John Calhoun: positive guy

John Calhoun is on the air weeknights at K-Hits (WJMK-FM), and he talks about his successful music radio and voiceover career, including his early days in Mason City (at KRIB, where Bob Wittnebel was his program director and is a listener to this pod) and Cedar Rapids in Iowa; how technology changed music radio; working in Oklahoma City and Kansas City before going to Chicago; how he got to Chicago at WEFM; how he’s stayed motivated and positive; why he left radio after working at The Point (WPNT-FM); working at WJMK and WGN at the same time; his great experience at the Satellite Music Network; how doing sales has helped him as talent; what makes good on-air performance, and more.

Click the link below to play, or download it by right-clicking (on a PC) or holding down the CTRL key and clicking on it (for Mac).

http://radiogirl.us/audio/RG144.mp3

In the interview, this is his Fakebook post that I asked him about:

This is for you friends that are unemployed, under-employed, or facing a career crisis. Three years ago today, I lost my job. This happens all the time in the radio business. I had been fired before, but there were red flags alerting me to what may be coming. This time however, I was completely blindsided. I held that position for six years. I enjoyed working there and had developed good relationships with my fellow employees.

Fast-forward to today. I've been working full-time at K-HiTS for 13 months. My voice-over business continues to grow. My income has increased substantially. The station (K-HiTS) is performing better than ever. I'm proud and very grateful to be a part of this team. Life is good.

Enough about me. What can you do to improve your situation? If you're unemployed, file for unemployment compensation right away. Then, landing a new job becomes your full-time job. You are now a salesperson. What are you selling? The many benefits you can offer a prospective employer.

Promote yourself in every way possible. Email, voicemail, regular (USPS) mail, texts, social media, jobsites, word-of-mouth, etc. Do whatever you can to make yourself stand out from the crowd of job applicants that are competing with you.

You will encounter plenty of rejection. Treat it as the price of doing business. Do not take it personally.

Are you a person of faith? Then pray! Have your family and friends pray on your behalf. Prayer may be the single most valuable tool available to you. Yet it costs nothing.
"One door closes, another door opens." You've heard that before and it's true. Now, go find that open door!