'LEARN TO CODE', they said -- 142K Tech layoffs look like a broken promise

I clearly remember the Great Recession, which happened after the real estate crash of 2008-2009.  I had just been laid off in 2006-2007, and when the big Crash happened, I was in college, for the second time, and after 2010 I was working semi-regular in the legal industry through the rest of the Recession.

Many of my boss's clients during the 2010's were bankruptcy cases. We helped a lot of people get back on their feet again.

I also remember driving down the main street of my city during the early to mid-2010's and seeing half of the windows boarded up or covered by illustrations and posters. There were a lot of vacant buildings and empty storefronts, and that only started changing at the end of that decade.

Then, of course, there was a small economic boom before the Pandemic hit.

The lingering nature of the Great Recession in many parts of the US was not widely publicized, for some reason. But there were some articles by some US and UK newspapers concerning the delayed Recovery -- especially in the Rust Belt and in parts of the South, as well as Appalachia and the Rural Western US. Many media observers said that some career fields that were slammed by the Great Recession would never return -- especially coal industry jobs, and other legacy fields like manufacturing, lumbering, mining, and a lot of energy production.

What were all those laid off workers supposed to do?

"Learn to Code," they said.

Just deal with the fact your job is never coming back, go to school, and "Learn to Code."

After all, computer tech is growing, and those jobs will be limitless. Computers and the internet are the future. There will always be jobs in those fields.

Or so they said.

In other words, all those laid off energy, manufacturing, and service workers -- especially those in legacy fields -- were supposed to go to tech school or college and get 'retraining', and the buzz phrase in the 2010's -- just 10 years ago, really -- was 'Learn to Code', learn how to program computer apps, web services, websites, and computer systems.

Being laid off on New Year's Eve 2006, I found out the hard way just how difficult it can be to find employment in your field when your field of work is in decline. According to NAICS -- the job statistic part of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics -- my field was 'Sound Engineering'. And thanks to computer tech taking over in Radio and Recording, the numbers of 'Sound Engineers' in the US was in decline. 

The field of 'Sound Engineering' simply was NOT predicted to increase in numbers. It's one reason that when I went back to college, I had to choose the paralegal field because it most fit my aptitude and previous schooling, and because I didn't have the math capability to 'learn to code' or get into a tech field.

That said, when I kept hearing politicians and news media pundits tell laid off workers that they just needed to "Learn to Code", I was suspicious, because nothing seems guaranteed in this world, especially with job markets. I had learned that in Radio.

After all, when I went to college the first time around in the 1980's, Radio, TV, and Newspapers were supposed to be growing fields that would never suffer massive job losses. It only took around 25 years for those fields to turn into disappearing, 'legacy' fields where annual layoffs are a normal thing. Newspapers folded by the thousands in just one year in 2022. The number of journalists in the US right now is around 10% of what the number was in 1986, when I graduated from the University.

And the number of journalists drops every year now. It's the same in Radio and TV.

LEARN TO CODE -- THEN WE'LL LAY YOU OFF

So -- how did this "Learn to Code" thing turn out?

Well, not so good after all, it seems.

Many of America's biggest tech firms are announcing massive layoffs that make those in Radio look pale. Some estimates of last year's tech layoffs amounted to 245,000 tech workers. 

This year, so far, 142,000 layoffs in Tech have been announced. That is 387,000 tech jobs either lost, or about to be lost, in just a year and a half.

You can read about this here, on Yahoo! News.:

https://tech.yahoo.com/general/article/tech-layoffs-2026-over-142000-jobs-cut-at-meta-linkedin-wix-webflow-and-more-144545455.html

Well known Tech companies like Meta (Facebook & Instagram), LinkedIn, Intuit, Amazon, Microsoft, Wix, CloudFlare, PayPal, Cisco, Coinbase, GM, Nike, Snapchat, GoPro, Vimeo, Disney, Oracle, T-Mobile, Epic Games, and Ubisoft have all announced layoffs scheduled for this year.

Although the US economy has been hit by a war-related boost in energy prices and some industries were hit by the tariffs that were enacted in the Spring of 2025, most of these Tech companies are saying that the adoption of AI is the reason for most of their layoffs.

