Jim Carr

[00:00:00] Speaker A: TABLE of his recent retirement, former coordinator of the radio broadcasting program at at Seneca College in Toronto, Jim Carr joins me on awareness episode number 14. Lots to try and unravel in this episode. While of course being compassionate, empathetic and accepting of Jim's remarks. That's what this mental health podcast is all about. Bringing things into awareness and fostering more compassion for sure. My name is Rob Daniels. Thanks so much for being here. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and appreciate you being here for sure. So without any further ado, I'd like to welcome Jim Carr, the former radio broadcasting coordinator at Seneca College to awareness prop Daniels. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Yes, thank you, sir. One of, one of my old students. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Yes. And this is. [00:01:11] Speaker B: Were you going to talk about that? You weren't going to talk about that. [00:01:13] Speaker A: And say, yeah, we can totally talk. [00:01:15] Speaker B: About that a long time ago. What a, what a pain in the. [00:01:18] Speaker A: Butt student he was. [00:01:19] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no. You're definitely one of the good ones. One of the good ones. [00:01:23] Speaker A: I appreciate it. [00:01:23] Speaker B: I invited you back to teach a couple seme. You're definitely one of the good ones. Right. [00:01:28] Speaker A: So grateful for that because that was certainly a dream is to. Is to teach in community college and whatnot. Better program than radio broadcasting. Which makes me sad because. Well, we'll get to that in a few minutes. It unfortunately does not exist, but we'll talk about that. But why don't we first touch on your recent retirement from Seneca College? [00:01:51] Speaker B: Still. Still working. Still got 10 more days. [00:01:53] Speaker A: 10 more days left to go. [00:01:54] Speaker B: Retiring. Well, I don't know what day this is. [00:01:56] Speaker A: Are you still going into the classroom. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Or is it like no classes? I taught my last class about six weeks ago and yeah, I tallied it all up. It's something like 1928 students, 5400 and some odd marks issued in like 16 different courses and eight different programs or something like that. [00:02:19] Speaker A: This is a legend we're talking about right here. He's been around. So how many years? [00:02:23] Speaker B: A legend in my mind. Yeah, so I taught my first class in 1993, September of 1993. But that was part time. And so, you know, I, you know, you know, after about a year of teaching, I then got a full time job in, in radio as a production manager in Belleville at a, at a radio station called OJ955. It's not called OJ955, it's called CJOJ still. Yeah, but it is a. Another station, similar format to what it was back. Back in the day, back in the, in the, in the 90, 94, 95 era when I was there in, in Belleville and I think I worked for maybe a year and a half or so and then I did a whole bunch of freelance production for another five or six months before a major production house that was producing syndicated radio shows. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:18] Speaker B: And then I did a whole bunch of independent syndicated radio shows. But all the while I was doing that, I was, I was dipping my toes back and teaching part time. [00:03:27] Speaker A: You wanted to get back into Senegal? [00:03:28] Speaker B: I didn't necessarily want to get in, but it was, it was, it was great money and it was easy money for me because teaching for me become, became really fast, really second nature. It wasn't like it was an effort for me. I realized really early on that it's just a matter about, a matter of talking about what, you know, and, and, and explaining it. And I had a really good and comfortable way of being able to explain it, I guess. [00:03:54] Speaker A: What about like, like family life? Did that make you feel? [00:03:57] Speaker B: So, yeah, I was, I was, I, I got married in 96 and so, you know, I was, you know, just starting a family and we're ready to start thinking about children and all that sort of stuff. And so the full time job came at the right time. In 1999 when they posted a full time position. I jumped at it and then jumped in full, full tilt. But then it wasn't until, you know, you know, obviously we're talking about mental health and awareness of mental health, but you know, I didn't realize until eight years ago, nine years ago that it wasn't my heart, it wasn't my, it was, it was always, it was always something that I enjoyed doing. It was something that I was good at, but it wasn't my heart. And you know, I went through several different kind of mental health breakdowns when I decided and figured out that, you know, I kind of did everything in my life I've done was just to make sure that I had an income and, and supported my family and took care of my family. But not any of it was what I, you know, when you, when you're 14 and they say, what do you want to be for the rest of your life? [00:05:03] Speaker A: Hockey player. [00:05:03] Speaker B: Hockey player. No, I, I never wanted to do that. I can't dance. I never wanted to do that. But I wanted to be involved in theater, I wanted to do technical theater, I wanted to do acting, I wanted to perform. And so a full time job was sort of. Yeah, it was kind of holding me back and so that's one of the things that's actually been kind of awakening with the idea of retirement is that now I have all these things that I had on my little list of things that I want to do, and now I'm going to start checking them off. Yeah, but long answer to the question, so how long have you been teaching? So 23 years as the coordinator, and I taught my first class in 93, so that's 32, 33 years. So, you know, with a couple of breaks in there while I was full time in radio, the, the, the, the number that I give is, you know, over 30 years. I mean, on my retirement paper it says I was hired in 1993. And so that's the kind of date that I have to throw around as my, as my, you know, when I started type thing. So that, that's the one that makes the most sense to you. [00:06:02] Speaker A: So to confirm it in, in regards to your actual retirement, though, is this something you wanted to do right now or were you forced to take an early retirement? [00:06:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't want to use the word for. I mean, I signed the paper willingly. [00:06:19] Speaker A: So. