Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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Week In Sound: Election Drama
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Former Vice President Joe Biden is expanding his lead over President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 presidential election as states continue to count an unprecedented amount mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
https://omny.fm/shows/880-weekly-rewind/election-week-in-sound
Listen back to the dramatic Week In Sound as heard on WCBS Newsradio 880, produced by Neil A. Carousso, on the media player above.
You can listen to The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM ET for a deeper understanding of the top local, national and international stories of the week, featuring interviews with newsmakers and the Week/Month In Sound audio file.
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Laughter and Love: Businesses Born Out of Pandemic Needs
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Some of the best businesses solve unmet needs.
Ray Ellin, executive producer of Comedy Central’s “This Week at the Comedy Cellar,” went from performing at New York comedy clubs to entertaining sales teams on Zoom after founding Comedy Cloud in May when a customer insisted he pivot to live virtual comedy shows.
“I had thought about it, but I was like, ‘There’s no way this is going to work,’” Ellin told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by BNB Bank.
He did not think Zoom comedy shows for businesses would be profitable, but now, he credits his Aruba Ray’s Comedy Club customer to his growing adjacent service.
“He really had to twist my arm. It was really something,” Ellin laughed.
Photo credit: Ray Ellin Businesses hire him for about $2,000 to provide hour-long comedic relief and engage their remote workers – many of whom have not been in the office for eight months – in a fast-pace virtual program featuring standup comics sidelined due to the pandemic. It has also served as a coping mechanism for Ellin whose older sister died from COVID-19 in March in Silicon Valley.
“I really felt like this would also provide me with a good purpose,” he told WCBS 880, continuing, “If I could try to boost the morale of people that are home alone in a similar situation, well, great, let’s give it a shot. Let’s see if this will work.”
Jenn Augustine of Floral Park has tackled adversity head on since she started her dream wedding planning business Forget Me Knots in 2018 while receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments for breast cancer and carrying her first child at the same time.
“The first wedding that we ever booked, we did it in September, and a day later I had my double mastectomy,” she said, adding. “I wanted to make sure I was there and part of that wedding and loved every second of it.”
Photo credit: Jenn Augustine She has been cancer-free for two years this past September and her daughter is healthy as well.
When the pandemic hit, Augustine had been used to the mental health challenges of isolation, but her business was shut down. As Mother’s Day approached in May, she reached out to potential customers on Instagram with a new service: flowers. She wanted to support Long Island floral farmers she had been working with for wedding bouquets. She only expected a few orders, but was flooded with over 100 orders throughout the Tri-State area.
“There’s still a need for people to send joy and love and a lot of people do that through flowers,” said Augustine. “We realized that that side of the business really has been growing because when you don’t see a family member for a certain amount of time, you really appreciate them and the time that you do spend together, and you want them to remember, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about you.'”
Now, with weddings in New York capped at 50 people, including wait staff, she told Carousso her flower delivery business is more profitable. She is planning what she calls “micro-weddings” in clients’ backyards and small venues.
“I just recently did a wedding in Long Beach at the Allegria Hotel and they only allowed 40 people with 5-6 feet tables apart from each other, no dancing, you have to wear a mask when you get up from the table and they usually stay away from buffet-style eating. Everything is individually plated,” she said.
Augustine discovered micro-weddings are more intimate and fun because it is with a small group of close family and friends. Beaming with a positive outlook on life full of uncertainty, she fills the void of love.
Hear ideas for growing an adjacent service in the pandemic on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast on the RADIO.COM app or on the media player above.
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Month In Sound: October 2020
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – October 2020 included a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Tri-State, President Trump’s COVID diagnosis, the presidential debates, early voting, and MLB owners and New York City approving the sale of the New York Mets to billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen.
https://omny.fm/shows/880-weekly-rewind/month-in-sound-october-2020
Neil A. Carousso produced the Month In Sound as heard it on WCBS Newsradio 880 in October 2020. Hear it on the media player above.
