Of Firing and Fueling Up

One of my best friends in radio thinks he's going to get fired today.

He laid his case out there for me to see, and if I were him I'd feel the same way. If it happens it will continue my former employer's streak of making remarkably bad programming decisions. Good people who were instrumental in the station's success are being dismissed by people who have been instrumental in that same station's failure. Yet, those in management continue to keep their jobs. I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Hearing of someone's dismissal still brings back memories of mine, and you never get over it.

Just hearing that more people are expected to ring in the New Year here this year than last year, which puzzles me, considering our economy is "on the brink of total collapse". Rooms on the Strip go anywhere from $199-$799 a night. Not cheap. Everything's more expensive. Flights to Vegas this week cost more, too. Funny. I don't recall a huge rush to Las Vegas to celebrate New Year's during the actual Great Depression of the 1930's. Yet, 300,000 people will be on the Strip tonight. How can we actually have more people coming during the time of a huge economic downturn? Anyone?

They're coming to escape the realities of that same disastrous economy! At least, that's what we're led to believe. Again, it's all about turning a positive into a negative. That seems to be what the news media- of which I am a member- seems to do best these days.

Gotta go buy a tank of gas before work. Heck, it's so cheap now, I may even buy a tank for the guy next to me. He may just be one of the vast minority who doesn't have a job- though the odds are against it.