I have almost nothing in common with Don Draper other than when I occasionally drop into what I call my “Fat Don Draper” speeches in a creative meeting. However, as I have spent the last few months riding out some golden handcuffs, I have been strangely reacting to the parts of Mad Men where Don is sitting around his apartment with nothing to do. That feeling I know.
Last night Don rolled up his sleeves and decided to do the work.
This morning I find myself a full “unrestricted free agent” as I like to say. I am free and clear to run your radio station, your comedy offerings or whatever the future holds.
Ten years ago I found myself in this boat and a friend called and told me to get in touch with Jeremy Coleman who was looking for someone to run the comedy format on satellite radio. The what on what? What wound up attracting to me that gig, as I told Jeremy in that meeting, was that there was no “book” on how to do the format. It hadn’t been done, thus there was no blueprint. Ten years later it’s a format that is expected on all these services, and there is even a terrestrial radio version.
And like Don, it bugs me that someone else has my stations now. I launched them all, and I always knew they would go on without me, but boy it makes me creatively itchy to get back in the game.
My ten years before that was in News-Talk, something that I still love. I was waxing poetic last week about my adventures with Bob Grant. Whatever you may think of Bob, I worked with him every day and I will tell you he was a master of his craft. Lets have lunch some time and I will go on and on about working that show.
So here I am. Unrestricted free agency. Time to go do the work.