AI WAS PREDICTED TO KILL JOBS -- in the 2010's, No One Listened

AI was forecast long ago to be a problem for the American worker. I remember reading articles in the newspapers back in 2012, 2013, and 2014 about how AI was going to make 50% of the workforce redundant within 50 years.

There were a lot of people back then saying that would not be true -- AI would just be another form of Tech, and Tech companies would always need people to program the AI.

In other words, "Learn to Code."

How's that working out, folks? Not too good.

Needless to say -- I really feel for all the people being laid off. 

Trust me: I know how that feels. 

AI IS KILLING SELF-PUBLISHING FOR A LOT OF AUTHORS

I've said here before that I am an independent author. I don't make much, if any, money from my eBooks, but I do have a strong connection to the independent author forums and author social media, and track what goes on in independent authoring and publishing.

And some independent, eBook authors online are complaining that AI-written books are literally killing their incomes. All the AI competition -- AI-written books, introduced by the hundreds every week, all with AI-produced covers, flooding the eBook marketplace, making eBooks written by REAL authors more and more invisible -- it's killing self-published authors books and revenues.

And this sort of trend is coming to EVERY CONTENT FIELD, and probably most career fields. 

AI has already made photographers, illustrators, journalists, writers, authors, voice talent, models, actors, editors, paralegals, telemarketers, secretaries, receptionists, musicians, video producers, clerical workers, and some educators redundant. And the job losses from AI are just starting.

Lawyers, teachers, analysts, researchers, agents of all types, librarians, professors, historians, middle level managers -- all these career fields and more may be next in line for the AI job loss chopping block.

And if you add in the increase of AI programmed robots in completely automated factories -- and similar robotics-related job losses -- there won't be much left for human employment.

And the AI losses right now are hitting the Tech field, the field that everyone said would always be immune to layoffs and job-killing AI.

So how do we fix this problem? Can we?

I really don't know. But it bothers me to see this happen. Like I said, I was laid off in 2006. My Radio job never came back. My old newspaper job I had in the 80's never came back. If I were to try to find new employment in the legal field tomorrow, I doubt there are jobs available. If I were depending on income from my eBook sales, I'm sure I'd be feeling the pinch from AI-produced competition.

We're in a new era, folks, and it doesn't look all that pretty. And sometimes this merry-go-round of get laid off / get retraining / get laid off again / get more retraining just looks more and more like a broken promise.

IN OTHER LIFE....

I just paid off the last of my late mother's debts. That's a big load of rocks off my shoulders. The weather's been a bit better. My neighbor, who is a mechanic, moved back in across the street with his wife and kids, so hopefully my Lincoln Continental can get fixed and back to 100% so I can drive around a bit once more. It runs. I just need it to run dependably.

I added about 90-100 feet (30 meters, roughly) to my shortwave antenna on the 19th of May, and 25th of May, by running a spool of wire outside to my hawthorn tree. At first I added about 50-60 feet, and then I added some more a few nights later. I know have about 7-8 dbu additional signal strength for my radios.

It's my way of preparing for the Solar Minimum, I guess. Right now there is a Morse Code, ham radio contest going on. I heard the Chatham Islands this morning -- a station called ZL7IO. The Chatham Islands are a part of New Zealand, and they're right next to the International Date Line. Pretty cool to hear, even if it was just Morse Code.

My XHDATA D808 radio is really good with Morse Code, actually. It's also great for MW and LW. It has Airband, which is useful for current, local weather reports from the Renton Airport. FM is good, but I'm not an FM DXer, so I can't say how DX-worthy the FM is on the D808. But the other bands really pull in the signals well.

I've still been riding my bike at nights, when it's cool and quiet out. And I'm still playing my bagpipes, trying to learn an old tune called Blue Bonnets Over The Border. I always wanted to learn it, but never thought I could. I've got it about 80-90% down.

Now it's back to writing my next eBook which won't sell because of AI. :-)

Enough doom and gloom. Here's some 2010's pop to brighten your day. Andy Grammer put out this hit in 2010, right after the Great Recession was kicking in big time. It's a great song. I first heard it on Radio Disney in 2011. Keep Your Head Up!

I miss the early 2010's. Yeah, the economy was still crap, but the pop music was so good, and it was so upbeat and fun.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. -- Sunday, May 31st, 2026.

