Don’t let life get in the way

Lamberts Beach, Queensland

This is not an article about radio.

Well it kind of is, but only in the loose sense that a radio, or any, career can have an impact on maintaining friendships due to the need (particularly early) to move around the country or in some cases the world.

So whilst there is kind of a tenuous link, this article really isn’t about radio as such.

Let me explain.

A very good friend of mine who had a fantastic and successful radio career, before moving into a different industry (also extremely successfully), has had a rough time with his health over the past year.

We go back a long way. We studied radio together in our late teens, we’ve lived together, worked together at the same radio station, worked in a market on opposition stations to each other, we both MC’d each others weddings, he stayed with my parents for some months when he got a job on a radio station in my hometown – he even married a great girl who went to the same high school as I did!

So we go back forever.

However we have, for many years, lived in different states. And through the tyranny of distance we’ve not kept in touch as much as we should have. We have to an extent, but sporadically and inconsistently – nowhere near regularly enough. And unfortunately now it’s getting too late to make up that time.

What’s that old line about ‘life getting in the way’?

In recent months, whilst he’s faced his health challenges we have been speaking more, and catching up – on the phone, in person, on text – and it’s obvious that all of the excuses that get in the way of catching up over the years are just that. Excuses.

Any career that requires moving, or travelling, and probably even those that don’t, make the maintaining of relationships harder. So what’s the point of this article with a very tenuous link to radio on a radio industry website? Perhaps it’s simply cathartic, I suspect that’s a part of it.

But maybe, if you’ve read this far, you might think of one person who you’ve lost contact with, or haven’t spoken to for a while – and take time to give them a call and catch up, even if it’s just a phone call.

Because it’s important. And life shouldn’t get in the way of things like that.

 

 

 

 

Dan Bradley is a director of international radio consultancy Kaizen Media, and a director of Connected Management, a boutique talent management company.

 

 

Comment Form

Your email address will not be published.

Recent comments (0)
Post new comment

Jobs

See all