YOUR COMMENTS
In one of the earlier posts that I put up there were some comments written that were questions regarding some of the reasons I left. I keep having to delete stuff and I am getting sick of it so I figured I might as well come right out and talk about it.
The issue has dealt with my salary and the money I was or was not offered in my dealings with WQLZ. It has been speculated/rumored that I either was not offered a raise or I was offered a paycut and that is the real reason I left. Not that its anybody's business but I would like to clear this up.
I decided I would leave last spring when I was first approached by a Miami station about doing there morning show. Now as many of you remember I wanted to leave last summer and actually went through a flirtation with a couple of radio stations that I really wanted to look at. I decided to stay last summer when they agreed to let Jon Lamb and Marvin join the show. Now what this has to do with money is that in that time period there would have been a great chance for midwest family to extend my contract but they didnt.
In the spring of this year we did start to negotiate a new contract but it was for the same salary per year that I have made for the last 6 years. I knew there was a cap on money that they could pay out but I do want to point out somethings that have not been pointed out.
wqlz made around a million dollars a year in the last couple/three years. When I first started at the radio station it was only making about 300,000 a year. In 1999 I signed a three year deal for the same exact salary that I signed for in 2002 because I love Springfield and I enjoyed working at the radio station. Now in 2002 In all fairnessI was offered a bonus structure that actually paid me a few grand extra in 02,03,04. That bonus structure was not offered in this new deal. Most of my extra money though had come from live commercials.
So in the last few years the radio station had grown revenue but my salary had stayed the same. Yes I was offended when they kept offering me the same money and being told that they could not afford to pay me more and yet they were bringing in more and more. I also was making the same dollar figure per live commercial that I had made since the beginning and at no time had anyone ever suggested giving me more for those even though the price was raised for the advertisers.
My buddy Phat Daddy suggested I was offered a massive pay cut. That is not true. They never ever suggested cutting my pay. They would never do business in such an insulting manner. So I want to make clear that I was not offered a pay cut. They did also in this last contract offer tell me that I could make some extra money from podcasts but it was only 25% of the total and I would have to find a way to split it with Jon and that meant we would only make about a dime for a podcast per listener.
Now with all this being said I want to go back to a conversation that I had with Glen and he said "You can re-sign a contract here and then in 6 months you will be miserable and want to leave again" and he was exactly right. You see the bottom line is I didnt leave for money. I was offended by not being offered more money but there are some other factors too. The company now has new debt, a hell of a lot more employees and a vision to keep them around for many years. Every bit of extra money that would have gone to me would have affected those factors. Personally I think I would have been worth it but....
The other bottom line is that even if I was offered a raise I would have left. I really feel it is time for me to leave. More importantly it was time for me get a month to just rejuvinate. Any conspiracy theories that say otherwise are not true.
I was really really burned out.
In my month I have developed a new appreciation for Springfield and have enjoyed just driving around an talking to people. Except for the ones that feel the need to tell me how much they hate the new show. Let me make this clear considering so many of you are confused. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER ANY DECISIONS MADE BY WQLZ REGARDING THEIR PROGRAMMING OR ANYTHING ELSE. In other words telling me you dont like the new show is going to accomplish nothing.
You got to remember I was burned out and feeling horrible about doing Sprigfield radio.
However I am feeling pretty good now.
The issue has dealt with my salary and the money I was or was not offered in my dealings with WQLZ. It has been speculated/rumored that I either was not offered a raise or I was offered a paycut and that is the real reason I left. Not that its anybody's business but I would like to clear this up.
I decided I would leave last spring when I was first approached by a Miami station about doing there morning show. Now as many of you remember I wanted to leave last summer and actually went through a flirtation with a couple of radio stations that I really wanted to look at. I decided to stay last summer when they agreed to let Jon Lamb and Marvin join the show. Now what this has to do with money is that in that time period there would have been a great chance for midwest family to extend my contract but they didnt.
In the spring of this year we did start to negotiate a new contract but it was for the same salary per year that I have made for the last 6 years. I knew there was a cap on money that they could pay out but I do want to point out somethings that have not been pointed out.
wqlz made around a million dollars a year in the last couple/three years. When I first started at the radio station it was only making about 300,000 a year. In 1999 I signed a three year deal for the same exact salary that I signed for in 2002 because I love Springfield and I enjoyed working at the radio station. Now in 2002 In all fairnessI was offered a bonus structure that actually paid me a few grand extra in 02,03,04. That bonus structure was not offered in this new deal. Most of my extra money though had come from live commercials.
So in the last few years the radio station had grown revenue but my salary had stayed the same. Yes I was offended when they kept offering me the same money and being told that they could not afford to pay me more and yet they were bringing in more and more. I also was making the same dollar figure per live commercial that I had made since the beginning and at no time had anyone ever suggested giving me more for those even though the price was raised for the advertisers.
My buddy Phat Daddy suggested I was offered a massive pay cut. That is not true. They never ever suggested cutting my pay. They would never do business in such an insulting manner. So I want to make clear that I was not offered a pay cut. They did also in this last contract offer tell me that I could make some extra money from podcasts but it was only 25% of the total and I would have to find a way to split it with Jon and that meant we would only make about a dime for a podcast per listener.
Now with all this being said I want to go back to a conversation that I had with Glen and he said "You can re-sign a contract here and then in 6 months you will be miserable and want to leave again" and he was exactly right. You see the bottom line is I didnt leave for money. I was offended by not being offered more money but there are some other factors too. The company now has new debt, a hell of a lot more employees and a vision to keep them around for many years. Every bit of extra money that would have gone to me would have affected those factors. Personally I think I would have been worth it but....
The other bottom line is that even if I was offered a raise I would have left. I really feel it is time for me to leave. More importantly it was time for me get a month to just rejuvinate. Any conspiracy theories that say otherwise are not true.
I was really really burned out.
In my month I have developed a new appreciation for Springfield and have enjoyed just driving around an talking to people. Except for the ones that feel the need to tell me how much they hate the new show. Let me make this clear considering so many of you are confused. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER ANY DECISIONS MADE BY WQLZ REGARDING THEIR PROGRAMMING OR ANYTHING ELSE. In other words telling me you dont like the new show is going to accomplish nothing.
You got to remember I was burned out and feeling horrible about doing Sprigfield radio.
However I am feeling pretty good now.
Comments
And I also want to point out that I supported your decision to leave because you needed to do what was best for yourself and your family. I have to give you props for doing that. What it all comes down to, in the end, is that jobs will come and go -- you'll have listeners come and go -- but your family is ALWAYS going to be with you and you need to take care of them first. FAMILY always comes first.
Do your thing man. You're an awesome radio show host, and whoever wins the bidding war is going to be considered by all of us a very lucky company.
By the way, I'm a little upset. I login today and don't see any titties on the site. What the hell is up with that? Slacker!
Gman
you should have had spanky and jim talk to you about asking for a raise for yourself,
and when after hour of saying no to giving yourself a raise, spanky and Jim could say they were going to kick your butt, then you would have gotten the raise from yourself :p
G-MAN