GM's Removing HD Radio from Car Soundsystems Not Good for HD, or Radio

My Sangean HDR-16, shown playing local rock station KISW-FM's HD2 channel that no longer exists: Their Metal Militia channel, which was taken off the air over 2 years ago. I probably took this pic in 2018 or 2019.

HD Radio was, and is a great idea, that has suffered through lack of promotion, and indifference by the Radio industry. Now it appears that HD Radio is taking another big hit -- it may not be available in some GM vehicles in the near future. If this pulling the plug on HD Radio is followed by other automakers, it won't bode well for Radio.

Broadcasters, especially AM Radio station owners, took a hit when some automakers decided to install auto, dashboard soundsystems without AM radio capability. And that caused a bill to be written in US Congress to mandate AM radio in cars. 

That bipartisan bill is still in never-ending limbo in Congress.

Well, now it looks like Radio is taking another hit from the auto industry: GM has announced it will stop installing HD Radio capable radios in its dashboard soundsystems. It is not presently known if any other US carmaker is thinking of doing the same thing.

Here is an InsideRadio article on it.:

https://www.insideradio.com/free/gm-s-hd-radio-retreat-highlights-growing-dashboard-challenge-for-radio/article_8a249ed3-3b56-417b-a30e-0c63898d17b6.html

Being that one third (or more) of all Radio listening is in the vehicle, this is worrisome news for Radio companies and Radio fans. Not all Radio people are gung-ho about HD Radio technology, but it does sound good, both on AM and FM, and on FM you get the extra channels (that is -- if the station has HD2's and HD3's).

The issue isn't really just HD. It's worrisome for Radio in general, because who knows when FM and AM radio will be removed from car soundsystems? After all, the modern car is turning gradually into an AI bot. I'm not exaggerating by much -- there have been reports online about new vehicles having surveillance capabilities, where they will monitor the drivers, including tracking your eye movements. 

You can read about that here.:

https://autos.yahoo.com/policy-and-environment/articles/every-car-could-become-surveillance-164837608.html

That turning of cars into spyware-on-wheels was written into the 2021 Infrastructure Act, passed by US Congress that year. It just hasn't been implemented yet.

And don't forget that some automakers have reportedly shared driving data and other data with who knows? 

And GM apparently has already pulled the plug on Apple CarPlay and the Android Auto app, forcing GM owners to use a GM app that comes with the dash system.

You can read about that here.:

https://www.cars.com/articles/gm-to-remove-apple-carplay-android-auto-from-future-vehicles-517813/

Many in the media believe that this is just the beginning of the era of your car being yet another AI bot-driven, data mining operation and pay-to-play content provider. In other words, the auto industry, knowing that the dash system is up front and center in cars and trucks, is slowly switching all in-vehicle entertainment to a subscription model.

They -- like everyone else, it seems -- want you to subscribe to get content.

I tell ya. I get sick of reading those increasingly annoying words "content" and "subscription model". They're so last decade. Unfortunately, those words and phrases are becoming an all-encompassing reality.

What's more disturbing, however, is moves by some in government to mandate that your vehicle spies on you, to where it possibly could even pull you over to the side of the road and switch off your vehicle -- if the AI bot determines you're not driving "safely" enough. Now, some of these reports may contain a certain amount of paranoia. But just look at the world around you -- and see how much that everyone of us is under surveillance, be it our phone use, devices with cameras and microphones, and even 'smart cars' tracking our data.

I don't have a new vehicle, personally. But would I want a car or truck that spies on me, and then sells my data to other people? Not on your life.

I'm not personally surprised that these surveillance and peeping-tom like moves are taking place in many industries. Spyware is power. That's why the hackers and malware creators came up with spyware back in the 90's and 00's. Now legitimate businesses and industries are going in that direction. Your phone probably can spy on you. Your smart TV can probably spy on you. Many apps you use can probably spy on you. So now your car will be able to spy on you also.

As one 'expert' I saw interviewed on a YouTube channel stated about a month and a half ago, we are entering a world where the dominant economic model is 'surveillance capitalism'.

BACK TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND: HD RADIO

HD Radio was a terrific idea. I still think it has a lot of potential. It wasn't released effectively, the technology was under patent, and a lot of broadcasters don't want to pay the subscription fees to go HD. But most of the big FMs in my city, Seattle, have HD1's (the main channel in HD mode). And it sounds good.

