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$8/hr for Clear Channel board op

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Accuracy

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Did you see the ad for a part-time board op on tab.org? Clear Channel wants to pay someone $8.00/hour. For that money you control the distribution of content over a major market radio station generating millions of dollars in revenue. Any error can result in the loss of tens of thousands of dollars over a short period of time. You must also monitor the transmitter to comply with FCC limits.

OK, I realize they have the right to pay as little as they want, but I bet the average non-radio person would never guess that someone respsonsible for operating a high power broadcast facility in a major market makes $8.00 hour. Is there any motivation to get in the broadcasting business when you are in high school if your buddy makes more money with benefits at the local burger joint? Just made me sad to see this. And they want someone with experience!
 
Considering what I remember making when I started out, that's not too bad. I suppose I have minimum wage getting raised to thank for that, though.
 
Radio, in general, doesn't pay well. Most people have no clue about it either. When I went back to school and worked in radio to help pay the bills, I only made $6/hr. Granted, it was a small market college town, but my friends never imagined I was only making as much as most of them did. I made less than some of the waitresses I knew because they'd usually have at least one big night a week when they'd get really good tips.

When it comes to most jobs, money isn't the motivator. If you take Management 101, they'll tell you money isn't a motivator; it's a maintenance item. In other words, you can give it to people, and it won't make them happy, but they'll get upset if you take it away. My experience has been that this is usually true, and that's why some of these across the board pay cuts companies are doing make no sense. Even in places I've worked that have paid people by piecework, the most productive people engage in what's known as "bankrolling," which means they'll work really hard and do several days worth of work on, say, a Thursday and not show up on Friday. Most people have to take some other satisfaction than just money away from any kind of job.
 
Cumulus only pays it's board ops $7.50 hr.

Not that it's a huge difference from what CC is offering, but it's still the cheapest in the whole Dallas market.
 
I know it's a low level position...but to have 1 live body overseeing 5 major market radio stations is tough. Meter readings, grabbing phones for contests that are VT'd, severe weather...I'd HOPE they'd get someone witha lil seasoning in there...naaaah. This ISSSS CC
 
Radio doesn't pay anyone behind the scenes. Only the AM and afternoon drive shows make money. Now more and more music stations are using voice tracking. Even talk stations are hiring one talent in a state to do shows for all the affiliates in the state, without paying for the numerous markets.
Hey in this economy who is going to complain?
 
johnqdoe said:
I know it's a low level position...but to have 1 live body overseeing 5 major market radio stations is tough. Meter readings, grabbing phones for contests that are VT'd, severe weather...I'd HOPE they'd get someone witha lil seasoning in there...naaaah. This ISSSS CC
Click to expand...

You know, I have to say the radio job I had when I went back to school included monitoring four stations. It wasn't tough at all. Meter readings aren't required on most stations anymore than that you have to take enough to prove the transmitter is reliable. The days of taking readings every three hours are long gone unless you have a directional AM or a station that has an old transmitter that just doesn't stay at the same power level for long. Most of the multiple station clusters I've worked for just busy out the phones when they're voicetracked. I've worked at some that don't, but, really, most formats don't have a massive amount of callers. I suspect that, even in Dallas, only KHKS receives a high volume of calls in the Clear Channel cluster. Every cluster I've worked at has also had a severe weather plan, and it's included more than just the board op at the station. When you have a good plan, you can do excellent severe weather coverage, even when no one is supposed to be at the station. You just have to have people who do their jobs monitoring the weather and are willing to come in when it gets bad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's good to be paying your help less. I've been let go twice because, even at the lower wages I was making, voicetracking was cheaper at one station while satellite was cheaper at the other (that one happened last January). I thought it was a bad idea then, and I think it's a bad idea now. When good people either get let go for cheaper help or turn down a job because it doesn't pay enough, that's one less solid team member to help you when you need it. That's never a good thing.
 
Why pay people at all? I bet they could have a contest and all the "winners" could come up and monitor the boards computer part-time for free.
 
Kent said:
johnqdoe said:
I know it's a low level position...but to have 1 live body overseeing 5 major market radio stations is tough. Meter readings, grabbing phones for contests that are VT'd, severe weather...I'd HOPE they'd get someone witha lil seasoning in there...naaaah. This ISSSS CC
Click to expand...