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Just things have changed tremendously in education and in the structure of the program and structure of the college and the way their priorities are on different things. And so, yeah, I left about a year and a half on the table I could have under my, you know, retirement, my pension plan retired as early as January 2027. So I've left a little bit of my time on the table by taking a little bit of an early retirement. And it wasn't my choice. [00:06:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:54] Speaker B: But again, it was about. More about me coming to terms with what I really want to do. And also my own mental health dealing with bosses and other, you know, admins that we're not supporting. Yeah, we're not supporting me and we're not supporting my, my background and what I brought to the table. And quite frankly, just not acknowledging the fact or not recognizing that I, that I did a really good job when I was there and when I was doing an amazing job with the program. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:26] Speaker B: But then things changed and new bosses and then this happened and that happened. And then just, you know, I had a, I had a. Take a semester off for my own mental health and try to catch up on things, talk to some doctors and medication and, you know, really concentrate on getting better. And then when I went back, you know, I was doing okay, and then I lasted about a year or so, maybe a little bit, but then that was also right at the, at the Beginning of COVID Right. And so the challenges of going in, you know, online with the classes and chances, you know, dealing with all that kind of pain and structure of what was going on. Absolutely. More fighting with managers. They removed the coordinator job for me. And then that just, that set me back even further in my mental health than I was when I had to take a break before. And so then came back and then I came to terms with making the decision to go to retire. And then I became free of it. Free. I was able to sleep at night. I wasn't, you know, I would, I would get to the point where I was like in bed in the morning and I wouldn't want to get up and I would just, I would spend the entire day in bed, you know, focusing on the negative and being self deprecating and just really, you know, really hurting myself. And then retirement is what made retirement maybe ease the anxiousness, totally eased it. And so now I'm happy about the decision. I mean, obviously a mixed feelings. A little bit nostalgic, a little bit. You know, there's a lot of students, a lot of people that came through your doors. Came through my doors. And a lot of people made a, made a real big difference in my life. A lot of the faculty that worked with me. [00:09:12] Speaker A: And you made a huge difference in the students life because it's all over social media. I've seen the comments on Facebook, I've seen the love for you. And you did an outstanding job. You brought in the best people to teach the profession. [00:09:25] Speaker B: And so let me, you know, like I, I can talk, like I can hear and read comments, tell them blue in the face. And I still, I still have troubles with my mental health, believing it, you know, because of, and I'm going to point the blame because of what they did by simply removing me as the coordinator without giving me any, any distinction or any reason for it, no respect. And then, then putting in someone that, that did a horrible job afterwards. And so that really, you know, and then I would continue to see the things that were happening with the program and then I would get so upset about not being able to do anything, not having no power to do anything. And then I just became this crudgy old, you know, man complaining about things all the time. And then I hated myself for that. [00:10:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:12] Speaker B: You know, and so you talk about a journey with mental health. It was a struggle these last four or five years. Yeah. [00:10:19] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. And yeah. And you're someone that does, doesn't deserve that at all. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Well, and I Appreciate all the comments and that, you know, you and other students have made. I appreciate the comments that other faculty have made. You know, there's a lot of people that I owe a lot to and I think, you know, we had a really great program and it was working really well, but it wasn't just me. Wasn't me that did it. It was the fact that we had this great curriculum that constantly being evolved and constantly being updated and keeping, keeping terms with what was going on in the industry. We had these great facilities. We know we had a couple of really good bosses in there that said, you know, okay, well, we can't afford to buy any new radio equipment. And then they said, well, we can, but we can afford to spend 80 or $90,000 on some computers. And I'm like, well, wait a second, if you're buying computers, can't you buy the new consoles? Because all the consoles are computers. [00:11:12] Speaker A: So your ideas were. [00:11:14] Speaker B: No, but then, but then my boss, you kidding me? Their computers. And then, then went and got, went and got a hundred thousand dollars of college money to upgrade of all of our computers. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:25] Speaker B: And what they upgraded was all the audio consoles and all the audio equipment because it was all computerized. