In life, most people go through a few chapters.
Some people spend their entire career in one field. Others move into a second phase later in life. Sometimes you see it with athletes; they retire early and reinvent themselves. Sometimes it’s someone who just gets fed up with a job and jumps into something completely different.
My life has had many chapters.
The difference with me is that money was never the main thing that motivated me. Of course I wanted to make money, everybody does, but it was never the reason I got out of bed in the morning.
People have different buttons that push them into action.
Some people are motivated by status.
Some by money.
Some by recognition.
For me it has always been a mix of recognition and the challenge.
Money was always nice when it came, but it was never the engine.
Back in my early thirties, around thirty-one, I was working as a writer at the second largest English newspaper in Montreal. I was covering sports. I wrote about amateur athletics, events around the city, whatever was happening in the sports world.
One of the highlights was covering the Montreal Alouettes Grey Cup win.
I worked with some colleagues who are still there today and doing very well. My work was well received, and the job was going fine.
But what I really wanted was to be on the radio.
So one day I went to see my editor, Jim Duff.
Jim was an old school newspaper editor. Think J. Jonah Jameson. Gruff, direct, no nonsense.
I told him, “Jim, I love working here, but I want to add something. I want to get into radio.”
Jim had actually worked in radio himself years earlier. He had famously quit a station on the air during the Montreal ice storm after a dispute between stations in the same network. It was a legendary moment in the local media world.
So he understood radio.
He looked at me and said, “Call this guy at 990 CKGM. Tell him you work for me.”
So I picked up the phone.
Eventually I was transferred to a man named Wayne, the person Jim had told me to speak to. I explained who I was and that I worked for Jim Duff.
Wayne asked the obvious question.
“Do you have any demos? Air checks? Anything you’ve done on radio?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t. But I’m confident I can do it.”
He gave me the polite brush-off.
“Well, when you get something together, give me a call.”
Fair enough.
I said thank you, and then I asked him something unexpected.
“Could you transfer me to the advertising department?”
He paused.
“Oh,” he said, “you want to start in advertising? A lot of guys do that.”
“No,” I said. “I actually want to buy advertising.”
Now he was confused.
“You want to buy advertising? What are you selling?”
“Myself,” I said. “I want to advertise me. How much for one hour of airtime?”
He laughed.
“Okay, kid. I’ll tell you what. Sunday mornings at 8 a.m. Five hundred dollars.”
“Done,” I said.
He told me to come down with the money and we’d write up a contract.
I hung up the phone.
Now I had a small problem.
I had just agreed to spend five hundred dollars a week to be on the radio.
But I had an idea.
Before joining Jim at the newspaper, I had actually started my own local newspaper. I’ll tell that story another time, because that’s a whole adventure on its own.
But the important part is that I had advertisers.
So I called a few of them.
“Would you like to advertise on my radio show?” I asked.
They had already advertised in my newspaper and had done well with it. They trusted me.
One said yes.
Then another.
Then another.
By the end of the afternoon I had sold three advertising packages at five hundred dollars each.
That meant I was bringing in fifteen hundred dollars a week.
My airtime cost five hundred.
So every Sunday morning at 8 a.m., I was making a thousand dollars to be on the radio.
Thirty years ago, that was real money.
The show ran for about six to eight weeks.
Then the station hired me.
That became the beginning of my radio career. The show evolved into something called The Rock and Sports Breakfast. I worked closely with the station’s creative director, a guy named Scott, who became a good friend.
We had a lot of fun putting that show together.
Looking back, the funny thing is I had no demo, no experience, no résumé for radio.
So I did what I had done before in life.
I created my own opportunity.
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