HD's peak seemed to be the 2010's. When I got my first HD Radio in 2017 there were two HD AM's and nearly every commercial and large non-commercial FM had HD, as well as an HD2 or HD3. By 2018 the number started to dwindle (that's the year Radio Disney yanked all their HD2's from stations all over the US). And after the Pandemic hit, the number dwindled even further (local station KISW pulled the plug on their Metal Militia HD2 channal, and local country station KKWF pulled the plug on their Delta Blues HD2, and the local NPR station pulled their BBC HD2 or 3).

So, what is the future of HD Radio? If GM indeed pulls the plug on HD Radio in GM cars and trucks, that's not the end of the world. They may be the biggest US automaker, but they do not sell most of the new cars in the US. Here we have many different carmakers selling vehicles -- Toyota, Subaru, Honda, Hyundai, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Tesla -- there are many brands of vehicles for sale in the US.

GM has about 17% of the US new car market. So this new move affects only 17% or so of new cars in the US. 

But GM's dropping HD is probably the shot across the bow. Soon after that it may be AM radio (which has already been dropped by some carmakers), FM radio, and other soundsystem features that get the chopping block. There may come a time you won't be able to Bluetooth your phone into the car system. And GM may only be the first company to implement these sorts of changes in dashboard soundsystem access.

Think about it: if you Bluetooth your phone into the car soundsystem, no one is getting paid for the use of that service. That could be seen as leaving money on the table for a company that put a fancy looking soundsystem and screen on your dashboard.

This is mentioned in the Cars.com story I have linked earlier in this article. Under the heading "What's This Really About?" the writer mentions that automakers can make more money off of forcing you to use their own proprietary music and entertainment playing systems, and they also can make money off of the user data.

Remember, we are entering an age where everything is "content", everything has a subscription price attached to it, it all may spy on you, and -- as the 'expert' on YouTube said -- we're in an era of 'surveillance capitalism'.

All this said, this move is bad for HD Radio, and it's bad for Radio in general. Radio is in the midst of a struggle to survive in a world where "legacy" media's revenues, listener numbers, viewer numbers -- and in the case of newspapers, readership numbers -- are all dropping. It's tough to be in Radio these days. 

So any chipping away of Radio from the place where one third of listening takes place -- i.e. the car -- is bad for Radio. Such a move shows how little importance Radio is seen to have these days, when everything audio is increasingly online and streaming-based. And streaming, my friends, that is where the money is anymore.

As for my own use of HD Radio, I don't listen to it much anymore, ever since the Metal Militia channel was yanked from KISW's HD2. Local Classical FM station KING has a Christmas Classical Music HD3, and I sometimes listen to that -- it's a wide mix of choral, symphonic, and chamber music, all Christmas hymns, some of them dating back to the baroque era. 

But HD Radio seems to have been this awesome idea whose time has come and gone. 

I remember when it was being rolled out, in the mid 2000's. I was still working in the Radio industry, and the people running the company I worked for were excited about the idea of digital radio delivery, and the idea of stations having multiple channels -- HD2's and HD3's. It would make for more variety and service to the Radio listener -- and, naturally, more channels for the programmers (at the format factory I worked at) to program.

But it never took off, really. The radios were expensive, you couldn't really hear the HD that well inside the box stores where the radios were sold, and apparently some radio stations never could figure out a way to monetize HD Radio very well.

And it seemed that the stations didn't really promote the HD2's and HD3's very well, either. KISW never really pushed their Metal Militia channel on their website, for example. And the Metal Militia channel was great -- it was an awesome mix of heavy metal from Gojira to Mudvayne to GNR to System Of A Down toSlipknot to Disturbed to Arch Enemy to a lot of other metal bands in different metal genres.

Then the plug was pulled.

It seems to be yet another instance of American Radio holding out a technology that has a lot of promise, and then dropping the ball.

Such is the case of the industry I worked in for 20 years.

And with that, my friends, 

Peace.

C.C., May 16th, 2026.

Addendum, May 28th, 2026:

I added a short paragraph about cars being turned into spyware-on-wheels -- I had not included the fact that the law mandating the spyware in cars was part of the 2021 Infrastructure Act, passed by Congress that year.