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Drinking

I do know of a couple of college stations that have been shut down by staff for partying too hard...in the case of my alma mater, they had built a brand-new class D FM around 1980. About a year and a half later they caught 5 kids smoking grass in the on-air studio, drinking tons of beers, talking all about it, and assuming since it was 2am in a 5,000 person town on a class D FM, nobody was listening. Wrong! The only cop on duty in town hauled everybody in the studio to jail for possession (cop didn't care about the alcohol...drinking age for beer was 19 at the time), staff shut it down, FCC realized they were not broadcasting for months on end, and deleted the license.

The good news is this worked out well for the college: two years later they reapplied for a class A picking it up, and the old D frequency became a much-needed NPR translator a few years after that.

In my time on the air, I did get a few "drinks for play" from the restaurant next door, hell I'll even admit it, my "medical condition" might act up one slow, requestless night, and maybe a left-handed ciggie was rolled. But I really think most jocks saved the heavy drink/drug use until off the air. If you're like me, if you're drunk/high, you usually sound drunk/high

Now cigarettes are a different story. Before the smoking ban came into effect here, there was not an on-air studio I could get to in 100 miles that was smoke-free!

Radio-X
 
In just about all your big corporate clusters, smoking cigarettes in the studio is totally banned. And depending on where you live (such as Washington State), any place of employment is essentially smoke-free indoors.

This is a state health department ban, not an FCC enforced one

You can smoke in a few of your smaller market station studios (if they allow.) There are even a few in WA state, but I'm not gonna rat anybody out....

Older air talent especially tend to be smokers, but quite a few younger ones have the habit too.

The downside is the studios where people smoke start to smell gross - even with air filtration......
 
What small market (and some medium market too) on air talent can afford cigarettes? $30 + a carton and up here in GA!

Seriously: Most stations are PC automated to some degree and cigarette smoke is just as hard if not harder on PC'c than lungs. IIRC Turner Broadcasting does nicotine testing on all their non contract people.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I believe early on (70's, 80's) there may have been something in the regs about drinking as I remember one station ops manager having a fit about the talent partying while on the air.

Then again, this thread reminds me of the WKRP in Cincinnati episode where Johnny and Venus drink on the air to illustrate the perils of being impaired by drinking. The officer administering the test was in awe as Johnny's reaction time got better with each drink!
Click to expand...

I recall doing a local news program after the Christmas Party at one station I was working it went very well. We watched the aircheck the next day.
 
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