WGR, Entercom: Significant furloughs, positions eliminated

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

10 hours ago, Gugny said:

 

Not sure if you've ever been laid off, but let me tell you - it sucks.  It destroyed me, financially, for years.  Wishing job loss on someone - especially at a time like this - is in poor taste.

 

Not sure if you've ever been laid off, but let me tell you - it sucks.  It destroyed me, financially, for years.  Wishing job loss on someone - especially at a time like this - is in poor taste.

I feel your pain .... I became a media casualty at the end of 2019 after 21 years.... there isn’t too many employers who want to pay a 60 year old

[Mango]

1 hour ago, Gordio said:

 

 

That is a good point.  This has been just so abrupt & so quick.  I was telling my wife every 10 years or so the country has to go thru some rough times and a recession is inevitable.  I told her if I could survive this, the next recession we have I will be ready to retire.  

 

This one is scary though.  The uncertainity of everything is crazy.

 

The country shouldn’t see a recession every 10 years or so. The problem is the economy has been broken for a long time now, and the 2008 bank bail out was a band aide that didn’t actually provide a fix to anything. We just hit the reset button on a flawed system. Maybe a better topic for PPP. Ha

 

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Mango

[Doc]

20 minutes ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Doc, you're crushing my dreams You sound like you are speaking from experience, you didnt happen to get bored and say, test it on yourself did you?!?️‍♂️

 

No, I didn't test it on myself...

[Sherlock Holmes]

18 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

No, I didn't test it on myself...

[Captain Hindsight]

My company has been furloughing people left and right. My job depends on construction happening in NYS and well, its not. I imagine I have until the end of April until I'm out of work

 

Since this started I've been told to:

 

Work from home,

Had a call saying  I was getting furloughed

Got an email 5 mins later saying I wasn't being furloughed

Had my pay cut 20%

Told I was going to be furloughed

Told I wasn't going to be furloughed

Got a raise (which honestly feels wrong with half my company completely out of work)

Be told our work will probably be up at the end of this month due to Covid-19

 

Luckily my wife is as busy as ever so we should at least one income for the foreseeable future, but damn my anxiety is killing me this month. I'm so worried about what happens at the end of all this. This isn't going to be like a light switch turning back on. This is going to be rough for years

[hondo in seattle]

Long story short... after working in the restaurant industry for 20+ years, I quit my good-paying job and sold my house to chase a dream and buy a couple of restaurants.  Fortunately we didn't close the deal before Covid 19 hit.  If we had, I'd be bankrupt - my life savings mostly gone - because the restaurant industry is in smoking ruins right now.  Nonetheless I am effectively homeless and without an income.  And given then sad state of the restaurant business (industry experts expect 100,000+ restaurants to permanently close over the next few weeks) and my advanced age (61), I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to pick myself back up and dust myself off.   

 

According to estimates, 3,000,000  other restaurant workers are currently unemployed and I personally know mom-and-pop restaurant owners teetering on insolvency.  

 

Sad all the way around.

 

Hopefully the NFL season isn't cancelled and the Bills make a run this year.  I sometimes proudly wear a Bills sweatshirt that says, "Just One Before I Die."

Edited April 3, 2020 by hondo in seattle

[YoloinOhio]

3 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

Long story short... after working in the restaurant industry for 20+ years, I quit my good-paying job and sold my house to chase a dream and buy a couple of restaurants.  Fortunately we didn't close the deal before Covid 19 hit.  If we had, I'd be bankrupt - my life savings mostly gone - because the restaurant industry is in smoking ruins right now.  Nonetheless I am effectively homeless and without an income.  And given then sad state of the restaurant business (industry experts expect 100,000+ restaurants to permanently close over the next few weeks) and my advanced age (61), I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to pick myself back up and dust myself off.   

 

According to estimates, 3,000,000  other restaurant workers are currently unemployed and I personally know mom-and-pop restaurant owners teetering on insolvency.  

 

Sad all the way around.

 

Hopefully the NFL season isn't cancelled and the Bills make a run this year.  I sometimes proudly wear a Bills sweatshirt that says, "Just One Before I Die."

Sorry to hear this and hope you are back on your feet soon. Glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I know some folks who have lost everything in the restaurant biz as well. So sad. 

[plenzmd1]

3 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

Long story short... after working in the restaurant industry for 20+ years, I quit my good-paying job and sold my house to chase a dream and buy a couple of restaurants.  Fortunately we didn't close the deal before Covid 19 hit.  If we had, I'd be bankrupt - my life savings mostly gone - because the restaurant industry is in smoking ruins right now.  Nonetheless I am effectively homeless and without an income.  And given then sad state of the restaurant business (industry experts expect 100,000+ restaurants to permanently close over the next few weeks) and my advanced age (61), I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to pick myself back up and dust myself off.   

 

According to estimates, 3,000,000  other restaurant workers are currently unemployed and I personally know mom-and-pop restaurant owners teetering on insolvency.  

 

Sad all the way around.