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:30] Speaker B: Right. And so we had people like that that were really, really great. So we had a great curriculum, we had great facilities, and we had a great team of faculty. And those three elements really pulled together and made a really great program. And I was so proud of the program. [00:11:45] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:11:46] Speaker B: And what it, what it, you know, done for all the people that have come through it. [00:11:50] Speaker A: You know, so if I had to guess, hearing about, you know, several post secondary broadcasting programs being eliminated across Canada, that has to be a feeling like a vicious sucker punch to the gut for you. I mean, it is for me and I, I imagine anyone that loves radio broadcasting. Can you speak specifically to how seeing the cancellation of these programs at the college level in Canada has made you feel. And why does it seem like it's all happening one after the other? Why now? [00:12:22] Speaker B: Well, so two things have happened in the last, the last year or so. Colleges have, you know, shifted enrollment reliability to international students. Right. And so, you know, it used to be that we would have, let's say, 80% domestic students and 20% international students. Students. Yeah, well, funding for the domestic students has dropped and dropped and dropped in Ontario. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:51] Speaker B: And so we don't get the government funding that we used to. It used to be, you know, a large percentage of the money that we, we brought in was coming from the government and now it's only, you know, 5, 6, 7% of what, what comes in comes in from the government. The rest of it comes in from tuition. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:09] Speaker B: And so then what do we do to, what do we do to help offset some of that money? Well, we start inviting more. [00:13:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:17] Speaker B: And so we got to the point in Ontario over the last year where we, you know, increased international students by 3, 400%. [00:13:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:26] Speaker B: And so we had all these bodies coming in and they have, they pay a lot more tuition than domestic students because what happens is the domestic students pay money and then the government pays the college money. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:38] Speaker B: And so they get their money, you know, from the government per student and the student. And then for international students, they just get the money from the, the students. They don't get any ext. Money from the government. Okay, well what happened About a year ago the government said, whoa, this is causing a problem in Ontario. Too many, too many students, not enough residences, not enough jobs or part time jobs. So they cut all of the visa. Student visa applications. [00:14:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:07] Speaker B: And they stopped allowing. Well, all the colleges at the exact same time went through this. We were profitable, you know, making a little bit of extra money so that we could turn it into upgrading facilities and doing all that to losing tens of millions of dollars every single semester. [00:14:25] Speaker A: Wow. [00:14:26] Speaker B: And so they have to make decisions to cut things. What are they going to cut? They're going to cut the expensive programs and they're going to cut the programs that have low applications. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:14:37] Speaker B: So broadcasting and media programs traditionally have dropped their applications. We used to get six or seven hundred applicants for 40 seats in the radio program, and now we're getting under 100 for 40 seats. [00:14:52] Speaker A: So is that just a. [00:14:54] Speaker B: And those 40 are also applying to other colleges and other programs. And so when it wheedle, when it whittles down, we get there, we don't make our numbers. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:03] Speaker B: So that's why our program was first suspended two semesters ago at Seneca. Seneca Polytechnic, by the way, not Seneca College anymore. I know it's hard, it's hard to keep it. I, I still call it a college and I still refer to it as. [00:15:15] Speaker A: A college, but it's Seneca Polytechnic. [00:15:17] Speaker B: And so. And then, you know, and that's another change that's happened at Seneca. Right. It's, we've gone to a polytechnic, which means there's more emphasis on degrees than there is diplomas. And so these, these diploma programs like radio, you got low attempt, low applications. And so where are we going to cut that? Those are the ones that make the sense to cut. And so that's what happened at Mohawk. That's what happened at London. That's what happened. Belleville. Belleville was first, like almost a year ago. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Right. [00:15:49] Speaker B: And in Hamilton, Humber is closed down. Seneca has been. [00:15:55] Speaker A: Was suspended now, all for the same reasons, I think. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Low, low applicants. And therefore. And it's an expensive program to maintain. Right. We do have a lot of expenses on studios and, and equipment. And so that's definitely where. Where that happened, you know, Is it. [00:16:12] Speaker A: Just because a lack of interest in radio? In radio, I say it's a marketing issue. [00:16:16] Speaker B: Right. You know, when we, when we listen to the radio and we watch tele, we listen to or read newspapers. [00:16:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:24] Speaker B: You know, what do we hear about the media? Oh, Bell laid off 30 people. Rogers laid off 20 people. Right. So these big, large corporations that have no business in broadcasting, they should not be in broadcasting because we're an industry that is profitable, but it's not profitable. And the profits don't increase by. And in, you know, by a set numeric number every single quarter. Right. And so when you're answering to shareholders like Rogers and Bell, they. They need to, you know, they need to provide a dividend. They need to make a profit every single year. Well, every single year you're not going to get more money than you did last year. