I warn you - this is gonna be long, because I'm VERY angry.

But read it anyway.

This is especially directed at anyone who has even the slightest inclination to saying one bad word about Jim McGuinn.

But even if you like the guy already ... you should still read it.

I'm not trying to get anyone angry at me or the station - but I've just about had it.

Let me tell you about Jim McGuinn - a man most of you have never met, let alone worked with for over six years. Jim is one of the best bosses I've ever worked for - and I've worked with a lot of them - for one simple reason that can be summed up in one simple phrase: HE F***ING CARES.

He cares more about his employees, the radio stations he's run, and everything else he has spent his time doing than almost anyone else I know. If he didn't give a sh*t about keeping alternative rock alive in this city, he would have been out the door, and off looking for his next gig.

Instead, I have a hard time getting a hold of him sometimes - I've learned a new meaning to the word "concise," because I can't tie him up for too long on the phone: he's always in the middle of SOMETHING related to Y100Rocks.Com. And if he's not, he's sleeping.

This is a guy who, for me personally, gave some kid with only 2 1/2 years of full-time production experience a shot to come to the (then) fifth largest radio market in the COUNTRY. Sure, I've been doing radio in one form or another since I was 15, but, in terms of doing production, on paper, I was WAY underqualified. Somehow, Jim managed to figure out that I could do it - even if I wasn't 100% sure that I could.

Eleven Achievement In Radio Awards or so later (I kind of lost count, honestly) including FIVE my first year, I know Jim was right. I was good enough to do the job.

And even though this area is my home, at that point in my life, I don't think I would've left Ohio to work anywhere else here - I wanted to work at Y100. I loved the station - I listened to it when I was home. Hell, the guy who had my job before me (John Castino, for those of you who may remember him from WDRE) was one of the people whose work I studied to get better at it. But beyond that, Jim's reputation as a program director preceeded him - I'd never met the guy, but I felt like I knew him from everything that I'd heard about him, or read in the trade magazines.

And when my phone rang and Jim McGuinn was on the other end of it to talk to me about maybe coming to work with him in Philadelphia - he hadn't even really offered me the job at this point - I walked into the VP of Programming's office and I said to him, "I just got a call from Y100 in Philadelphia. I don't know if they're offering me a job yet, but I'd be very interested in doing that if they do. I wanted to tell you now to give you as much heads up as I could."

Things happened to work out.

I'll admit, like any relationship, it wasn't always perfect. Jim and I butted heads from time to time - but at least he had enough respect for me to listen to what I thought, even if he was in the right, and I was wrong. And what more could you ask for in a boss, especially being in a "creative" field? Creative people tend to be a little weird, and I'll cop to that. But he managed to help me figure out how to figure stuff out on my own - and realize what worked and what didn't work without having to run every single production piece, or piece of copy (a script) by him; and he trusted me enough to not have to look over my shoulder all the time - because of what he taught me.

Look - everyone who's working for Y100Rocks.com is getting exactly $0.00 a week doing it. And to see people bitch about this, that, and the other thing really just pisses me off to no end.

I read this NASTY email from some guy that was bitching and complaining about the internet station - I'm glad to say that we hardly get any of those. And mind you, I'm generally a pretty level-headed guy, but I wanted to rip this son of a b*tch a new one. I was SO angry at him, because he was saying things that were completely ridiculous and maddening to me, I almost let him have it ... then I stopped, and forwarded it to Jim. I didn't want to, but I wasn't going to respond to that kind of udderly stupidity. Actually, I considered trying to find out who his supervisor was, and forward this malicious, nasty email, typed in all caps, and with at least one F-bomb I remember, written via his company's email. That's how mad I was at this guy. But then I realized how much it sucks to be unemployed, so I didn't do that either (You're welcome, buddy...).

I felt HORRIBLE forwarding that vicious email to Jim because I knew it would hurt him to read it. But I did anyway because I knew Jim'd be a much better person to reply to that than me - though I guess I just did, didn't I?

And I was right - Jim's response was far better than anything I could've come up with. In short, he told this guy what I'm going to tell you - we're TRYING. All of us are.

No, the internet station isn't perfect. But let me tell you from personal experience - it's INCREDIBLY frustrating when you're trying to do a show from your apartment, and the (internet service) goes out, and you can't get back on the air - which happened to me on Thursday. I was pulling my hair out, trying to get my modem and router to work - turns out there was an outtage in the area, and there was nothing I could do about it. I tried though, dammit - If I had a landline, I'd have done it on dial-up ... or if I had a way to route it through my cell phone I would've done that too.

But please realize that none of us really expected to be out of a job, and then suddenly have to try and figure out an entirely new thing to us: running something resembling a business. I don't think any of us has an MBA ... though I never asked to see anyone's credentials before diving into this head first without looking. And we're TRYING to make it better, believe me. We're doing the best we can with the staff and resources that we have - some of whom have non-industry related full-time day jobs, or part-time jobs, and contribute their time as they can.

But no matter what winds up happening with Y100Rocks.com, or whether or not someone wakes up and smells the toast burning and realizes that there's a very serious need to have a modern rock station in this town ... I believe in what we're doing - because Jim believes in what we're doing, and he (along with the other staff members who also work tirelessly, and also believe) CARES, damn it.

So to read people slamming Jim McGuinn personally really pisses me off, especially if YOU'VE NEVER MET HIM. Just spend five f***ing minutes with the guy before you pass judgement on him, and you'll apologize for another five minutes for the nasty sh*t you said.

God, there's so many things that I'd LOVE to explain to you naysayers who've never spent 10 minutes working in the radio industry, but I'm not going to. You just don't get it, you don't know, and I could write a "War And Peace" length book about it to try and help you understand - but you'd never read it anyway, and you wouldn't care either - like you probably don't now.

But how do you win when you get slammed by someone for NOT playing [Insert Band Name Here], then, get slammed by the same people FOR playing [Insert Same Band Name Here]?

You know how frustrating it is when you try your hardest, and your boss, or your mom or your dad, or whoever tells you, "You know what? You're still worthless and you still suck, and I don't know what makes you think you deserve to breathe the same air I do?" That's how that feels. As thick-skinned and jaded as I've become, there's only so many times you can get kicked in the teeth before you start getting really aggrivated.

But personal attacks against people you don't even know? I've got to draw the line somewhere - the same way you would if someone started talking sh*t about your friends, or your mom, or your brother, or whoever it is you care about.


If you're a supporter of Y100Rocks.com - THANK YOU. We need you guys (said in a gender-generic sense) more than ever. You wanna know what you can do to help? Spread the word to everyone that we're still here. Believe it or not, there are some people who still haven't figured out that we're even broadcasting on the internet yet!

In closing - if you're still with me - I just wanted to say that Jim McGuinn is the last guy on earth you need to direct any negativity at. He's not my boss anymore in an official capacity - but I'm happy to volunteer my time to work with a guy (and ya know what, the rest of the staff as well, while I'm at it) who feels so passionately that modern rock shouldn't be treated as if it was disco or something: just tossed aside like it's over, never mattered, and was just some passing fad. I'm damn proud to call the man a friend.

And Jim - If you're reading this, this is what I meant by my severe lack of PR skills. I have none. But I am, if nothing else, honest.

-Zack

[ADDENDUM: I don't want to imply that we're getting a lot of negativity - most of it you can see by reading through the comments to the previous blog. But really ... should we have ANY at ALL?! If you don't want to support what this is all about, fine - why even bother saying anything here?]