Earlier this year, I wrote a blogpost describing how I built a television studio in the offices of Jacobs Media. In our annual AQ survey of radio on-air talent, we asked how many broadcasters had built a home studio.
After seeing my article, Don Anthony a. The Mouth invited me to host a panel discussion at Morning Show Boot Camp about how to build a home studio. I selected an assortment of audio professionals for the panel, including Patrick Berger, the Director of Engineering for the Cumulus cluster in Chicago; Andrea Klunder, the founder of The Creative Imposter podcast production studio; and Edward Ruiz, founder for the film production company Mondo Machine Productions.
They brought a wide range of audio and video production knowledge to the panel, but I knew that I still needed an on-air personality. Her style always resonated with Bostonians, and she has spent nearly 30 years building connections both with bands and within her community. I called her up, and she told to me the story below.
I asked Carrie to share her story in this blog to reassure colleagues that even if the worst comes to past, there are still opportunities and options for quality broadcasters. Well, that was my hope anyway. That exact nightmare was what I went through in February of when my beloved WAAF had its signal sold, and after 50 years was off the air. I had worked my way up from unpaid intern to the APD and midday host, with stints on the promotions street team, the nighttime on-air shift, and PM drive.
I had never wondered where I could record or produce anything for my show. I always had ready access to the best gear, staff that could help me with whatever I needed, and engineers in case something went wrong. It soon became obvious to everyone that things were changing rapidly, and the future was uncertain. Luckily my employment agreement bought me some precious time, but not enough to help me sleep at night. As more and more companies instituted hiring freezes and sent employees home to work from their dining room tables โ if they were lucky enough to keep their jobs at all โ I started to realize my future was not looking as good as I thought.