You know, I have to say the radio job I had when I went back to school included monitoring four stations. It wasn't tough at all. Meter readings aren't required on most stations anymore than that you have to take enough to prove the transmitter is reliable. The days of taking readings every three hours are long gone unless you have a directional AM or a station that has an old transmitter that just doesn't stay at the same power level for long. Most of the multiple station clusters I've worked for just busy out the phones when they're voicetracked. I've worked at some that don't, but, really, most formats don't have a massive amount of callers. I suspect that, even in Dallas, only KHKS receives a high volume of calls in the Clear Channel cluster. Every cluster I've worked at has also had a severe weather plan, and it's included more than just the board op at the station. When you have a good plan, you can do excellent severe weather coverage, even when no one is supposed to be at the station. You just have to have people who do their jobs monitoring the weather and are willing to come in when it gets bad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's good to be paying your help less. I've been let go twice because, even at the lower wages I was making, voicetracking was cheaper at one station while satellite was cheaper at the other (that one happened last January). I thought it was a bad idea then, and I think it's a bad idea now. When good people either get let go for cheaper help or turn down a job because it doesn't pay enough, that's one less solid team member to help you when you need it. That's never a good thing.
Click to expand...


There is a "severe weather handbook" in each control room at CC/Dallas. That's the extent of their plan. There are no news or weather personnel to call or put on when severe weather hits. Just listen when the weather DOES get bad and the EAS computer takes over and dumps out of the songs. Obviously you have a certain amount of time to kill the auto alert and broadcast it yourself....but if you're running between 5 control rooms, it ain't gonna happen. The board ops do indeed take meter readings at CC/Dallas.
 
Listen to K-CHEAP for traffic on the 8's. Speaking of 8, how's that sound to run our board? Apply here if interested.
 
You know, I have to say the radio job I had when I went back to school included monitoring four stations. It wasn't tough at all. Meter readings aren't required on most stations anymore than that you have to take enough to prove the transmitter is reliable. The days of taking readings every three hours are long gone unless you have a directional AM or a station that has an old transmitter that just doesn't stay at the same power level for long.

In 1973, I was working as an afternoon and evening anchor at KAKC AM-FM in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the predominate top-40 station in Tulsa at the time. The news person on duty was responsible for the meter readings which, at that time, were required by the FCC to be taken every 30 minutes.

Of course, we cheated, fudged a number of times especially when we got busy with news. The station was consulted by Drake protege, Paul Drew, who wanted lots of actualities in the newscasts.

Anyway, I was living with my wife in an apartment complex next door to the Tradewinds West motel. On the air, the jocks would say something like "and 73 degrees at the Tradewinds West" followed by a shotgun jingle.

It sounded exotic, but the fact is that the Tradewinds West was a dumpy motel.

One night, I jumped the fence and went home to eat dinner. I had forgotten to take the meter readings. And, when I got back, I simply forgot to fill in something for 8:30 p.m.

Well, the next day, the news director, Tom Moffitt gave me the bad news. The PD, Scott Seagraves, was letting me go because I forgot to take the 8:30 p.m. meter readings.

A year later, I was working as a jock at WKY in Oklahoma City, another top-40 station that ruled the market. WKY hired an engineer 24/7 365 days a year simply to babysit the transmitter. So he took the readings every 30 minutes.

Imagine hiring one guy to babysit one transmitter, take the readings and keep the official log.

Times change.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams
 
I see it's only gotten worse. $8 an hour is 4X what I was paid in 1970-71 during my brief "career" in radio. I DJ'd 5 nights a week and Sunday afternoons, and because of my 1st Phone license was alone most of the time doing all the meter readings etc. Point is, $8 ain't even keeping up with inflation! Would have to be more like $12 an hr these days to equal what ol' Jim Gordon (RIP) was paying me then.
 
One of my first jobs in radio was to board op for 3.35 an hour. I thought that was great at the time. Then again I was in high school. lived at home, and had no expenses. Also I didn't do it for the money, I did it to launch a career in a business that I felt a tremendous amount of passion for, That was a totally different era though. I can't imagine too many young people feeling that way about radio today.
 
$8.00 an hour? What's wrong with that, it's what I make today in Dallas, and happy to get it.
Yep, meter readings every 30 minutes and base current readings after switching directional. Oldmanradio, I think our paths have crossed somewhere along the line. I too worked at WKY, 1980, before that 75-80 KOMA. I even worked in Tulsa, I think around 85 thru 93? What a great city. Got my start in Wewoka, OK. First song, Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog.
Skip
 
Based on this as well as other posts on other subjects, it would appear to even the most casual reader that the key to job security in radio is not how well you do your job, but how cheaply you're willing to do it.

In 19 years, I never made less than $10 an hour but having now been out of work for 5 months I think I'd look at it as $8.00 more per hour than I'm earning at the moment. As long as there's someone who'll do the work for the price quoted - that's what the job is worth. I don't like it - but that's the way it is.

Anyway there's my 2 cents (+$8)..

CRbigband
 
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