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August 9, 2011
Bailing From RadioSo I'm going through a pile of mail, when I come across an envelope from the ABC Radio Network that really jumps out at me. See, the address label reads:
Mr. Jack James or current Program Director.
Does ABC know something I don't?
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Radio is about to lose another nice guy.
The continuity director for the production department of the AM station in our cluster has turned in his letter of resignation ... and there's no talking him out of it.
"My wife wants me to get a real job," he admits to me.
His wife has a real job, is the big breadwinner of the family, and she's been nagging Craig to make something of himself. In fact, Craig went back to school about a year-and-a-half ago, taking night courses to complete work on a BA, so it's not like his resignation is a complete surprise to me. But...
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August 2, 2011
Nice (Monitoring) BraceletOver the years I've moved enough radio people from there to here -- myself included -- that I joke with friends and family that if the radio career tanks, I can always start my own moving and storage company. In the interest of public service -- and anyone relocating to ...
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July 26, 2011
Blind Leading The BlindI didn't think it was possible, but the research company that screwed up the music tests for two of our stations also got an "F" on the make-good tests. The first time around, we settled on a minimum of 100 people for the auditorium testing. We'd pay them and feed them ...
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July 19, 2011
With Me Or Against Me?Someone actually told me the person who writes "The PD Chronicles" is too hard on his general manager. Of course, I played straight man. "Yeah, whoever it is, he's a ball buster," I replied. "If his GM ever catches on, he'll get fired." I felt a twinge of evanescent ...
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July 12, 2011
Two-Minute WarningIt came out of nowhere. It was a traffic order from the sales department for a live, two-minute interactive spot between a talk show host and a client. Over the phone. "I thought you'd want to see this," the midday jock whispered to me in the hallway. I couldn't ...
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July 5, 2011
Horse's AssBy now, I should be a whiz at writing letters of apology. The latest "crisis" involved the organizer of an annual local event. She'd been on horseback last weekend when one of our smart-ass DJs allegedly blasted the siren on our station vehicle, a used ambulance. The loud ...
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June 28, 2011
Beat The JockGood thing the corporate lawyer didn't get wind of this one. The promotions director for one of the stations in our cluster had this crazy idea: Why not turn the midday jock into a human pinata? We'd hoist him up in the middle of the dance floor of a local bar, where ...
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June 21, 2011
Getting EvenComplaint letters are nothing new at radio stations. But the latest complaint involves, of all people, the night jock on our Rock station. The organizer of a local community fair claims our employee picked on some 11 and 12-year-old girls who had teased him during a ...
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June 14, 2011
Careful What You Wish ForSign of the times: standing-room only at the seminar on strategies for job seekers in radio. Then it came my turn to speak, I covered what should be the basics for sending out CSs and resumes: Always type your name and phone number on the label you slap onto your ...
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June 7, 2011
Don't Kill The MessengerIn a moment of weakness, I said yes to an invitation to speak at a radio seminar on strategies for job seekers. My last speaking gig had been a fiasco. A class of broadcasting students at an expensive major private university had turned on me when I burst their bubble ...