This is a really fun piece.

It's a very fun piece.

It was a delight to report.

Introduce us to David Lloyd, founder of this network. How did it come about? He'd had

a long successful career as a radio DJ. Was it something of a crossroads?

He was definitely at a crossroads. So this was in the early days of the pandemic.

He had he was 59, and he had been kind of phased out of his job.

He was in music radio, very youth oriented industry, and his husband had just been laid

off from his DJ job, and all of his peers were kind of being phased out,

taking consulting jobs. At the same time, as a listener, he was hearing some of his

favorite hosts and anchors in news and music just getting replaced. Disappear. Yeah. And he was

feeling, as a listener, a little alienated. Like, this wasn't for him. The music wasn't for

him, the cultural references. And so he had this idea. He thought, you know, I think

there's an audience for this. What if we made a radio station for older people? He

emailed his old boss who immediately emailed him back with a spreadsheet Amazing. And said, I

think we can make this work.

That's all good bosses do. He has

a spreadsheet.

Spreadsheet. Yeah. And he took money out of his pension. They started this. He said they

called all these legendary presenters. He said he everyone said yes. Incredible. And now it's this

huge success. They have more than a million listeners a month. They've spun off two other

stations. It's it's a really inspiring story.

The but this is part of a larger issue of people just not wanting to disappear.

Because when this retirement age idea was set, people were living what just at age of

43. I mean, that's just not the case. And twenty years is not only a long

time not to make money, but it's a long time not to be engaging with anybody.

I think we've got a cool little graphic from your piece also about the graying populations

around the world. Obviously, it's always a story that Japan has an aging population, but Europe

is catching up, and The US is not far behind. So what are like, are companies,

are corporations, are people starting to understand, I think you call it phased retirement? Like, talk

to us about what that is.

The US is a little bit behind in this. Countries like Singapore and Japan, as you

mentioned, are much more ahead of the curve in addressing this. In The US, though, there

are some companies who are kind of starting to sort of understand that the population is

aging. One of the interesting company in Microsoft is doing something interesting. So they have kind

of a phased situation where when you're ready to retire, you can go from full time

to part time, but keep your full benefits. Which is huge. Which is huge. Yeah. And

then people can kinda mentor younger workers, create space for them, engage in teams, and still

contribute and be active, but have some more freedom.

I think about this in the was raised in a university town. This is really a

facet of academia. The professors talk about face retirement. It has been something that's been available

to them for for a long time. What was the catalyst to this becoming more common

in corporate America, corporations more globally? Was it recognition of the demographics? Was it agitation by

workers who perhaps wanted to stay longer, maybe not do as much as they were doing?

How did it come about? How did this become more of a zeitgeisty thing than than

it had been?

I think just, practically speaking because there are older workers and because we are aging as

a population. So it becomes harder to always want younger workers when it's harder to find

workers, full stop.

Yeah. There has to be, like, an acknowledgement of the need for that. I think you

mentioned CVS as a company that's kind of identifying Mhmm. Older workers who could do some

of the pharmacy related jobs.

Yes. And I was actually we have a clinic here at Bloomberg, and the doctor here

was telling me that she'd been a New York public health worker for years. She didn't

wanna do that level of work anymore, but she wanted to still work. So now she

works in, you know, a couple days a week at a health clinic in a in

a in an office building.

So there's just, like, broader response to these labor market trends that we've been talking about

for a long time now.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think we're gonna see more and more of this because our population

is aging. We are peak 65 right now, so there are thousands of people turning 65

around the world every day. And our median age is rising all the time. So companies

are gonna need to find ways to adapt to to older workers. Also, older workers have

a lot of experience and knowledge that's very, very valuable.

Boom Radio, as you say, a success. I mean, as these guys who founded it talk

about it, was it was the aspiration for it to be more of a hobby? Are

they are they at all astonished at how big it's grown and now that they're making

money off of it, it's become a

company of for it.

Yeah.

They were astonished. Yes. David Lloyd said none of us can quite believe how big this

has become. And he said he you know, he's working seven days a week. He says

he wants to pull his hair out sometimes. But he said, and I quote I thought

about this quote a lot. He said this is by far, the most fulfilling beautiful thing

I've ever done in my entire life. And if I die tomorrow, I'll feel like I've

done it. And that quote has really stayed with me because I it's very inspiring to

hear someone seeing that level of fulfillment. He said, you know, this is the radio station

we spent our entire careers getting ready to run. And it just seemed like a really

beautiful example of someone using all the experience they had to create something new and really

fulfilling.

That's amazing because why can't you create something new at 50? Why isn't it just as

exciting and new in the last thirty years of your life as it is the first

thirty years of your life? Like, I think I I thought the whole thing was incredibly

inspiring, and it seems like it's gonna stick with you. Oh, absolutely.

And, also, we're living longer. We're healthier. There's no reason why we shouldn't also keep working

and living and traveling and doing all of those things.

Stacy, thank you so much for joining us and for this excellent piece. I highly recommend

everybody goes and reads it.

Stacy and haven't been talking about retirement for a long time at a variety of jobs.

Here at

Bloomberg, we're able to talk about the prospects here as well, but we're market

Please don't retire. Yes. I need you to us a to

do so as well. I mean, I'm focused on that gold watch still. Don't go don't

do away with that. We need those totems. We need that acknowledgment.

I got it.

I got it.

Okay. Very good.