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:07] Speaker B: You're still making hundreds of millions of dollars in broadcasting. Yeah, every single radio station's making that. [00:17:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:13] Speaker B: But it's not going up, up anymore. It's staying around the same. And so when, you know, or there might be some radio stations that are actually starting to lose a little bit of money and then that's. That's it. It's greed. Greek kicks in, and those companies fire people and let people go. Well, then what happens when that happens? Well, then people sitting at the kitchen table says, mama, I want to go to study radio. She says, no, they just fired 20 people at Rogers. [00:17:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:40] Speaker B: So you're not going to go to radio radio. [00:17:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:41] Speaker B: Well, and it's unfortunate because the radio program and, you know, media programs in general teach way more. [00:17:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Than just broadcasting and just radio. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:51] Speaker B: It's about telling stories, it's about organizing thoughts. It's about podcasting. [00:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:56] Speaker B: It's about communicating and yeah, I saw. [00:17:58] Speaker A: That we were evolving. [00:18:00] Speaker B: There's way more podcasts out there now than there ever was. [00:18:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:04] Speaker B: So therefore, there are more channels and more places for people that have the skills that you learn in a broadcasting program. [00:18:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:12] Speaker B: But no, it's a marketing issue. Right. We can't, we can't, we can't attract enough students because they don't see the, the benefit of that because we have to, you know, turn around and market. So that's the really long worded answer on how. So how I, how do I personally feel? Obviously I'm heartbroken. You know, I believe so strongly in radio. I love the medium because I love being able to tell stories through the, the theater of the mind and creating those stories. And, and, and that's always what radio has been. Radio has always been, been community. It's always been real. It's always been current and relevant information told in a, in a power powerful and positive way. And that's what radio is. And so it will always do that. But unfortunately we're getting, we're, we're having less people doing it. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And you think it's sad because you think about these like, you know, heaven forbid, but you see it in all the time, natural disasters happening in local communities. Who's going to report on that? And I remember when I was in Barry recently, there's something going on there locally or something that's on the 400 and it's near Maple View Drive. Like it's. Everyone's turning on the radio to figure. [00:19:22] Speaker B: Out or it's a free way of getting information. [00:19:24] Speaker A: You know, is the, the best example was the, the blackout years ago in Toronto. The power in all of Toronto, August 14th. Yeah. [00:19:31] Speaker B: 2,020 2003. Why do I know that? It was the first birthday of my daughter. [00:19:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:19:41] Speaker B: She was born August 14th, 2002. So 2003, August 14th. Was the power out. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:47] Speaker B: All my family was at our house ready to go out to dinner. Power went out. We pulled everything out of the freezers and we barbecued everything as a big. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Lit the candles without having to switch the lights off. Yeah. [00:19:59] Speaker B: My point is that's. You're exactly right. Everyone. Where did everyone go? No, television stations weren't broadcasting. No, it was the radio stations that were broadcasting because people have these wired, these, you know, chargeable radios that were able to tell us what was going on. [00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And even more recently, I remember too, and Barry too, just the tornado. Yes, the tornadoes and the, when the Internet there was this thing fully went down. You could not get Internet anywhere in southern Ontario. But everyone, you know, you switch on the radio. That's the backup plan. And so it's sad that that. Yeah. The shareholders, like you say, don't realize that. And the wrong people seem to be running the radio station. It seems like they're some are getting in the, in the right hands like for the. [00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah, so that's one of the things that actually just happened because Rogers has divested itself of about 15 or 20 states. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Rogers or Bell? [00:20:53] Speaker B: Rogers or Bell, I can't remember. I think it was Bell. [00:20:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So they, they divested about 15 stations. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:58] Speaker B: And then corporations or radio companies that own three or four stations were able to pick those up real. And now they're talking about, you know, putting. Hiring all the same staff back again. Yeah, they're putting the know programming back on the air. They're making it real and they make it current and they're doing their best to, to revitalize it. And you know what, those types of companies are going to be successful because they make, you know, they make money every year, they profit every year, but they just have to keep on maintaining that. