The 'Donkey Ears' announcer seniors and juniors were unable to hold back their frustrations over salaries that showed little change then and now.
On the afternoon of the 2nd, during the KBS2 variety show 'The Boss's Ears Are Donkey Ears' (hereafter referred to as 'Donkey Ears'), it was revealed that boss Um Ji-in, the announcer, was cracking down on juniors Kim Jin-woong and Hong Joo-yeon. They arranged a meeting with freelance seniors Kim Hyun-wook (who left in 2012) and Kim Seon-geun (who left in 2022), which piqued the juniors' interest.
The screen showed articles starting with Jeon Hyun-moo's declaration of independence, followed by Do Kyung-wan, Bae Seong-jae, and recently Kim Dae-ho, who left MBC to enter the freelance world. Seeing this, Jeon Hyun-moo laughed and said, "More than half of them, I lured them into freelancing."
Kim Jin-woong, a 'Jeon Hyun-moo fan,' revealed, "Hyun-moo senior is my role model," and Kim Hyun-wook noted, "No one knows Hyun-moo better than me. He got into KBS by luck. He was almost rejected. The reason he was almost rejected was that the third interview was held at the training center. Senior Seo Gi-cheol conducted the interview, but it was a drunk interview. This way, you can see someone's true feelings, but Hyun-moo can't drink."
Jeon Hyun-moo said, "To get to the final, I drank the most among the people sitting there. Senior Seo Gi-cheol is a heavy drinker. I drank everything he gave me," and Kim Hyun-wook added, "Hyun-moo got drunk and acted recklessly. Senior Seo Gi-cheol smokes a lot, and Hyun-moo questioned, 'Why does that announcer smoke so much? Doesn't he care about his voice?' revealing behind-the-scenes stories.
Um Ji-won said, "Senior Seo Gi-cheol thought, 'Look at this kid, he's bold.' That senior prefers a bold style over being timid," and Kim Hyun-wook agreed, "That's why Hyun-moo got in."
A story about a 4 vs 4 meeting was also revealed. Kim Hyun-wook mentioned, "In the past, the four of us—me, Jeon Hyun-moo, Jo Woo-jong, and Kim Gi-man—met at a rice noodle restaurant. We also drank. Jo Woo-jong and Kim Gi-man were quiet while Hyun-moo and I couldn't sit still. A competition for jokes broke out. The two of us were trying to be funny," he said, adding, "Looking at the results, first place was Jo Woo-jong with 3 votes, second was Kim Gi-man with 1 vote, and Hyun-moo and I had 0 votes. Jo Woo-jong took everything."
Kim Hyun-wook also listed his legendary business endeavors. He disclosed, "As soon as I joined as an announcer, I made plans to quit. I did it to achieve economic stability," and Jeon Hyun-moo noted, "That's different from me. I did a lot of businesses to achieve economic stability. I am the Lee Suk-jin of the announcing world."
Kim Hyun-wook said, "I started a PC café business, but my salary in my first year as an announcer was less than 30 million won. It was 29 million won," and Um Ji-in admitted, "It's still the same. There's not much difference," causing the faces of the junior announcers to grow gloomy.
Moreover, Kim Hyun-wook reminisced, "If my salary is 29 million won, that means my monthly salary would barely be 2 million won if things go wrong. But I earned 8 million won in a month from that PC café," and Jeon Hyun-moo added, "That guy had a lot of cash in his pants pockets."
In addition to the PC café, numerous business endeavors were mentioned, including a fried intestines franchise, pork belly, home shopping detergent, social commerce, oil, coal, bean sprouts bulgogi, and a specialized education institution for announcers. He noted that he earned money, but also faced losses in the hundreds of millions.
At this point, Kim Hyun-wook took out the mushrooms he had brought as a gift, and Um Ji-in exclaimed, "Oppa, is this another business?" Kim Hyun-wook replied, "The last business I poured my life into is mushrooms."
"Does your wife approve? You must have a lot of negatives until now, right?" to which Kim Hyun-wook shocked everyone by revealing, "There are things my wife doesn't know. The amount I lost to fraud is 2.6 billion won."
Furthermore, he shared, "I have to receive 2.6 billion won. 2 billion from one person, and the remaining 6 billion from 6 people," adding, "That guy is a person that Hyun-moo knows well. He is someone trying to make money in real estate, but I felt like I was going crazy while begging and threatening him for that money."
Jeon Hyun-moo said, "I think I know who it is. He's not a con artist, but he's really nice. He asked me to invest, but I didn't. He's genuinely a nice person," while laughing.
Hong Joo-yeon asked, "But how does freelancing connect with agencies?" and Um Ji-in was surprised, asking, "Joo-yeon, have you gotten any contact?"
Watching the VCR, Kim Sook remarked, "You might receive calls nowadays," and Jeon Hyun-moo cheerfully responded, "Joo-yeon, why are you asking that there? You can just ask me." Kim Sook asked Jeon Hyun-moo, "If Joo-yeon, since you're thinking of freelancing like this, how would you ask?" Jeon Hyun-moo replied, "Would you like to meet our company first?" which elicited laughter.
Senior Kim Seon-geun inquired, "Is the contacting agency SM C&C?" and Hong Joo-yeon responded, "If it's that one, it might be good," prompting Um Ji-in to question, "Are you saying you would go there?" Hong Joo-yeon quickly clarified, "But I'm not leaving."
Kim Hyun-wook advised, "You shouldn't think, 'I will follow Kim Seong-joo and Jeon Hyun-moo.' You must carve your own market. If you earnestly do the work given to you, economic stability will follow," leading the juniors to realize the harsh reality of the freelance world.
[Photo] Captured from 'Donkey Ears' broadcast screen.
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