CD Theft

[TPO]

A previous post mentioned the problem of CD theft which I'm sure nearly all stations have to deal with.

I understand that there are some stations with limited playlists that can playback songs from the PC, but there are still quite a few stations out there with large CD libraries that play music directly from CDs. What are some of the things your station does to deal with the theft problem.

 

[dkocolin]

Get a CD burner, make backups, keep the backups locked up that the rock director can replace them if the original goes missing.

If you can't copy the CD due to copy protection, then the artist doesn't deserve the support of airplay.

> A previous post mentioned the problem of CD theft which I'm
> sure nearly all stations have to deal with.
>
> I understand that there are some stations with limited
> playlists that can playback songs from the PC, but there are
> still quite a few stations out there with large CD libraries
> that play music directly from CDs. What are some of the
> things your station does to deal with the theft problem.
>

 

[TPO]

Thanks! This will certainly work for stations with tiny libraries. It is the stations with large libraries numbering thousands of CDs that I was curious about.

> Get a CD burner, make backups, keep the backups locked up
> that the rock director can replace them if the original goes
> missing.
>
> If you can't copy the CD due to copy protection, then the
> artist doesn't deserve the support of airplay.
>
> > A previous post mentioned the problem of CD theft which
> I'm
> > sure nearly all stations have to deal with.
> >
> > I understand that there are some stations with limited
> > playlists that can playback songs from the PC, but there
> are
> > still quite a few stations out there with large CD
> libraries
> > that play music directly from CDs. What are some of the
> > things your station does to deal with the theft problem.
> >
>

 

[dkocolin]

In that case make backups of the "hot" cds - the ones likely to be stolen. If a station has a fairly large library you can get a majority of the CDs have no chance of being stolen.

> Thanks! This will certainly work for stations with tiny
> libraries. It is the stations with large libraries numbering
> thousands of CDs that I was curious about.
>
> > Get a CD burner, make backups, keep the backups locked up
> > that the rock director can replace them if the original
> goes
> > missing.
> >
> > If you can't copy the CD due to copy protection, then the
> > artist doesn't deserve the support of airplay.
> >
> > > A previous post mentioned the problem of CD theft which
> > I'm
> > > sure nearly all stations have to deal with.
> > >
> > > I understand that there are some stations with limited
> > > playlists that can playback songs from the PC, but there
>
> > are
> > > still quite a few stations out there with large CD
> > libraries
> > > that play music directly from CDs. What are some of the
>
> > > things your station does to deal with the theft problem.
>
> > >
> >
>

 

[rcs]

Re: CD Theft prevention

One of the college station I consult with has a huge library consisting of close to 50,000 CDs. The only way the collection grew to be that large is through a on-going committment to theft prevention over many years. They do the following to minimize theft:

--Notify all volunteers that they will be dismissed from the staff and arrested if they are caught taking CDs.
--Marked all CDs as follows:
-with "cd safe" markers with the call letters on the top of the disc.
-with library-quality, nearly impossible to peel off, metalized stickers with the call letters. The stickers are circular with a hole in the middle and are placed around the center hole on the top of the CD.
--Marked front and back of jewel case inserts with the call letters.
--Asked local used CD emporiums to be on the look out for marked copies and to notify the station if any turn up.
--Follow up immedately whenever a CD is reported lost. Often is has simply been misfiled.
--Management monitors "hot" CDs when they are new.

It is a lot of work but it has allowed the station to build up an incredible library to complement their diverse programming.

 

[zman]

One of the campus stations I volenteerd at required us to count the CD's befroe and after every shift. This was back in the early ninetys at WHEN MaComb the top forty station available on the residence hall cable system. At the time I graduated in 1993 they only had 490 some cd's so it was not too much trouble to count them. Not sure how they handle it now since I'm sure the CD library has grown in the past thirteen years since I graduated. At WIUS we had a theft problem. One thing our MD did was to order some of the hot albums on record. We actually had U2's Achtung Bbay(sp) on record. We also had to write down any cd/record that was missing on the discrep log. I know of one person who was let go because he was caught putting a cd back. WIUS also used the mark up the cd jewel case with the call letters and that seemed to help. I'm not sure what mesures those statios use today as I graduated back in 1993. But I'm sure the counting of CD's is not a practial solution any more.

 

[RadioMan203]

Get a CD burner, make backups, keep the backups locked up that the rock director can replace them if the original goes missing.

If you can't copy the CD due to copy protection, then the artist doesn't deserve the support of airplay.

Good idea, but slightly flawed logic. It would be better to keep the original CDs filed as the "backup" and use the dupe as the on-air playback master. Having the original filed and locked away would serve to have a copyright-compliant library. The retail master would usually be a better choice to make a dupe from instead of a copy, since there's still little known history on what cd blanks will really hold up as they age.

Bill

 

[raccoonradio]

Have been at a college station since 1981 and theft has always been a problem. For the blues show we have,
the new releases are in a locker and only the blues DJs know the combo. Hopefully nobody steals from the stacks in back, though some releases did get ripped off....in some cases it can be internal theft. Something's missing for years and either never comes back, or someone who "borrowed" it (WITHOUT PERMISSION!) decides to
finally bring it back. (Rare.)

And many of our jazz and blues DJs bring in their own CDs, if they have half decent ones...it's hoped they don't leave with more than they came in with!

 

[abyrd]

we use an automated computer system, but we still have some problems with CDs getting stolen that we give away. It has not been as much of a problem after we confronted out staff.

 

[voicetrack]

I never did college radio, so I dont know how it works there, but I was always able to avoid theft by letting my staff have any CDs they wanted from my prize stash. We'd get boxes of 20 or 25 CDs whenever an artist had a new release. If someone wanted the new Springsteen CD, all they had to do was ask. Theft was never a problem.

 

[the-voice]

does anybody at a college even use cds anymore?

 

[dkocolin]

we sure don't have time to put every new CD we get into the computer. nor do we have close to the space requirements.

 

[neo11]

does anybody at a college even use cds anymore?

Yes, because many college stations don't have the resources to buy brand spanking new hard drives and backup systems, especially with the space required to store more than a 400 song playlist. My station airs many different formats and it would be an insanely complicated and expensive project to move our collection to a hard disk and we just don't have the money. Eventually the thought is that we will buy a server to store new music that comes our way but probably keep the older stuff on CD, or only transfer over the cuts/albums that we play most often.

 

[Research_Weenie]

A station I still volunteer at has a CD duplicator in the studio. Now, rather than steal, jocks copy. Also a great way to familiarize yourself with the music.