 

Hopefully the NFL season isn't cancelled and the Bills make a run this year.  I sometimes proudly wear a Bills sweatshirt that says, "Just One Before I Die."

well, sounds like there is some good news in there. Sucks on the job loss for sure, but i am sure you can find a place to rent for 12 months..and i know it sucks , but I am sure entering the restaurant business once life gets back to semi -normal will be much less expensive than before. Rents, equipment etc all prolly 50% of what you would have paid 2 months ago. 

 

 

[JohnC]

3 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

Long story short... after working in the restaurant industry for 20+ years, I quit my good-paying job and sold my house to chase a dream and buy a couple of restaurants.  Fortunately we didn't close the deal before Covid 19 hit.  If we had, I'd be bankrupt - my life savings mostly gone - because the restaurant industry is in smoking ruins right now.  Nonetheless I am effectively homeless and without an income.  And given then sad state of the restaurant business (industry experts expect 100,000+ restaurants to permanently close over the next few weeks) and my advanced age (61), I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to pick myself back up and dust myself off.   

 

According to estimates, 3,000,000  other restaurant workers are currently unemployed and I personally know mom-and-pop restaurant owners teetering on insolvency.  

 

Sad all the way around.

 

Hopefully the NFL season isn't cancelled and the Bills make a run this year.  I sometimes proudly wear a Bills sweatshirt that says, "Just One Before I Die."

I wish you the best. As much as all the bad news you have had to face you are fortunate that you were not able to close the deal that you were soon going to make. If the timing would have been different you would have used the assets that took you a lifetime to earn only to invest in a proposition that would have led you to a quick bankruptcy and depletion of everything you worked for. 

 

For what it is worth I have a lot of respect for you because you had a dream and were not afraid to pursue it. That takes a lot of courage and belief in oneself. This coronavirus epidemic beyond the health issues will cause  a lot of lingering long term economic damage. Hopefully, you will be able to get through the tough times and survive these troubled times. I wish you well. 

[hondo in seattle]

3 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

Sorry to hear this and hope you are back on your feet soon. Glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I know some folks who have lost everything in the restaurant biz as well. So sad. 

 

Thanks for the well-wishes.  While things could have worked out better, they could have easily been worse, too.  I count myself lucky.

 

3 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

well, sounds like there is some good news in there. Sucks on the job loss for sure, but i am sure you can find a place to rent for 12 months..and i know it sucks , but I am sure entering the restaurant business once life gets back to semi -normal will be much less expensive than before. Rents, equipment etc all prolly 50% of what you would have paid 2 months ago. 

 

 

 

I'm talking to friends about exactly this.  The key to business is simple: buy low, sell high.  We think there may be some opportunities to buy low coming up.  Lenders and investors are little nervous right now but a new normal will emerge eventually.  

 

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

I wish you the best. As much as all the bad news you have had to face you are fortunate that you were not able to close the deal that you were soon going to make. If the timing would have been different you would have used the assets that took you a lifetime to earn only to invest in a proposition that would have led you to a quick bankruptcy and depletion of everything you worked for. 

 

For what it is worth I have a lot of respect for you because you had a dream and were not afraid to pursue it. That takes a lot of courage and belief in oneself. This coronavirus epidemic beyond the health issues will cause  a lot of lingering long term economic damage. Hopefully, you will be able to get through the tough times and survive these troubled times. I wish you well. 

 

Thanks for the kind thoughts.  We actually made an offer on a package of restaurants and the offer was accepted.  But the owner was extremely slow in providing his end-of-year financials - impeding the due diligence phase of the buying process - and that pushed back the date of the closing of the deal.  It was frustrating at the time but it saved me and my partner from a huge mistake.  

 

Not knowing where we'll end up, my wife and I are looking at motor homes and will try the RV lifestyle for  a while.  I imagine myself parked in our RV near a little creek somewhere in the beautiful Cascade Mountains, doing a little reading & writing, and hiking with my husky.    While the circumstances are far from ideal, we're looking for silver linings and finding some. 

[jkeerie]

44 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

Thanks for the well-wishes.  While things could have worked out better, they could have easily been worse, too.  I count myself lucky.

 

 

I'm talking to friends about exactly this.  The key to business is simple: buy low, sell high.  We think there may be some opportunities to buy low coming up.  Lenders and investors are little nervous right now but a new normal will emerge eventually.  

 

 

Thanks for the kind thoughts.  We actually made an offer on a package of restaurants and the offer was accepted.  But the owner was extremely slow in providing his end-of-year financials - impeding the due diligence phase of the buying process - and that pushed back the date of the closing of the deal.  It was frustrating at the time but it saved me and my partner from a huge mistake.  

 

Not knowing where we'll end up, my wife and I are looking at motor homes and will try the RV lifestyle for  a while.  I imagine myself parked in our RV near a little creek somewhere in the beautiful Cascade Mountains, doing a little reading & writing, and hiking with my husky.    While the circumstances are far from ideal, we're looking for silver linings and finding some. 

That sounds like a wonderful plan!  All the best to you and your wife!