The ongoing consolidation in the radio industry has made radio jobs harder and harder to find as programmers and managers take on more stations—sometimes even in different markets—and more airshifts are being voicetracked. The resulting scarcity of jobs has taken a heavy, and sometimes heartbreaking, personal toll on the broadcasters who love radio and once believed they’d be able to make a lifelong career of it.

Many are now looking outside the industry for work, often after many months of struggling to find a suitable position within the radio business.

In this first installment of a Stark Country series on the radio job market, broadcasters reveal with remarkable candor their own personal struggles. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, and their ongoing hope of finding work in the industry, two requested that their names not be used.

The series was inspired, in part, by an e-mail I got late last year from a veteran programmer who had been looking for a new gig for quite a while. He described himself as “struggling,” noting, “It’s clearly been the hardest, most challenging time of my career. I haven’t been able to interview in many places. I begin to wonder if I just got stupid overnight, or if I’ve just pissed off some people … It is frustrating.”

While that programmer has happily landed employment since then, many others continue on in the same situation and are paying an emotional price.

“We are so passionate about what we do. It’s our lives, our thumbprint,” says veteran air personality Skip Mahaffey, best known for his on-air stints at WQYK Tampa, Fla., and WCOL Columbus, Ohio, who was laid off by his last employer, Clear Channel’s WFUS Tampa, in April 2009. “When we feel ourselves being cut away simply because we were a line on a ledger, it destroys us. People say [unemployment] gives you a chance to reinvent yourself. Well, I liked myself.”

Some broadcasters like Mahaffey are finding they are now a victim of their own success. Mahaffey has had potential employers tell him, “We don’t have Skip Mahaffey kind of money.” To that, he responds, “I’m making $250 a week on unemployment. I think you can afford me.”

One programmer who was out of work for more than eight months describes that time as a hellish ordeal. “I started off full of confidence,” he says. “The first day out of the chute I had a consultant call about a gig. I thought this would be a short search and I’d be back within a couple weeks. It didn’t even come close after that. The job search was awful. I became very bitter and angry [and] ended up on medication to control depression … It nearly caused a divorce with the stress level [and] affected everyone. The stress was horrendous. I lost my house in the process, and [I’d started with] a large sum of money in the bank to hold me over. The doctor was concerned about mental breakdown and considered hospitalization at one point.”

Another broadcaster, Kris Van Dyke, has been looking for a new gig since leaving the OM/PD job at WTVY Dothan, Ala., last November.

A 39-year radio vet, Van Dyke calls the job search process, “Pretty depressing. It’s one thing to have options to look at when you’re out of work, and to maybe pick and choose what you do and where you go, but when the opportunities are so few and far between, you come to the realization that you may have to go wherever just to get back to work,” he says. “After spending this many years in a business that I love as much as I love radio, the realization that I’m going to have to do something else is sinking in.”

Like Van Dyke, former KNTY Sacramento, Calif., PD Bob McNeill uses the word “depressing” to describe the job search journey he’s been on since January.

“My biggest concern is that I don’t sense any appreciation—or need—on the part of employers for the approach I bring to a job,” McNeill says. “As we all know, product is of minimal importance to most companies, in spite of what they might say. It’s not that I can’t get the job done with nothing to work with; I’ve been doing that for years. It’s that when you talk about building emotional bonds with people who listen to the stations and touching the lives of as many of them as possible, most prospective employers’ eyes glaze over.”

Another veteran programmer, who asked that his name not be used and has been looking for work for a year, also characterizes his search process as, “extremely difficult. [There are] very few openings,” he says. “Today when PDs leave or are fired, their positions are often not replaced. Duties are redistributed to other PDs in the cluster. When they do hire, experience is no longer valued. Young and cheap seem to be the basic hiring criteria … It makes you wonder if you have completely wasted your time on an industry that no longer values your talent or experience.”

Thus far, his family has been able to get by on his wife’s income. “We’ve always managed our finances very frugally, so at least we’re not in danger of living on the streets or eating at the soup kitchen anytime soon,” he says. “But if worst comes to worst, I can always eBay my extensive t-shirt collection.”

