Work

"Everybody's workin' for the weekend" - Loverboy - 'Workin' for the Weekend'

I'll give you a rundown of my current job situation:

I'm currently working 2 jobs. One at a local on-line radio station (www.thebreez.com) - easy listening - and the other at Lowe's as a day stocker, 5a-2p....40 hrs. a week.

I'm making $8/hr @ the station with no set hours. I go in when I want, get shit taken care of and leave (normally about 5 hours a week if I'm not running a board for a college basketball/football game which we broadcast via buying on-air time from a local signal, 89.1 FM WWLO). I make $8.68/hr @ Lowe's, w/ that set 5-2, Mon-Fri. Weekends off are wonderful.

So, on an average week, I'm working 50-70 hrs, which I don't mind. I like money, and I'm still able to go out on weekends, so sometimes I've got a social life.

I've moved back in w/ the folks post graduation (a degree in Telecommunications - Radio Broadcasting), and I picked up the Lowe's job to help pay off my $1600 in credit card debt (stupid college purchases - gas, groceries, eBay, booze, fast food). While I just started at Lowe's, I've never had the desire to want to make Lowe's a "lifer job." Basically, I look at it more like a "summer job." I'm seasonal and the season ends on Labor Day.

Now, I've just talked to my neighbor who needs a new delivery driver for his business. I'd be delivering tools/construction materials to different job sites. I'd be making $15/hr. working 7-4 Mon-Fri (weekends off again), plus over-time, and I'd be fully insured for the first time since Dec. of '06. They'd pay for me to get my CDL to which I'd then make $18/hr. Then, there's a possibility of having me take over one of the shops. He says there's a lot of older guys who will soon be looking to retire or cut back on the amount they work, and he'd like younger employees to come in for the future.

This would obviously mean I'd leave Lowe's, which I have no problem w/. However, when talking to my dad, he brought up the point of the radio station. I guess this is where I need help. See, I love radio (I'm often asked why I don't go into TV; I hate TV), it's what I've wanted to do since 7th grade (12 years old???). However, trying to find anything outside of the station that I'm at has been very hard. The slumping economy doesn't help the fact that traditional/terrestrial radio is dying and XM/Sirius, while appearing to do well, have both suffered badly due to the FCC not allowing them to join, thus causing a monopoly. I've applied for on-air, producing, play-by-play/color positions at a shit ton of stations in the Chicago-land market.

To be honest, it sounds wonderful, making $15-18 an hour (for the first time since a summer job a few years back at a factory). The full insurance coverage is great too. I'd have to wait a very long time to get any sort of coverage from Lowe's. My buddy that I work w/ at the station and myself have tried to make the station job a full-time gig, but it hasn't worked out yet, and may never (the boss says make more $ via sales, but we're not salesmen, we're radio guys, but even then it doesn't mean that we'd get full-time).

I'm thinking of accepting the driver job and taking a smaller role at the station, something that I'm doing now w/ Lowe's. Prior to Lowe's I was in the station about 20 hours a week.