THE VERTICAL FILES
  • Home
    • Pod Archives
  • Jeff's Blog
  • Vert's Blog
    • Vintage Vertical Files

Open letter to friends and former colleagues.

7/18/2014

0 Comments

 
This post will take several days and won't mean much to most people. 
 First I have to thank Scott for allowing me to use  this forum.  I have communicated to a few of my friends my plan to do this and all were encouraging.  One good friend said "clarity can bring you peace".  One can only hope.  Another reason for this letter is I believe there are a lot of misconceptions caused by people, who have no information, jumping on their ponies' and acting like Paul Revere.

In the interest of context I'm going to start several years ago as I lost my last job.
I had secured a position as National Sales Manager for the NBC television affiliate in Traverse City, Michigan.   Due to other folks leaving I was named acting General Manager and General Sales Manager.  I now had three jobs at the station and I loved it.  After almost a year I was laid off, fired, due to financial difficulties.  I was told I was the "pro's pro"  had the highest revenue in the chain of 23 stations.  Four other people were laid off, fired, that day and I saw one of them openly weeping.  Eventually twenty percent of the staff were let go.  This is what happens when the bean counters take over.  I packed my things and moved back to the house I still owned in the Detroit area.  I could rant about this but that is for another time.  I'm not the first to lose a job and certainly won't be the last.

Fifteen months later I found a job running a TV station and radio cluster out West and was in the proses   of closing the deal.  I got up on a rainy July Thursday, went in to my home office, made and returned calls and sent out and returned correspondence.  At around 2:30 I walked to my living room with my cell phone in hand and sat in my "big chair" to read a volume of letters by the late  journalist Hunter S Thompson.  It wasn't unusual for me to read three or four books a week.  About Thirty minutes later I slumped in the chair, something had broken inside me, I felt awful.  I managed to pick up the cell and speed dial my pal Steve.  I knew Steve lived and worked close by.  When he picked up I asked him to call me an ambulance,   later told he didn't recognize my voice (it had changed and hasn't returned to "normal").  He confirmed he would do as I asked.  I felt worse.  I tried to stand, the room flipped, I fell on the floor.  While laying there I heard sirens in the distance.  Then I died.

Part Two 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Jeff Allen

    Picture
    Vertical asked me to join his blog as a guest expert on "Nuggets" era music... Psychedelic, Garage and Fuzz.  Are there others more qualified?  You bet, but they weren't asked. He's also letting me write about anything I want…  We'll see.

    Categories

    All
    13th
    2
    20/20
    $8000 A Pop
    AM
    Amboy Dukes
    AM/FM
    AM/FM THE UNRELATED SEGMENTS
    Ann Arbor
    Axe
    Baroque
    BATHROOM CUT
    Beach
    Beatles
    Bob Seger
    Boones Farm
    Budgie
    Cali
    Canada
    Capsula
    Chris Montez
    Citadel
    Closer To Home
    Continental Co-ets
    Dance
    Dark Side
    Demo
    Detroit
    DOUG AND THE SLUGS
    Earth Quake
    East Side Story
    English Bands
    Film
    First Girlfriend
    Flo & Eddie
    Floor Elevators
    Florida
    FOX
    Friends
    Fuzz
    Garage Bands
    Garage Bands West Michigan
    Gil Scott-Heron
    Girls Go Garage!
    Graham Parker
    Graham Parsons
    Grand Funk
    Green Onions
    Harry Nilsson
    HBOT
    HBOT Final Report
    HBOT Pt
    HBOT Pt.2
    HBOT Pt. 2
    HBOT Pt.3
    HBOT Pt. 4
    High School
    Hungry
    Incense And Peppermints
    Interstellar Overdrive
    Jefferson Airplane
    Jim Jarmusch
    Joe Jackson
    Johnny
    Johnny Thunders
    Kirsty MacColl
    LA Punk
    Latin Quarter
    Lene Lovich
    Let It All Hang Out
    Lets Dance
    LIAR LIAR
    Lillies
    Lost To Maddness And Addiction
    Loudon WainwrightIII
    Louie Louie
    Lucifer
    Magic Potion
    Marmalade
    Masonic
    MC5
    McCartney
    Memories
    Michigan
    Mind Flowers
    Movies
    My Boyfriends Back
    My Meds
    MYSTIC EYES
    Nashville Teens
    New York Dolls
    ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
    Open Letter
    Open Mind
    Paul Revere
    Pink Floyd
    Power Pop
    Pretty Ballerina
    Pretty Ballernia
    Psych
    Psych/Fuzz/Garage
    Public Nusance
    Quad
    Radio
    Ramones
    Reggae From The Past
    RENNAISSANCE
    Respect
    Rolling Stones
    Show Theme
    Skip Spence
    Sky
    Solo
    Sonic
    SRC
    Status Quo
    Summer
    Surf
    Sweet Pea
    Syd Barrett
    Tabacco Road
    TELEVISION
    Texas Garage
    The Atlantics
    The Beatles
    The Blues Magoos
    THE CASTWAYS
    The Debutantes
    The Faces
    The Frost
    The Gentrys
    The Heartbreakers
    The Hombres
    The Isrealites
    The Kingsman
    THEM
    The Magic Mushrooms
    The Misunderstood
    The Rationals
    The Shoes
    The SoulBenders
    The Sparkles
    The Turtles
    The Ultimate Spinach
    The Wanted
    The Zombies
    Three Quarters Of A Million?
    Thunderclap Newman
    Tommy Roe
    Top 40
    Toronto
    Tracey Ullman
    Trip
    Van Morrison
    Velvet Haze
    Velvett Fogg
    Video
    Wayne Kramer
    Welsh
    What A Tragedy
    WHERE THE ACTION IS
    Wilson Mower Pursuit
    Wimple Winch
    Wine
    X
    Zantac
    ZOMBIES

    Follow Jeff on Twitter
    Email Jeff

    Store

    Want to buy something from me? Of course you do. You might just find a treasure here at my eBay store.

    Archives

    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014

    Vert's Blog

    RSS Feed


    Tweets by @RadioJeff
The Vertical Files on Twitter