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:26] Speaker B: And it's the answering to the shareholders and you know, returning a, an increased dividend that they can't do. [00:21:32] Speaker A: Right, exactly. So I want to shift to learning more about Jim Car. Bringing things into our. Maybe it's future students that are watching or listening to this episode or sorry, past students. And what made you choose the. And you touched on this briefly, but if you like, had to narrow it down or give your answer fully in the education system for radio in terms of your profession instead of going out to work for a radio station full time for the last 23 years rather than carving your own path on a radio station long term or typically more than one radio station, what was it that made that decision fully for you for education? [00:22:14] Speaker B: It was easy. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:15] Speaker B: You know, it became. Once I was hired full time, I could still maintain freelance production and I still did a lot of freelance production. A lot. I produced a lot of PSAs and commercials for not for profits. I, you know, had continued to be a very busy DJ and so hosting events and doing all the stuff that, you know, I'd liked to do. I could still do that on the side, but teaching just became a very, very easy way of doing what I love to do, you know. [00:22:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:48] Speaker B: Talking about teaching people and communicating thoughts and, and, and best practices. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:55] Speaker B: With regards to producing commercials, producing radio content, that's. It became very easy to do it and so. [00:23:02] Speaker A: But was it also that that feeling of knowing that the college system, I know not recently, but for the most part was more sturdy than the radio business? [00:23:14] Speaker B: No, it never, then it never really came down to the fact that it was, you know, a great career. I mean, obviously I have a, I have A pension. I probably wouldn't have had a pension if I stayed in radio full time. [00:23:27] Speaker A: They joke about that. I've been in control rooms before. Pension. You sign up for the pension. What pension? You think you're getting a pension in radio? [00:23:34] Speaker B: Wouldn't that be nice? So, yeah, you know, it got. It got to the point where that was pretty nice to be able to rely on. But I tell you, I. I look back now, and I can't believe it's been 30 years. It feels like 10 years. It feels like, you know, a couple years ago I started. Right. It. It doesn't feel like it's been 20. More. More than 20 years. It does not feel that way. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So you taught a. You did teach a variety of courses at Senegal. Which was your favorite to teach? [00:24:00] Speaker B: Probably production, for sure. Although the last bunch of years, I, I again, while I was the coordinator, I put in a plan to try to modify the fourth semester, the last semester. And I started to spend a lot of time. You know, I was watching my own kids go through high school. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:19] Speaker B: And they do these things in their high school called prac. I don't even know what it's called. Not. I can't remember. The. The final project. It's a real thing that they do. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:32] Speaker B: And. And. And it's usually something that combines a whole bunch of different class. A whole bunch of different lessons to. To. To just show that they can evaluate. So I adjusted the fourth semester and came up with this. This course, kind of like a culmination. That's what it is. A culmination course that allowed all the students to do everything. And so we would do live broadcasts from the hive, and we would have students doing newscasts, and we would have students being promo people, so they would go out and. And find handouts, and they would give it. Give them. And then we. We would have people doing remotes and all in one go. And we do seven shows over the last seven weeks of the semester. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:14] Speaker B: And everyone would be doing jobs. And then next week, boom. No, you're the executive producer. You're the newscast. We switch it up. And so those were probably my favorite moments. Moments and favorite. Favorite shows. Although, you know, my. The. The course that I taught the most. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:30] Speaker B: Was the first semester production class. And I love that class. [00:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:25:33] Speaker B: For the first time, we get to produce a commercial. [00:25:35] Speaker A: Commercial together. [00:25:36] Speaker B: Right. The very first time we produced a commercial with music. Music, right. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:39] Speaker B: And then the first time we operated our own radio show where we played three songs and we were able to Intro and play an interview that we recorded and edited ourselves. Right. So that, that course was a lot of fun. And, and what I was really proud of doing was making sure that that became this course that was like the signature course that everyone remembers lessons from, you know. [00:26:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I could probably guess as to who you, who you looked up to most. And, and, and I don't know. [00:26:08] Speaker B: Don't. [00:26:09] Speaker A: I'll just let you take the floor on this one. But in terms of who were the greats that you always looked up to in radio? [00:26:14] Speaker B: Well, my, my favorite announcer was probably Tom Rivers. Okay. And so when Tom Rivers reached out to me to find, you know, find some work after he got let go from one more station, he reached out to me and I was like, I don't have any courses for you to teach. But you know, I'd be an idiot if I didn't invite you in to just have a conversation. