A Return To Radio Roots: By Golly, I Got A (Part-Time) Gig!

My career as a freelance journalist in the post-Billboard era (of nearly three years now) may offer some great benefits—such as working from home, setting one's own hours, no meetings with corporate suits yammering and an ongoing variety of different topics and genres to write about—but it also has a downside. There's the endless hustle of drumming up biz, the insecurity of no regular paycheck or benes (insurance, retirement, vacation) and... the occasional solitude of working from home.

At long last, I now have the best of both worlds. Starting with the new year, I secured a long-term part-time gig—five hours a day, five days a week—working for a well-known website that covers the radio industry. It's the most security I've had since working for the U.S. Census in 2010.

Toward the end of last year, I endured five phoner interviews to get the gig, proving that my background in broadcasting and music for the past 25 years met all qualifications for the post. Two weeks in, I'm having a blast, pretty much working 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., which gives me much of the day and night to continue doing my own thing.

And my workmates: each and every one is someone I either worked with at Billboard, Radio Monitor or R&R, or depended upon as a source during my decades as a reporter, columnist and editor. That's awfully sweet.

What a blessing: a regular paycheck again, plus the freedom to continue freelancing, all from my home base. 2012 is off to a good start... Lord knows it has a lot of making up to do for 2011's irksome 4Q.