You can listen to The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM ET for a deeper dive into the top local, national and international stories of the week, featuring interviews with newsmakers and the Week/Month In Sound audio file.
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What employers and employees can do to advance in the pandemic economy
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Now may be a good time to take steps to advance your career or grow your business.
With millions out of work and traditional jobs disrupted by the pandemic, there are new jobs and skills in demand, which Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso explore with former U.S. Department of Labor official Jane Oates on this week’s WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by BNB Bank.
Oates served as assistant secretary for the Employment and Training Administration from 2009 to 2013 and was executive director for the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and Senior Advisor to former Gov. Jon Corzine from 2006-2009.
She is currently the president of WorkingNation – a non-profit that examines the changing workforce and offers solutions for adapting to challenges such as those brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
“You have to know what your skills are. It’s no longer just doing job title to job title,” she explained.
Oates told WCBS 880 those out of work and/or looking to change careers should try to use their existing skills that can apply to parallel industries that may value them more.
“So, can I go from being, you know, a banker to a middle school math teacher? It’s not going to be a straight line. It’s going to be a rich pathway that has lots of circles,” she said, adding, “So, you have to make sure you can articulate to yourself and others what your skills are.”
Technology and digital skills are in high demand right now and new jobs are being created in the pandemic.
Indeed lists numerous software development and information services jobs on its site.
There were 1.5 million new applications for Employer Tax Identification Numbers in the third quarter of 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a 77.4 percent increase of new business applications from the second quarter.
“I think what we’re seeing is a lot of innovators and that’s what we’re known for, right, that’s what the United States is: we’re a nation of innovators,” Oates said.
As a mentor for emerging technology startups in education, she told Connolly and Carousso that she has learned of an influx of investments in the space over the summer.
Meantime, operating businesses are preparing for their future. Oates said many companies have started using staffing agencies to train young workers – many recent college graduates – to develop their talent pools.
One staffing agency she mentioned on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight is Houston-based Talent Path; they provide career development for recent graduates so they are “work-ready.” On its website, Talent Path writes, “colleges and universities don’t always know the pressing technology needs of employers.” The firm aims to bridge that “disconnect.”
“We’ve seen a lot of it all over the country and New York always has been a place where staffing agencies have been a vibrant source where employers can kind of see before they buy,” Oates said.
The former Labor Department official named Revature, Genuent and Optimum Healthcare IT as other qualified staffing agencies.
“I also think (employers are) waiting to see what the longer term trends are going to be,” said Oates, continuing, “I mention healthcare, what’s going to happen permanently with telemedicine, and quite frankly, what’s going to happen permanently in terms of people working full-time remotely?”
She pointed to her own experience working longer hours at home and worries about family relationships being harmed because people cannot physically get away from their jobs. She also expressed her concern about adverse unintended consequences surrounding career advancement of which, she said, employees and employers should be aware.
“If you can’t impress somebody on the work site, if they can’t walk past you or have you come into a meeting – a meeting that you might not have been invited to originally – and have you really impress them with your knowledge and skills, I think that will be bad for the upward mobility, professionally, for so many people,” Oates said.
Hear ideas on how to combat these challenges and the steps you can take now to advance your career or business on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight Podcast on the RADIO.COM app or the media player above.
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The 880 Weekly Rewind: Congressional Elections and Whether ‘Microclusters” Will Soften the Economic Devastation
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — We dig into the final presidential debate and the local congressional elections on November 3 plus a Bronx mom shows us the economic devastation of the pandemic in places hit hardest. And, we bid farewell to WCBS 880 anchor Vickie Allen who retired after 29 years at the station.
https://omny.fm/shows/880-weekly-rewind/congressional-elections-and-whether-microclusters
You can listen to The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM ET for a deeper dive into the top local, national and international stories of the week, featuring interviews with newsmakers and the Week/Month In Sound audio file.