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:26:37] Speaker B: And I had this amazing conversation with him. He's sitting in dad. My office from Media. We're, we're talking about chum and we're talking about, you know, his days of doing this and the, you know, all the, all the crazy stunts that he would do. And, and I left in such a high. And I was like, I walked into my boss's office and I said, I think, you know, and this was a, you know, thing that the coordinator would do to try to pitch new classes, I think, you know, so I walked into my coordinator, my, my pro, my program chair, and I said, I think we need to add a new first semester course to the radio program. And I went through and kind of explained what I was thinking about. And he said, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it for next semester. We'll take this one other class away and we'll split the hours and give you. And I said, okay, and I have perfect person that I want you to hire to teach it. And I said it was Tom Rivers. And the person, the chair just laughed and said, are you kidding me? And we hired him. So we didn't have a course for him, but we. He were somehow able to invent a course. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:40] Speaker B: So that he could come in and teach. And then by the end of his tenure, and unfortunately he passed away while he was still part time teaching with us. He. He died with cancer. [00:27:49] Speaker A: The late great times. [00:27:52] Speaker B: And so he, by the time he ended, he had designed three courses that he taught. Yeah, Intro to Talk Radio was his course. Intro to Radio Programming was his course. And he did industry relations. Industry Relations was part of the idea for, for. For a course. Yeah, yeah. That he taught. [00:28:08] Speaker A: So his stories were incredible. I remember he told us a couple. He's a certainly a legend for sure. So. [00:28:14] Speaker B: And, but, but I look up to all the time. Evelyn Mako. She's taught in the program for more than 20 years. You know so many people. Craig Robertson's a great friend of mine. He taught in the program. Will you. Will. Bill. Oh my God. God. Oh, why can't I remember his name now? [00:28:36] Speaker A: Jim Craig. No. Yeah. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Jim Craig was obviously Bill Hayes. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Sorry, sorry. [00:28:42] Speaker B: Bill. [00:28:43] Speaker A: Lots of names. [00:28:44] Speaker B: Bill Hayes was a guy that was back at CFTR days and, and his voice. Oh my God. He was an amazing voiceover talent and actor and performer and just like soon as we got him to do the talk radio class and he did a great job and we have had a lot of really, really great. Jim Richards came in and for a couple of semesters trying to think the other. [00:29:07] Speaker A: You know who I really Patterson. [00:29:09] Speaker B: Fred Fame. Fred Patterson taught in for a couple semesters who taught. [00:29:13] Speaker A: Oh yeah, that the name John Small, the writing course. He was incredible and he. [00:29:18] Speaker B: Big John was a really good friend of mine and he was the host radio people remember him as the host of Blues north and he hosted a weekly radio show that was on the Q107 radio network. And that was the first radio show that I ever produced. I intern graduating as a from Seneca as a radio student and I worked with John Small on that program and that was eye opening. You know. Here he's got cassette tapes and reel to reels that are all in my garage by the way with interviews with BB King and, and and you know, this blues artist and this blues artist and this blues are artists. [00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Like just incredible artists. [00:29:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:58] Speaker B: And. And they all knew him by name and they, they loved him, you know. [00:30:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:02] Speaker B: Doug Thompson taught in our program you talk about that's received more awards than. Than anybody that I've ever known. You know. He's forgotten more about production than I know. You know what I mean? Like, like he's. He. His famous line and I love this story. Ringo Starr was contacted by Westwood One to put together a radio show and he said I'll only do it if Doug Thompson produces it. [00:30:29] Speaker A: Wow. [00:30:30] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Like so that's a beetle says, you know, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do a show unless un. Doug Thompson's doing it because he knows more about the Beatles than I do. And I'm a beetle. You know. [00:30:42] Speaker A: That's what he said, is the coolest thing to hear. [00:30:44] Speaker B: And so, you know, it's just amazing to. To have a career with that many people that came in and out of the program. [00:30:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:52] Speaker B: And I was, like, just in love with the idea that all these people could bring different things to the table. Although we tried to really keep the core curriculum the same. [00:31:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:04] Speaker B: And so we really made sure that the students walked into the program and no matter who taught what, you know, by the end of it, they would be able to, you know, understand and be able to function well in. In the radio realm. And. And not only radio, but also in. In communication departments or work in media departments. Work in PR company PR departments. Right. Work with all the same kind of skills. Writing, you know, performance, presentation skills and, you know, time management. [00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:39] Speaker B: The production side, you know, those skills are kind of detailed. But, you know, all the things that go into the research and the planning and the writing of stuff, those are amazing skills to have that are transferable to everything. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Right. In your honest opinion, is radio dying? [00:31:55] Speaker B: No, absolutely not. It's retooling again. You know, it's retooled a hundred times since that first broadcast. Mr. Marconi. And then after that, Mr. Reginald Thesseten. You know, those first years of broadcasting, it's retooled itself hundreds of times, and it's redeveloped. AM came became, fm, FM became, you know, satellite radio. Satellite radio is back to fm. FM became, you know, on streaming, the streaming became podcast. All these redevelopments are all the exact same thing. It's basically radio. [00:32:31] Speaker A: So what. What do you think it needs to do in order to survive? Is there a strategy the industry should be implementing that they haven't yet? [00:32:37] Speaker B: Just keep communicating and telling stories. Just keep doing a good job at talking about things that are important and necessary. Keep sharing stories. Keep. Keep doing things like this. Like you, you know, you. You retooled yourself. You got let go at a radio station and you said, what. What can I use? My. That still makes a difference in people's lives. Let me. Let me do a podcast about, you know, mental health. And mental health has affected me. I'm going to talk about it. Yeah, talking about it is what we need to do. That's what radio is all about, talking about things. [00:33:15] Speaker A: Right, Right. So on that note, what are you. What are you telling former grads? Let's say this is a huge mental health thing that I would think for veteran broadcasters, veteran grads in the industry, recent graduates of Seneca, America's radio program, who may feel like, you know, kind of like a deer cotton headlights right about now when they see their careers and their dreams in such jeopardy due to the state of the business at the moment with, in terms of cuts all over the place. I mean, we're talking like the shuttering of radio staff and or stations at several radio properties across this great country of ours. Companies are selling off the stations that we touched on, but that certainly provides a lot of, lot of uncertainty in our mental state. So what, what would you tell our 100? [00:34:02] Speaker B: But I'll tell you what, I'll tell them, and I'll tell them the exact same thing I told them. The first class. [00:34:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:08] Speaker B: That I ever had with them. And the first radio class was radio production 111. And I was sitting in room 2026 or room 115 before that at the other campus, if that's the one that you studied in. And I said, you know what, tell me a little bit about your history. What, what made you get out of bed this morning to come study radio. Radio. And then someone would say, oh, you know, I spent four years in university and I didn't find my way, but now I'm. Now I'm here. And I would say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't discount anything. Yeah, so don't discount. This is what I'm going to say. Don't discount any education and any knowledge and any experience that you've had, because it's got you right here, right. Right now. Take this and now look back and say, what can I use from that skill set? What can I use from my, my toolkit that I've, you know, honed years? What can I take from that and, and push it forward and make success of it. You know, much of it is, you know, maybe it's redeveloping your skill set by adding technical, adding podcasting and, and video editing and doing your own thing on social media for a little while. [00:35:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:17] Speaker B: And then maybe keep your finger in the industry and keep reaching out. New companies come along, new companies start radio stations and then maybe it'll turn itself into another career. [00:35:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Maybe you did hit radio and you want to be another, you know, back on the air and do the top 40 stuff. But, but maybe you need to think about what you've done in your life and then turn that around and, and look at a talk radio station, right? You know, people, people on the air think, oh, I can't do talk radio. And it's, whoa, whoa, wait a second. You talk to people all your life, but now, yeah, you put a four Minute song in between each of the talks, but just remove that song and. And retool and re. Understand? So, so don't discount anything you've done. If you've got an education in. At Seneca, you've got other educations with other diplomas and other degrees, think about where all those skills go. And then push them forward and, and keep pushing. Keep. Radio is forward motion. I think this is one of the lessons that I talked about a lot of times. [00:36:19] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:20] Speaker B: Forward motion. I had a tattoo planned of it and I'm going to get it. Yeah. [00:36:24] Speaker A: That says forward motion. [00:36:25] Speaker B: Well, I mean, this. That's what this represents. My arrow. [00:36:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:29] Speaker B: It's pointing forward with a compass and a. And a clock and it's saying time doesn't stop. Right. There's no pause button on radio. [00:36:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:36] Speaker B: And so what do you do if you have a mistake? Right. You just, you put it behind you just keep on going forward. So, yeah, forward motion is radio, but you know what? Forward motion is also life. [00:36:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:36:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:36:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:47] Speaker B: We. We can't keep looking back that much. [00:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:50] Speaker B: I mean, look back long enough to understand where you came from and, and the education that you have and the knowledge that you have, but look forward so that you can do something with it. And that's what I would say to those that are in the. In the same shoes that you're in or the same shoes that many of my recent grads and, and long ago. Grads. Yeah, one of the grads from 1999, Mocha's group. [00:37:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:37:14] Speaker B: I had. He just lost his job in London. He was a morning guy for 15, 20 years there. And so I, I said, I messaged him on Facebook and I said, you know, you're one of the good ones, and I know that you'll land on your feet. You just got to keep on going. [00:37:28] Speaker A: Keep and keep on pressing away things and trying. Yeah, because I. And someone said this to me once too. The original content creators, like you see how everyone can be a content creator now. They got all these medias, social media, but the original ones are broadcast. [00:37:42] Speaker B: But