Eric Thomas

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In Flint for today then I am skating home to New York Mills tomorrow.

Its odd to be home, and not for the cliched reasons you probably think.The prevailing wisdom is that Flint is a dying city, its unpleasant to look at and the residents are bereft of hope.

These things are all very true.. and its sad to see it. The thermometer got to 91 yesterday, shedding a lot of harsh sunlight on the urban blight that has gripped this city since the 80s. The vegetation is overgrown in the urban areas which helps. The trees and grass are almost doing the buildings a solid, struggling to cover up their blemishes.

My heart breaks for the place I called home for so many decades. I disagree with my girlfriend when she says its gotten worse. I think it got a lot worse over the winter, and the sunlight is exposing it.

One of the jobs that I am interviewing for in DC next week is a grassroots campaign movement to bring "green collar" jobs to places like Flint MI. Coming here this week has given me a reminder why that cause is so important.

Truck Driver Life

So it looks as tho I am going to be spending the next month on the road. I am going to see family and friends back in Michigan this week. I am going to be in Flint on Wednesday night, and return to New York Mills on Friday. Its going to be odd to see Flint again, considering all that's happened to me in the past 60 days.

After that, I am heading to Washington DC. I have a VERY exciting job interview there. Regardless of whether I get it or not, I am moving to DC. Its always been a dream of mine to live there, and this moving around to different small markets is not what its cracked up to be. If I am retired from radio, so be it. The problem with living in small areas is that when you get fired you have no options. Its work at Kmart or McDonald's. At least in DC I can explore other avenues and get my foot in the door in places that otherwise I wouldn't be able to.

It's drastic. But its also exciting, I cannot wait to see what life has in store for me.

Eric fired from Utica.

I thought I would post this here so that everybody could hear my side of it.

Earlier today, I was fired from WSKS/WSKU here in Utica.

This draws to a close what has to be the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life. I am not going to take this opportunity to talk about what happened at Roser Communications. They have been fair, offering me a severance package that I accepted. This doesn't mitigate the fact that my life has been completely ruined. I was happily working at Citadel Broadcasting in Michigan only a little over a month ago, building a client base and slowly seguing into having a life again.

I moved to Utica with the highest expectations. I wanted to start a life here, and to build a #1 show. The reality has fallen very far short.

I am not going to take this opportunity to address the "change the format" stunt either. It was not my idea, and I regret not fighting it. I will leave it at that.

Radio is a notoriously fickle business, but being fired after only a month is unprecedented. Usually a radio show is given at least a book (6 months) before the plug is pulled. Even in the toughest of markets you get a year.

I walk away knowing this: I did everything that was asked of me. I never defrauded them, my demos sounded exactly like the show did. I went in every day and worked really hard to do a good radio show.

Sometimes these things just happen, but its the first time its happened to me.

I am currently seeking my next opportunity, email me at eric99@me.com. That's my new email addy. I regret signing up for mobileme yesterday, seeing as how today has played out. FML

**UPDATE** My landlord has been a certified SAINT and is not holding me to a lease. He is the greatest guy ever and I highly recommend that if you are in the Utica area and are considering getting a place, do it here. This is the link to the website about the townhouse. Please give it a look.