Hello! First of all, it's nice to talk to you again...I am still here in Chicago and, in spite of the nasty bout of cold weather, I'm planning on staying!
Thank you all for your lovely notes and letters of support. Especially to Lee Newcom who started the post and brought back some wonderful memories in Bloomington. I want to especially thank him for his encouragement and friendship both on the Illinois Review page and off. The thing that has struck me the most in the two months that I've been off the airwaves is how much people do care. And, sadly, you find out how little people care too...once you are no longer perhaps in a position that can benefit them.
So most people want to know....Eileen...what are you doing with yourself?! Let me tell you that I do plan on returning to the airwaves soon. But...when I signed off on December 19th, I couldn't say that I was going to. I couldn't...because I wasn't sure myself. I was so shocked and saddened when my contract was terminated....and let me say that officially for the record...some people are speculating that I wanted more money...and that is absolutely not true....but when I was fired...I just had to stop. I had to stop everything and just let myself figure out what it is that I wanted to do. I knew that if I had put a date or timeline on going back on the air, that is what I would focus on and I wouldn't be able to let myself get the rest that I so badly needed. So for the past two months, I took a trip, I scheduled and have now almost completed three writing classes and I didn't do much in the way of anything public....although I helped to emcee an event for wonderful friends, Georgette and Roy Frank...they are Gold Star parents and their foundation is called The Heart of a Marine Foundation. Their Hearts of Valor ball was a few weeks ago and they had a record crowd in attendance and we had a wonderful night.
I have worked every day of my life since I was sixteen years old..and it was nice to be able to take a breather and say...okay...what do you really want to do with yourself? It was even nicer to figure out that I was doing it! The thing I have discovered that I hate about the media, TV, radio, everything--- is how egocentric it all is. I guess that part of it...the business of the media business, I frankly don't miss at all. But what I love about talk radio--more so than any other form of media... and what I do really miss...is being able to inform, entertain...and the impact that we all have to make a difference. If you're just on the air complaining about problems, then you're just part of the problem. How can we use our time, money, other resources and community to determine the best solution to a given situation? I hope to be able to do that once again. I don't know where that will be...and I don't know what time slot. I have no problem working on weekends. Some joker (elsewhere) speculated that I thought that that was beneath me! Not in the least. I would love to do weekends too....my only problem now is that I have very few of them till the wedding...and when you have a spouse (okay, not yet)..but someone in your life who works a zillion hours during the week and has a spare few on weekends...you want to make the most of completing that honey-do list!
I miss you all. Your letters really meant so much to me. I hope that we will talk again one day soon. Till then, I'm pretty much muttering to myself while I read the paper and watch the news. Quite disturbing! Lee has invited me to be a contributer to the site...so I hope that I'll be able to post and we can chat that way in the meantime. Thank you again for your kindness and support.
Eileen Byrne
