Desi 1250 is seeking board ops. $12/hr. http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/tfr/5492923674.html
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Another hot Seattle radio job opening...
- Thread starter Rob Piotrowski
- Start date
Perfect job for AQH. (Honestly, for that kind of money, who'd want to work in radio?)
That's about twice what the job should pay. No wonder why you have to pay for checked bags, food, drinks, etc.
Except "hot" was a descriptor for the job, not Seattle. A sarcastic descriptor at that.
As someone who flew just under 4 million miles over a 20 year period, I can say that they are worth every penny of it. On American, I understand that the pay scale increases as agents go from general public to gold to platinum to execplat reservation lines, with the top folks making very good money.
I didn't realize that a board op was a beginning level job.
What did you think was?
At that pay level, it likely is. On the other hands, the board op for some morning shows is often filling the shoes of producer, too, and may be very skilled and experienced.
One of the common responsibilities was my understanding that it was to filter incoming calls. That would seem to indicate an uncanny ability to detect BS, drunks, repeat callers etc., and which is not, by definition, taught in schools. In other words, takes experience and therefore cannot be entry level. I may be wrong of course and I am sure someone will correct me.
Learning the board and its operation is something else not necessarily taught in schools so there is a learning curve there also. Again, takes some experience or else someone willing to teach and a very quick learner.
I have thought that operating a broadcast radio station would be somewhat akin to my radio job in the navy with a comparable learning curve. We were taught well in the navy but the gear in schools is always much older than that in the fleet so learning how to learn is the most important attribute out of school. Instead of one primary transmitter you would have to learn perhaps half a dozen plus antenna tuning on each one. Plus TTY and crypto gear. Instead of talking (which is mostly done from the bridge of a ship) you needed Morse Code and recording (typing, usually). Oh, and the patch panel. That huge patch panel.
What I am hearing is that a board op is nowhere near the technical challenge of my old radio job.
A board-op sits behind the control board. All programming comes in to various channels on the board and your job is to keep the thing on the air. If something happens, you've been told what to do and if that doesn't work, you have a short list to call. You are generally never talking and might have several minutes when you do nothing. As for learning, compare it to driving a car..not too much to know but you have to be attentive. You learn quite fast. At most stations I worked, you had somebody sit in with you an hour or two to make sure you know how to run the board and quite frankly that was plenty of training. And there's a log showing you what to do when. I'd say it is quite entry level. You don't mess with the transmitter, etc.
A talk show screener or morning show producer are far more than board ops and you need to know what you are doing.
A talk show screener or morning show producer are far more than board ops and you need to know what you are doing.
That is not a "board op". A board op literally operates the board, radio speak for the mixing console.
A "call screener" is a different position.
I've trained a dozen or so call screeners. Some were board ops, some were fresh recruits who had the right personality based on the job interview.
Basic board operation has a pretty quick learning curve, particularly today when most Millenials know how to mix on their tablet, computer or smartphone.
While each station may have specific internal procedures such as how to join a network/feed for a show or news, running the studio equipment is not hard or time consuming to learn. Since almost all operations like running stopsets, promos or music segues are run off the digital storage device, the skills once needed to "run a tight board" are much easier to acquire.
I had a friend who took a job as a board op for a period of time; he told me that the task consisted of firing a batch of commercials during a break of a sports broadcast. Not rocket science, but I would imagine that most people who base their knowledge of what a radio studio looks like off of the tv show "Frasier" would be a tad overwhelmed by board operation, and how to use the log.
In general, they put NextGen or Zetta or Wide Orbit in charge of executing the format.
For music formats, maybe. For live talk shows, human intervention is needed. At $12 an hour.
Frank - Now that we've taken this thread back to the OP, please close it.
And how many stations have live local talk shows?
In any case, running the board for a talk show is usually combined with other functions and may be given the title of "producer" rather than just board op. Different skills, different pay level (usually).
And there are plenty of cases where a talk show host runs their own board. They may have a screener, or may even take the calls "cold" in off dayparts or smaller markets or stations.
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