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If you’ve ever worked in media, broadcast, production, or any industry that quietly automated itself out from under its own workforce, this one will feel very familiar.

This episode is a re-visit of a long, candid conversation I recorded years ago with my old radio pal, Psycho Dave Martin.

It’s an unfiltered look at what it was really like working behind the scenes in radio as the industry shrank, automated, and quietly pushed people out. We talk about remote gigs, bruised egos, thin skins, and the strange hierarchy of personalities that defined local radio in the early 2000s. We swap stories about hosts, engineers, board ops, promotions, and the moments that stuck with us long after the microphones were turned off.

But this isn’t just nostalgia.

It’s about survival.

Dave talks openly about getting laid off, starting over, clinging to stability in a collapsing industry, and learning automation systems just to stay employable. We dig into the reality of radio becoming less of a career and more of a calling, something closer to community theater than a sustainable profession for most people.

We also talk about why people stay anyway. The validation. The love of operations. The satisfaction of making the signal go out clean. The strange joy of being close to broadcasters you respect, even when the money, security, and future prospects aren’t great.

This episode pairs naturally with The Death of Gatekeepers and serves as a ground-level companion piece. Not from executives or on-air stars, but from the people who actually made radio work.