Dress code for on-air staff

[RoddyFreeman]

You were lucky. My first radio job began at age 13 for Richard Eaton's United Broadcasting.

Eaton specialized in ethnic stations, mostly targeting Hispanics or Blacks. I was the token white kid at WJMO and sister FM WCUY in Cleveland. I began by getting coffee, doing some janitorial work (because Eaton would not pay for a cleaning crew) and, after a while, I got paid-by-the-hour work on the FM when the FCC required it do more than 6 PM to 11 PM Monday to Saturday.

Eaton was such a bad owner that there would be months without bathroom supplies as he required detailed "requisitions" from DC headquarters. The manager in Miami got cancer and was fired because Eaton owned the employee insurance company. He finally lost licenses in several markets; the one in DC was lost due to allowing illegal lottery numbers to be broadcast as if they were bible verses in a fake religious show.

In Cleveland, we were on the second floor of a car dealership. Eaton was in a wheelchair in later years, and we'd have a pool where the winner would get all the money if they guessed on which step the staff members would trip and drop him on the stairs when he visited. He never fell, but the pool went to buy toilet paper and soap and cleaning supplies... but we never lost hope.

Later, for only a short period, I worked for an LA owner who made going to work feel like a daily root canal. Sales meetings usually ended with at least one person in tears. Employees would quit by simply not showing up for work.

In another market, I hired some of the best people in all areas by recruiting them from stations where they were treated like slaves or servants, not professionals.

There were both kinds of owners... good and bad.

But your experience is more with staff members, not owners. Overwhelmingly the staff of stations I have been associated with or known through associations, inter-station sports teams and charity events as well as conventions and seminars have been great people, dedicated and human.

In my senior year at the U. of MD, I did an independent study on the WOOK (Eaton's station in D.C.) case, spending a lot of time at the FCC doing the research. Yes, they had a Sunday show on which the "preacher" read "bible verse numbers" that were in actuality lottery numbers. I was never clear whether the station knew for sure this was going on.

When the FCC was about to pull WOOK's license, Eaton did something kind of clever. He moved the WOOK-AM format to his FM station, which had been airing DC's only Hispanic format, and moved the Hispanic format to WOOK's class IV low-power signal at 1340. Eaton's message to the FCC was, "You're going to be killing DC's only Hispanic station." The FCC proceeded to take away the AM license. But while he lost WOOK-AM, Eaton now had a more viable format on the FM at the time when more dials were moving to FM.

Richard Eaton and his son Pierre were said to lean to the crazy side of normal. I read that when Richard went on vacation, he insisted on bringing an ex-wife along with his current wife. Pierre, who managed WINX in a DC suburb, would impetuously fire people and then hire them back.

 

[davideduardo]

Richard Eaton and his son Pierre were said to lean to the crazy side of normal.

Way to the crazy side.

At WJMO / WCUY we had to requisition supplies from a company also owned by Eaton. At least four or five times a year we'd have no supplies for the bathroom; I won points by bringing a package of toilet paper or a bar of soap... even though I was getting $1.15 an hour at the time.

The outside janitorial service would conveniently not be scheduled "by error" so we would often have to do that chore ourselves. I got my first paid hours on the board because I had been willing to sweep, vacuum, wipe, scrub and clean. It was the Reality School of Broadcasting.

We were on the second floor of a suburban building. Eaton would visit on occasion, and had to be carried up in his wheel chair. The staff would always do a pool based on guessing on which step number one of the guys carrying him would trip on. Nobody ever won, but there was hope...

His manager in Miami was diagnosed with cancer. Eaton also owned the insurance company that gave health benefits. He fired the manager so as not to pay the insurance.

He had a "wife" through which he owned XESM in Mexico City and the majority of XERF in Villa Acuña. There was talk that he may have had more than one wife, simultaneously, at least on paper.

There were lots of other stories, but working there was a good way of learning everything I did not want to be known for when I became a station owner.

 

[landtuna]

There were lots of other stories, but working there was a good way of learning everything I did not want to be known for when I became a station owner.

The radio broadcasting industry seems rife with stories about cheapskate owners.

Why izzat?

 

[Kelly A]

The radio broadcasting industry seems rife with stories about cheapskate owners.

Why izzat?

Because radio is a business built on advertising. Advertising is a cyclical business model. The highs are reasonably high and the lows can be very low, as is what we're steering into right now. Like any small business, trying to meet payroll and keep the lights on is a scary challenge during the lows.

Many station owners also came from depression-era parents, where they were taught nothing was wasted.