Amy Lawrence hinted that she wanted something new.
Less than a year ago, she told Awful Announcing that she was ready for a new opportunity after working overnight sports radio for over a decade. She recently said goodbye to her After Hours program on Infinity Sports Network (formerly known as CBS Sports Radio) after receiving a contract offer that she wasn’t too pleased with.
Lawrence did her final show on Super Bowl Sunday and published a blog on her X account detailing why she elected to step away. She also opened up to host Jessica Kleinschmidt on AA’s Short and to the Point about her transition and the huge lifestyle change that was.
“It’s not just a professional change, but it’s also a personal change,” Lawrence explained. “There’s a little bit both of that went into this decision. It wasn’t one that I arrived at lightly. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a split second, ‘Oh, you know what? On a whim.’…
“It’s one that I’ve been considering for a year and a half, at least. So, going back to before I got married, which my poor husband, a lot of people blaming him for this. It’s not that simple… It’s not his fault. He’s actually been really supportive. And if I had chosen to sign another contract on overnights, I have no doubt that he would’ve rolled with the punches and made the sacrifices. The poor guy never gets the TV remote because it’s always about the sports schedule.
“So, I think the biggest thing was needing a change both personally and professionally. You know, in this business, 12 years doing the same thing over and over, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy it; I loved it. And I really feel like that joy is what gave me the energy and the strength to get through all of it. But the challenge became routine — a little stale. And with a lot of the changes in our business — and not for the better — it’s fewer and fewer people doing more and more of the work.”
It’s a heavy load to carry.
“And overnights come with their own challenges,” Lawrence continued. “For years, I’ve been reading those articles about how working overnight is detrimental to your health — and I laughed. I thought, ‘That’s really funny, I got this. I can be the exception to the rule.’ But, eventually, it does catch up with you. If you include the eight years I did at ESPN Radio, which was mostly nights, plus the 12 years of overnights with what was originally CBS Sports Radio, it’s been two decades of this. And I feel like I’ve been getting old before my time.”
“So it’s time for a change,” she added.
Lawrence is ‘thankful’ that she doesn’t have something that she’s jumping into immediately because she needs an opportunity to get right side up.
“I am looking for a new challenge professionally, as well,” Lawrence says. “Wanting something that isn’t quite so beholden to what just happened on the field, the court, the ice. So, working nights, that’s so often what happened, is you were committed — or at least I was committed — to talking about the results as they were taking place or the news as it was breaking. And since the pandemic, I’ve felt like I’ve gotten more interested in topical radio, longform discussion, longer interviews, that type of thing. A little less stuck to and connected to all the events that were just taking place at night.”
After years of grinding through overnight shifts, she’s ready to rewrite her career on her own terms.
Wherever she lands next, it won’t be long before her unmistakable voice finds a new audience.
“I have too much to say to go away for very long,” she adds. “I will be around. And radio is everything I’ve wanted to do since I was 16 years old. This is a first love; it’s my passion. I couldn’t up and just quit and give it up because it’s a part of who I am, and it’s something that I still really enjoy doing.”
