I need to ask you… for a favour.
But before all that I have to say a few “thank you”s.
First thanks to John Cheong for setting up the Facebook group “How Dare They Fire Joe Augustin?”. I really appreciate the gesture.
Second, thanks to everyone for getting involved. Quite a number of people think it’s a goofball thing to say, but one of the main reasons I keep doing this, is that I believe that someone out there needs what I do to have a better day.
Third, I want to thank 91.3 for setting me free. For those of you who know me - I am all about meaning. And increasingly I was finding less and less meaning to what I was doing except for the radio show with Petrina. And when Petrina decided to quit, I was quite literally at my wit’s end. I was in two minds. Should I quit or try and “find the love in the scene”?
I decided I’d stay. They decided I wouldn’t. So I couldn’t.
It was my first radio firing.
But not the first time I was taken forcibly from my audience.
The last time that had happened, was back in the old days of 95, when the management there decided that they needed to freshen up the mornings and so they brought in a morning team. I was redeployed on 90.5 for the evening show for 6 months.
All that time, I thought about how I could get back to the morning show. I came up with a proposal for a morning show on 90.5 and to my surprise, they told me they wanted me to do that show on 95.
And just like that… I was back.
Well guess what guys… I will be back.
But this time it has to be different - in one VERY important way.
All those other times I was doing a morning show, I was either:
a) unable to promote my show specifically, when I was in charge at Power - and had to be “fair to all the other shows” (read “office politics”) or
b) I left the promotion of my show to others who had been hired by the station to do that.
i.e. I did not actively market my own show.
Next time I will and frankly… I must.
But I do not have the money to take on the media giants that I probably will be up against. And yes, whoever it is I’m working with should be doing it, but I do not want to take that chance.
So I will need your help when that time comes.
My question is - Will you be there?