Air personality Danny Wright has been looking for a full-time position since Dial Global cancelled his syndicated evening show more than a year ago. Like many others, he uses the word “frustrating” to describe his job search.

“I was never a great networker. I do my job and go home. Spending a lot of hours working tends to isolate you a bit plus, believe it or not, I’m not the most confident guy in the world. So my radio contacts are limited,” he says. “For non-radio jobs, the ones I’m qualified for are hard to find. When I taught part-time at a broadcast school, I would preach to the baby DJs: ‘always have a Plan B. Most of you should get a college degree.’ I should have followed my own advice. Lack of formal education is a huge impediment in this economy.”

Wright not only misses the business, but its perks as well. “Going to the CMAs, ACMs, CRS, feeling like part of something cool and fun, interviewing artists—when that all goes away, the silence can be deafening. I stay in touch with some radio buds and file away nice notes from listeners and affiliates. I also try to have something to look forward to each day. It makes it easier to get out of bed. It might be watching a Little League game or a big breakfast or a trip to the library. It’s kind of like when you’re shooting pool; the idea is to not only sink the ball but leave yourself in a good position for the next shot. I try to end each day with something to look forward to.”

He says his family has been supportive, but Wright knows this has been hard on them. “My wife has picked up more hours but it’s wearing on her, and of course it’s tough on me to see that. My son is anxious about the future but we’re hangin’ in as best we can.”

Former WMZQ Washington, D.C., morning man Brian Egan calls the six months he’s been job hunting “pretty humbling. Right after I was let go, I used my Mac to build a resume Web site that accentuated my new media skills. I then applied with great confidence to a variety of newly listed openings believing that I’d be just what the doctor ordered. And then, nothing. Weeks of nothing. I went to CMA Week, tried to stay visible. Slept on a couch in a recording studio to save money on hotel. December was very quiet. After the New Year, I actually got a bite. I was being seriously considered for a great gig in the last month. I hoped it [would] be a good fit for all involved, but it just wasn’t quite right on their end.”

But Egan has had some struggles in his personal life that have kept unemployment in perspective for him. “We’ve been through so much worse, being unemployed is small potatoes,” he says. “My wife has been fighting Leukemia since 2005, so we’re resilient. Even so, last March, we went through the toughest challenge parents face, the tragic loss of our third daughter, Genevieve, in utero at 24 weeks. That long stillborn labor and delivery with our surrogate was the toughest thing ever. The unexpected blessing of being out of work [is that] the time has allowed me to grieve properly, begin to heal, and let go of so many heavy things.

“Last summer, with the growing unemployment numbers, we started looking at smaller homes, and put a very hard budget in place,” Egan says. “We were prepared. My daughters have responded well, too. There’s no shame in Dad being out of work. Three of my neighbors lost their jobs this past year, too. My girls have enjoyed the extra Daddy time, especially before school and at the bus stop. And I’ve enjoyed being home with them.”

Egan has also been conscious of the lesson his own behavior is teaching his young children. “My daughters will learn how to handle disappointment and adversity by watching how I handle things now,” he says. “Whatever life skill lessons—good or bad—that I teach them will last a lifetime. So, adapt and adjust.”

Former WGAR Cleveland PD Chris Miller has been on the beach since January but, like Egan, has managed to keep things in perspective. “We broadcasting and music biz people tend to be sensitive, high strung and neurotic,” he says. “It’s important for us to NOT spend too much time listening to the conversation inside our head about how we suck because of hitting a career speed bump. Instead, what works for me is (a) staying in touch with friends and others in my network, (b) consciously staying grateful for what I DO have, and © taking time to help others, or something else to remind yourself that you’re not the only freakin’ one with problems.”

In our next installments of this series, we examine why the job market is so tough right now, talk to veteran broadcasters about how the environment has changed between the last time they were unemployed and this time, and hear about what kinds of jobs they’ve started to consider outside the radio business. We also hear about the typical responses they’re getting from hiring managers. (Hint: No response at all may be the norm.) Finally, we’ll end a depressing topic on a more positive note by talking to some broadcasters who have beaten the odds by finding new radio opportunities very quickly after being let go from their previous jobs, including John Paul, George King and Jeffrey T. Mason.