Segarini – The Birth of The BobCast
It was the best of times, it was the worst of …no …wait …that’s either the opening line to a classic story or how I would feel if I won the Lottery and then had to sit through a Billie Eilish concert.
Let me start over.
At any rate, I was happily plying the radio airwaves at SIRIUS Satellite Radio’s Channel 95, The Iceberg, when Standard Broadcasting sold their company except SIRIUS to Astral Sorghum and Fetlock Ointment Radio network for eleventybillion dollars and a player to be named later. However, thanks to cunning lawyers, loopholes, legalese, and a coin flip, I was out of a job and sent packing quicker than you can say, “Excuse me, but those are MY pants you’re setting on fire.”
So there I was.
It was 2008 or 2009, I’m not sure which. My sundial stopped working in 2007, and Alexa was still a few years away from existing.
Out of a job. No prospects. and all the while, committing one of the biggest crimes you can commit in North America.
I was ageing.
And those of you who are doing ageing like I am, it will only be a matter of time before someone at work points at you like Donald Sutherland at the end of ‘The Body Snatchers’ and screams “OOOOOLD!!!”, and you are dragged off to HR where your boss informs you that your services are no longer required, thanks for doing a splendid job while you were here, and please put your belongings in a box and get the fuck out of here before I call security.
Ageism.
The one bigotry driven by natural progression that is still being swept under the carpet, presumably by employees half our age, and only discussed in hushed whispers with other old wastrels out of earshot of those still young enough to have unimpaired hearing and a keen sense of entitlement. They want our jobs, and they are impatient, and if we live past our Best Before dates and upset their dream of retiring by 40 and having sex with Billie Eilish and Cardi B. and that hot blonde at reception who only dates young executives with bad taste in music, a fancy car, and some poor old bastard’s former corner office.
In a world that runs on greed and overpriced coffee, it makes good business sense to replace someone who has been with the company long enough to be paid a living wage, with someone who will take less, but only to a point. Of course there are some young, bright lights who are creative and worth the gamble, but there are as many old bright lights who have the extra added bonus of experience, who still have a lot of juice and enthusiasm.
There’s more I would like to say about ageism and other, related, silliness that makes it difficult for good things to happen when a business panics and looks for ways to stop the bleeding, but one I believe we can all agree on is that ‘saving’ money by firing your workforce borders on sheer lack of a few major brain cells.
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I was 63 when Astral pushed me out of the airlock without a spacesuit, but callousness aside, it was typical of company bean counters to fire the workers to save money and keep the company in the black, but it’s a band aid on a gunshot wound and only assuages the bottom line and stockholders for a limited amount of time. It does nothing to improve the chances for success in the future.
I wasn’t the only person fired back then, and now, companies fire 100s, sometimes 1000s in the name of keeping their ship afloat.
Astral? Bell Media bought and dismantled the media giant in 2013. Big payout for owners and stockholders, but except for a few radio stations and a billboard company, Astral is no more. Bell sold off the assets they didn’t want to other organisations like CORUS, and many supped on the Astral carrion until its bones were bleached white and stripped of every ounce of flesh. Your guess is as good as mine as to how many jobs were lost. Now it’s Bell Media doing mass firings. And so it goes.
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Along with having the unmitigated gall to continue to grow older, I was (and still am) saddled with a reputation from the mid ’80s, some of which was true at the time, and some of which was created by me basically to ascertain which ‘friends’ of mine were spreading lies and gossip to the powers that be. You may continue to enjoy my legendary status as a cocaine fueled alcoholic sex fiend psychopath with Narcissistic tendencies and an addiction to licking maple syrup off the stocking clad legs of strippers and supermodels, if you so choose …but beware the fact that not knowing how much of that is fantasy or hasn’t been true for a few decades, could surely lead you down the path to certain madness.
I had started writing columns for David Farrell’s online music industry magazine, FYIMusic while at SIRIUS. When THAT was dismantled for a while, I started my blog, “Don’t Believe A Word I Say” in order to become a better writer, stay busy, and mentor others who wished to learn to be better writers. No money was or is involved, but every writer owns what they write and can publish books (and some have) and profit from their contributions.
Five years later, after still not being able to find employment, I read about a new form of ‘radio’ being embraced by other ageing broadcasters, some hoping to monetize their work, and others, like me, to stay busy and current.
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Podcasts had barely began being developed when Astral broke into my bathroom and ate me alive, and by 2013, when I decided to do one, they were still under most people’s radar. Read the history of Podcasting by clicking on the link at the bottom of the previous paragraph.
Egged on by early Podcast enabler, champion, and producer, Brian Jaden, I wasn’t interested in using the new form of broadcasting the same way everyone else was, I had a vision.
It was mad.
Insane.
Impossible.
…and so we did it.
How we did it is the topic of next Friday’s column.
The Goal – To create an audio version of the Johnny Carson era Tonight Show, complete with multiple guests, interviews, and live musical guests, a co-host, a house band, and a team of like-minded dreamers to bring it to fruition.
The Obstacle – We had to figure out a way to do it with no production money, no experience, no sponsorship or marketing money, and no way to pay anyone. We needed a venue, a ‘clock’, and a miracle or two.
One of the miracles was a group of amazing, adventurous and talented individuals.
The other miracle was Cherish Stevenson and Cherry Cola’s Rock N Rolla Cabaret and Lounge.
The shows were rough, sometimes great, sometimes awful, but always exciting and somehow realized. I will say, with absolutely no apology or embarrassment, that I was the worst performer of our small but energetic ensemble. I had some great moments, but like all my friends tell me, I still just talk too much. I am no Johnny Carson, but I’m an O.K Bob. …learning to talk a little less …maybe.
A second season would have gotten us the polish we needed, but was not to be. …but for 26 weeks we did what no podcast has done before or since …we put on a SHOW.
Lots more to tell and more BobCasts for you to listen to. Be here next week.
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THE BOBCAST
EPISODE 1 MARCH 18TH 2013
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Segarini’s regular columns appear here because when one gets written it has to appear somewhere or the Blog Police show up at 3:00 am in the morning, scare the Ovaltine out of the kids and track mud all over my nice clean kitchen floor.
Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, continues to write music, make music, and record.
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 
July 17, 2021 at 6:12 pm
It would be remiss of me not to go on record as emphatically stating that none of us have *ever* accused you of liking maple syrup … 😉
ae
” You may continue to enjoy my legendary status as a cocaine fueled alcoholic sex fiend psychopath with Narcissistic tendencies and an addiction to licking maple syrup off the stocking clad legs of strippers and supermodels, if you so choose …”