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November 30, 2010
Waterboarding, Radio StyleYou would think salespeople would pay attention to what goes on at their own station. Think again.
My news guy is in his tiny news cave one afternoon. He'd just finished his 3p 'cast and cracked the door open, when Sal the sales guy approached with a client.
"Like you to meet Franklyn Davis. He runs the big Dodge agency on Main. He's looking at news sponsorships."
Then the sales guy asked a really dumb question of the news guy, right in front of the visitor: "Is our local news live in the afternoons?"
D'oh!
The news guy resisted the temptation of saying, "No, I just come in for my health."
Torture comes in many different forms. But there's only one I know in ...
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PD Chronicles
Archives
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November 23, 2010
Picture ImperfectIt's a pain to keep putting them up and taking them down. Glossies, I mean. With the amount of turnover at radio stations, you don't see smiling, 8x10 color glossies of the air staff on lobby walls very often anymore. Those nail marks in the wall can hurt the re-sale ...
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November 16, 2010
Jock ItchI knew there was something wrong the minute I plopped the guy's tape in my cassette machine and hit the play button. (He was lucky I still had a cassette player). It was a tape of the jock's work, circa 1980. But he sounded pretty damned good. "I'm staying at the ...
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November 9, 2010
Red Light SpecialIn radio (and in this economy!) the saying is, "Don't buy a house." I can go one step further. Don't rent out your house -- especially if you and your rental property are hundreds of miles apart. For once, I had some extra money, a rarity in radio. I mean, usually if ...
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November 2, 2010
'Nam FlashbackIt's the stuff of which legends are made at radio stations. This incident will be tough to top. One of the guys who screens calls for a talk show is in hot water. Should be, after this twisted episode. Seems he dismissed a youthful caller by telling her, "Why don't ...
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October 27, 2010
Radio ChutzpahArrival of payroll checks were late on Friday (thank God for direct deposit), so someone from the accounting department naively decided to leave them in our mailboxes. Monday morning, several of us noticed that our pay envelopes had been opened. Evidently, a fellow ...
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October 19, 2010
Witchy WomanInterviews are underway for a sales assistant's job. We know this because we have a chatty receptionist who tells us that the well dressed, athletic-looking brunette seated in the lobby is among the candidates. "She doesn't have a chance," a wise-cracking account ...
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October 12, 2010
The Psychic DJNow I know why he isn't in medical school. One of our new board operators had difficulty last weekend taking the meter readings of the station. During his training, he was told the FCC required the readings. Somehow, those three letters got lost in the ...
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October 5, 2010
The Zen of RejectionThere must be a mandatory class all GMs take that teaches them how to spin terminations. You know what I'm talking about. The memo reads the same at virtually every station around the country ... only the victim's name changes. Here's the quintessential firing memo, ...
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September 28, 2010
CopsExcuses, excuses. The phone rings a little after 6a. It's the morning guy, informing me he has no news. Not because there isn't anything going on. That's because our news guy is AWOL. Not surprising, inasmuch as it's Seis de Mayo. Logic dictates the news guy is either ...
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September 21, 2010
Sign Of The TimesThe courtship process between radio station and talent is often bittersweet. Here's what I mean. Years ago, I was flown first-class into Chicago to interview for the co-host position on an AC station. I mean, I got the red-carpet treatment: Limo from the airport to ...