The three months after being laid off from his West Virginia radio station have been among the hardest of Spencer DuPuis’ life. “I was definitely sad, disappointed and angry,” he recalls. “But I used that to motivate me to continue my career in sports broadcasting.”
The place where DuPuis’ is continuing is the Kansas capitol city of Topeka and the legendary 580 WIBW. He’ll be co-hosting and producing an afternoon sports talk show.
The process
DuPuis learned of the opening in an STAA Job Leads email on November 24th. “Initially, I didn’t hear anything back. I saw it again in the job leads email on December 8th and sent a follow up email.” WIBW Sports Director (and fellow STAA member) Jake Lebahn called DuPuis four days later for an interview. Ironically, it was DuPuis’ birthday. “The next day, I did a Google Meets interview with the two other sports guys. On December 14th, I had an audition. I was offered the job on December 19th!
WIBW’s “two other sports guys” that DuPuis spoke to are STAA members Dan Lucero and Brendan Dzwierzynski. The station’s sports staff has been comprised exclusively of STAA members since 2014.
Staying busy
DuPuis describes his mindset following his layoff as interesting. “I know a lot of companies don’t hire much during the fall and winter. So while I was looking and applying, I kind of focused on finding a temporary job and working as much as possible to save money and pay my bills. I ramped up applying in mid-to-late November. I was able to have a few interviews with different places before the WIBW interviews.”
Being in Kansas will be the first time DuPuis has lived outside of the Virginias. He’s from Leesburg, VA, then graduated from Marshall University in West Virginia before landing his first job nearby. “After getting abruptly laid off, I knew that my job search would be far and wide. And at 26, I knew that the time was now to make the move and take the risk, so here we are!”
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