you have the skills to understand how to make yours different because you have the broadcasting experience. The other people, the many millions of other people doing podcasting, they don't do the, they don't look at the research and understand what they're doing. They don't understand about benchmarking. They don't understand about forward selling. Right. You know, coming up is this that they don't understand about live sales for ads. Right. You know, like that's what you need to do in podcasting worlds if you want to monetize it a little bit. [00:38:10] Speaker A: Some great advice from Jim Carr. Incredible. You are fantastic. Finally, I wanted to just touch on your retirement. What does retirement look like for Jim Carr? Do you have any big plans for you and your family? [00:38:21] Speaker B: So, no, that's. It's kind of a blank slate right now. I'm kind of getting good to going to give it to the fall till I really kind of put my plan in place. But I'm going to try to do as much traveling as I can and I'll be doing it as cheaply as I can because I don't have a lot of money at all. I do have a pension, but it's not, it's not going to cover everything at all. So far I've, I'm able to look like I've, I've covered all my expenses except rent and food. [00:38:49] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, that's a little tough. [00:38:52] Speaker B: Those ones are the important ones. I shouldn't have just bought this new car that I bought. But anyway, the point is that my, my, you know, so I will hope to figure out a way to, to make a little bit of a living. I'm gonna still do some freelance production and freelance voice work. I'm gonna host events and, and, and put a lot of effort into my DJing. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Fantastic. [00:39:12] Speaker B: You can follow my new, my new DJ Instagram. [00:39:15] Speaker A: Plug it. Plug it. [00:39:17] Speaker B: DJ Lil L I L Jimmy J I M M Y L Jimmy. Love it. You'll follow that. And I'll tell you, in the fall, he's gonna release a whole bunch of new remixes of music. Music. He's going to start releasing some remix videos. I'm going to start doing some cooking videos on social media. I'm going to start doing some teaching videos about things like demystifying food. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Right? [00:39:42] Speaker B: Like, there's obviously tons, millions of people showing you how to cook their favorite, you know, chili recipe. But I'm going to talk about the science and some of the learning that goes into it because I think it's important to understand why you put the, the beef and the onions in at the same time and not the beef first and then two hours later put the onions in. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:04] Speaker B: So I'm going to talk about what happens and why we do it in those orders. So I'm going to try to demystify some cooking. And that's. [00:40:11] Speaker A: I could see you on TV doing that. Like, you know, the chef on tv. What are the famous one, the guy that, that does recipes on Cooked up food. An Italian guy. I don't know, producer. [00:40:20] Speaker B: Like Emerald. Yeah, it could be that. Yeah. [00:40:25] Speaker A: Follow Jim. Little Jimmy on Instagram for the ladies. [00:40:28] Speaker B: Lil Jimmy. So topical and so hip for this day and age. Yeah, that's what all the kids are saying. [00:40:38] Speaker A: Will John. [00:40:38] Speaker B: I figured I'm not really lil, which is the funny part. I see. See the humor there? [00:40:43] Speaker A: It's all good. [00:40:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Find me DJ Lil Jimmy or J Squared Daddy on Facebook and Instagram and the other socials. But, you know, my point is that I'm going to try to reinvent my. Myself. I'm going to try to find myself, too, because again, back to my original comments about the. The radio program and kind of stumbling into teaching. It's not necessarily what I really, really wanted. So I'm gonna spend a couple months and find myself and do that, do what I can do and. And we'll see if I can't get some rent and some food covered. [00:41:14] Speaker A: There you go. There you go. It's been a blast to have you here. Thank you for being. Also for being vulnerable. It is a mental health podcast willing to open up and, and, you know, students see that you like them and you've got things that you specifically on that. [00:41:31] Speaker B: Don't be afraid of taking the meds. Don't be afraid of talking to your doctor about adjusting your brain chemistry because, you know, it is a very, very finite thing that's going on in your brain. And, and, and the worst thing you could do is not acknowledge it and not talk to somebody. So acknowledge it. Talk to somebody. Get some good advice. [00:41:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:41:53] Speaker B: You know, I've been able to wean off a lot of my meds because I'm. I'm feeling so much better about my life than I was, but I'm still prepared to go back if I have to. And I still acknowledge my own feelings and I still. When I'm feeling down and having a bad day, I still acknowledge it. And I think about it and I, I talk to people about having that and that's what actually helps turn it around. [00:42:15] Speaker A: Just talking about it. [00:42:15] Speaker B: You got to talk about it. [00:42:16] Speaker A: Good for you. Jim Carr, the former radio coordinator at Seneca and just an incredible human being. Thanks so much for doing this today, and thank you so much for listening, watching. Wherever you get your podcast, don't forget to subscribe to Awareness Fostering a more compassionate, empathetic. [00:42:34] Speaker B: Thumbs up and hit that like. And the swipe up and the. What are the kids saying? The. [00:42:39] Speaker A: I don't know. Yeah, something like that. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Comment and comment like subscribe. [00:42:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Use the. All that. [00:42:45] Speaker B: See how f I am? I can do this. I can do this. [00:42:48] Speaker A: DJ Lil Jimmy. Love it. For producer Mike, I'm Rob Daniels. We'll see you in the next step.