does not have to be relegated to AM 1230. It shouldn’t be. It can grow and expand as it has been doing for the past few years. Maybe I, and you too, need to accept that. I keep coming back to radio. And so do you, most likely. But there’s a whole world out there.
Think about all of the people who come in to do shows, from Bob after Dark talking about ghosts, to Haven House people talking about child abuse. This stuff is broadcast on TV. What are we doing with it? How do we bundle it all together to make people laugh and cry and love the Region even more?
For whatever twist of fate, I have been chosen to answer these questions. These innovations, from the website to Apple TV to associating with the IHSAA and Purdue to the HeyJED app to Facebook Live to, now, doing news have been my innovations. I can come up with innovations that kind of work. They grow slowly, or stagnate. Maybe the ideas aren’t that great in the first place.
Either that, or I’m not allowing them to grow… like you should do to do find out which is a winning trade. You must be patient and nurturing with a trade. Same thing with a media innovation. I am learning this similarity and it’s one of the reasons that I’m paring things back for the summer… so that I can think… and figure out which are winning trades and which are not. See ya.
With, say, four different positions on, I could let the positions decide which one stays. If a position started to lose money – you’re out. If a position stayed stagnant and didn’t move anywhere – bye. If a position might be a small winner but it’s clouding my judgment on other trades – see ya.
What I could be left is the one position that has allowed itself to become a decent winner. Keep that one… and let it grow. Let it unwind. And look for other winners in other markets. It was a constant hunt and peck scenario. But at the core of it, you gotta let each trade tell you if it should stay or not.
To do that, you must be in tune with the market. You must be balanced physically, spiritually and emotionally. You must be able to listen. You must be okay with losing money, with failure. You must be able to breathe and be patient amidst chaos.
The issue is, for the last 15 years, I’ve been on a hamster wheel that I think I have to pedal furiously or it’ll stop, start going backwards, and ruin me. At least that’s how I feel. If radio is dying, then the only way to keep it alive is to work harder. Gut it out. Work through death.
The reality is that local radio is not dying. Many local radio stations, including WJOB AM 1230, do well. Maybe it’s not the heyday of the 50s and 80s, but we have been the heart and soul of our communities and continue to be.
But it takes a ton of work. In my case, it has taken all of me to keep it humming. And I get a ton of help from a core of really dedicated people such as Debbie Wargo, Ryan Walsh and others.
Through all of this hard work and constant dealing with the next issue, whether it’s a transmitter that clicked off or a news story that takes all of our concentration, we run the hamster wheel. It’s 24-7, and we like it.
My aim this summer is to get off of the hamster wheel. Or at least slow it down. We have developed several things surrounding radio that could help WJOB stay around for generations. Our streaming video is top notch. Thousands of people watch it every week. When you sit down in your living room and turn on Roku and there’s a mayor talking in the WJOB studio or a good high school game on, you ask yourself – why don’t more people know about this?
This has been asked to me many times. And how about when you’re driving down the Borman and there’s an accident and you pull out your phone and tell us about it on the HeyJED app? That’s innovation that’s working to save radio… and start a whole new genre.
Why am I not giving these innovations and others more attention?
Have you seen Kat and Ric’s television show from their basement? Check it out and you’ll be amazed. But where do we feature this? Where do we distribute this? They are the real thing. Many more people in the Region would watch them. I can see them getting picked up.
I need to concentrate on some of these things… not just running the hamster wheel.
I don’t have to explain this to the three or four of you – but I love radio. It’s what I do and think about at least once in every waking hour – and even when I dream sometimes. I am committed to making WJOB AM 1230 and, now also, FM 104.7 FM, be a part of the Calumet Region for years to come. The WJOB spirit is good and pure and beautiful and will continue to be so.
But the WJOB spirit does not have to be relegated to AM 1230. It shouldn’t be. It can grow and expand as it has been doing for the past few years. Maybe I, and you too, need to accept that. I keep coming back to radio. And so do you, most likely. But there’s a whole world out there.
Think about all of the people who come in to do shows, from Bob after Dark talking about ghosts, to Haven House people talking about child abuse. This stuff is broadcast on TV. What are we doing with it? How do we bundle it all together to make people laugh and cry and love the Region even more?
For whatever twist of fate, I have been chosen to answer these questions. These innovations, from the website to Apple TV to associating with the IHSAA and Purdue to the HeyJED app to Facebook Live to, now, doing news have been my innovations. I can come up with innovations that kind of work. They grow slowly, or stagnate. Maybe the ideas aren’t that great in the first place.
Either that, or I’m not allowing them to grow… like you should do to do find out which is a winning trade. You must be patient and nurturing with a trade. Same thing with a media innovation. I am learning this similarity and it’s one of the reasons that I’m paring things back for the summer… so that I can think… and figure out which are winning trades and which are not. See ya.
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