SirRoxalot said:
OK, all of you who have your "peeps" answer your e-mail, raise your hands. All of you who have "no local interaction" written into your contracts, raise your hands. All of you who have somebody else do the shopping, and/or have your own body guards, raise your hands.
I'm probably the only person on these boards to have ever had a bodyguard; when I owned stations in Ecuador and had half the agency billing in several markets, I was attacked various times and decided that eventually I would be killed... so I got a driver / bodyguard.
But as to contracts with no interaction or having somebody else ansswer e-mail, we are talking about a limited number of people who are stars and want $$$ for everything they do. It happens.
However, the "manager's secretary" has pretty much disappeared in the last decade or so due to technical advances that range from on line plane reservations to the near death of the letter typed on paper. People answer their own e mail unless it's a talent that gets big impossible rushes of mail... where it is understandable.
You guys at Citadel would like to be able to get on FaceBook, MySpace, or Twitter, wouldn't you? Too bad corporate has set up their firewalls to keep you out.
There is no restriction in using social networks on one's own compueter, is there? The issue at many companies... not just radio... is bandwidth. Business networks have costs related to total throughput, and people who stream or view graphics intensive websites slow down the business use of networks for things like updating national contracts, AP and AR, etc. Of course, that does not even take into account the security issues or exposure to malware, workms, viruses, rootkits, etc.
Many stations have a separate DSL or T1 for the operations area where the connectivity for sites that assist programming can be used.
Answering the phones would be more productive if you could use some phoners on the air, wouldn't it? Too bad you're not allowed, mostly because it will make the lack of interactivity on the VT shows stand out. Bummer, huh?
That is just not so... some formats use less phoners than others due to mood, and some do them in determined dayparts.
How many of you are "multi-tasking" while you're on the air, trying to keep up with all the other duties that have been dumped in your lap because of staff cutbacks?
Let's see. When I was first on the air, all the spots were on 5" reels and they ran on two Maggies, so I had to rewind one while the other played. Same for IDs and promos. Music was on records, and I had to pull the stuff while other songs were playing and file the used ones... the library was in a separate room, too.
Then I had to listen for the network cues, backtime my last music cut to hit the net news. I had to do the transmitter logs each half hour, also in a different room down the hall. Then I had to answer the phone, fill out the program logs, and figure out what to play and cue it up on the turntables. Most fun was had by all when the stylus on one of the tone arms broke and the whole thing had to be done with one turntable.
Of course, we had to learn how to use the restroom for whatever wee needed in less than 3 minutes.
Let's see... today we have all the music and spots on a digital storage device. No cuiiing, no running the stopset from carts manually, no searching for the right jingle... it's all done and ready. The time saved can be used to get ready for each talk location in the log, talk to listeners and record them on the Vox Pro or Shortcut, edit the call, do contests, answer studio e mail, look for facts about an artist or event online, and much more. Heck, there aren't even any readings to do anymore except logging occasionally an EAS test.
Most contracts contain language direct from corporate and doesn't do talent any favors. Even in NY and LA, very few air personalities have the kind of contract that you're talking about.
In the big markets and even many medium ones such contracts are common. Most contracts today are to guarantee that both parties understand their obligations and to leave nothing to verbal agreements. In that way, they benefit both sides.
How about Opie & Anthony. How'd they do nationwide?
Some things work, others don't. Look at each year's TV schedules from the Big 4 networks... half or more of the new shows fail, many not making it through mid season. Radio, when it tries talent based solutions, will have a similar batting average.
It ain't all about NY & LA. Even they aren't interchangable when it comes to programming. Why anybody thinks that satellite-fed syndicated crap would work nationwide is beyond me.
Yeah, who wudda' thunk that Gunsmoke, The Honeymooners, Bonanza, Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Idol or Survivor would have worked in every city town and village in the country? Or Jack Benny, the Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger. Howdy Doody musta' been a local show cuz there is no way it could have worked nationally, as every city is so different. Those Ludlum, Grisham and Steele novels only sell in one city or two at best.
