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Dealing With The Insanity...?

S

spinjector

Here is a topic that every radio engineer is intimately familiar with: dealing with the insane 24-hour schedule of radio. Things like being on-call 24/7, doing remotes early in the morning or late at night, still trying to have regular office hours, and last but not least - having a life.

I work about 60 hours a week on average - thankfully with OT pay, or I would have lost my mind years ago. The summer before last, I came very close to total burnout and just walking out and not coming back. This was after having worked about 150 hours over a two week period. But I love my job, and I forced myself to calm down and make a comeback. I'm doing well, but I still always walk that fluctuating line between happiness and burnout.

The fact is, the human body and mind was just not built to handle the abuse it gets in radio. Not everyone is cracked up to handle what we deal with, and still keep their marbles. What I've just realized as I type this, I have *never* seen any mention of dealing with work stress in any of the usual radio engineering publications. It's always technical stuff - go figure.

How do the rest of you handle this?
 
I was the first employee/Chief Engineer of a company that became/is one of the top 10 billers in the US. That was in 1981. It was a blast...1 station & a reasonable version of a 40 hour week. It stayed fun for many years...then more stations were added. Still kinda fun...until one of the stations changed from a Classic Rock format (40 something jocks who had done radio for decades) to a We Play All The Hits format (19 year old jocks who rang my pager more in a week than the Classic Rock jocks did in a year). 5 years ago, I left & became a contract engineer, make almost as much money, set my own schedule & MIGHT work 10-15 hours a week. Only way I get away with this is that my wife has a job with good insurance benefits. I love being a big fish in a bunch of small ponds rather than a lightning rod in a big lake. That worked for me...I've never once missed that rush hour rat race...Good Riddance.
 
Ahh yes, another classic example of how deregulation has hurt radio... Today one engineer has to maintain more than one station, and in some cases around a dozen. I wonder how OSHA feels about all of this?

And it's not just radio engineers who are suffering. I've seen more than enough construction type shows on The Discovery Channel, where the crew gets rushed to the point that the risk of mistakes is far beyond acceptable.

This is just sad and stupid :(

R
 
Radio is garbage now........

They dont care who works as long as someone does it and usually it sounds like crap cause they dont know what they are doing!

:(
 
spinjector said:
deal with, and still keep their marbles. What I've just realized as I type this, I have *never* seen any mention of dealing with work stress in any of the usual radio engineering publications. It's always technical stuff - go figure.
Click to expand...

Actually, I read a short article by Rich Wood in January issue of Radio Guide on this topic. You can find it here:
http://www.radio-guide.com/issues/RG-JAN-2007.pdf


Regards,
Goran Tomas
 
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