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Employee takeover of KFAX and KDOW last night?

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2040251/posts

>>The takeover was in progress when I tuned in at about 2:15am (PDT), and was still going on when I turned it off at about 3:45am (PDT). The person on the air was threatening suicide, and FCC banned words were repeatedly put out over the air...
While I was listening he stated several times that he had sprayed the contents of a fire extinguisher on the windows to block out the view from the outside.

Nothing so far on S.F. TV/radio/paper sites as far as I can see
 
According to other employees, they have an employee named Shawn and there is a strong chance this did happen. Some say they are located in Fremont and that might be the problem for employee desperate measures to get attention.
 
I called in and discussed my depression and suicide attempts with him. He said he had attempted before, too. He said he had 5 beers. What a lightweight for being a buzzed as he sounded. He let me drop the f-bomb many times which I found kinda cool. Is he lookin' at prison time for taking over KFAX and KDOW?
 
Jaycifer666 said:
I called in and discussed my depression and suicide attempts with him. He said he had attempted before, too. He said he had 5 beers. What a lightweight for being a buzzed as he sounded. He let me drop the f-bomb many times which I found kinda cool. Is he lookin' at prison time for taking over KFAX and KDOW?
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this is hilarious to me. some emo employee took the station over. over where I work every studios door swings open. No locks, not even a doorhandle.

how in the world could he get away with this for such a large amount of time? surely someone is listening at that time and would have called the program director.

another thing, is prison time really feesible for him? its obvious he will never work in radio, most likely get a huge fcc bill, but prison time?
 
Most likely all that will happen to his guy is that he will be fired. While not a routine thing these types of "rants" have happened more than a few times in radio thru the decades. He could even get a job in another market with ease. This is of no concern to the FCC as it falls under "programming". He obviously broke the format of the stations involved but this is of no concern to the commission. I'm sure Salem is pissed off about the hours where he "pre-empted" paid programs on KFAX. From what I have heard from those who have worked for Salem it is not a fun place to be. I guess the stress drove him over the edge.
 
Jaycifer666 said:
I called in and discussed my depression and suicide attempts with him. He said he had attempted before, too. He said he had 5 beers. What a lightweight for being a buzzed as he sounded.
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If you can't get drunk on 5 beers then I suggest you have an alcohol problem. As people drink more and more they develop tolerance for high levels of alcohol.
 
Don Paschal said:
Does anyone have an aircheck of this???
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I guess not. One would have surfaced by now. Between this forum and the ba.broadcast newsgroup, nobody has emailed me offering one, and I get lots of email about stuff like this.

This suggests that very very few people were listening at the time given that there are airchecks in existence of some of the most arcane DJs who ever spun records.
 
When I worked in an Alaska radio station many years ago, we could manipulate the transmitter from any touch tone phone in the world, including shutting it down. I would have thought one call to Salem's CE would have brought the takeover to an end within 5 minutes.

If you're the GM/OM do you prefer someone ranting on your signal, or do you prefer dead air? Do you allow your station to be sullied by a disturbed individual for hours to achieve the greater good of keeping the individual from becoming infuriated and possibly taking his life?
 
i have access to the 2.5 hours of his "takeover". salem is trying to keep this underwraps but i am debating releasing this audio for those who did not hear it.
 
waste of a thread- never heard of these stations...been living in the Bay Area a LONG time
 
RadioCrusader said:
waste of a thread- never heard of these stations...been living in the Bay Area a LONG time
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KFAX has been around for decades. KDOW used to be KIBE a simulcast of KDFC. Both stations do not have much of an audience.
 
In our 5 station cluster if there is dead air our C.E. is called on his cell. But if a wrong network show or two things play at once there is no way of knowing what is going on. We have some periods of time when no one is in the building. Even during the times when 1 jock is on the air live at one of the stations only a bank of on air lights is in front of him. If a light goes on he can go to the indicated studio to see if the audio has failed. If that is o.k. he can check the transmitter and attempt to turn it back on if needed. But if he goes on a rant and someone calls the front office to complain it will only be left on a voice mail to be heard the next morning at 9am.
 
JimA said:
Probably all fiction anyway - no one listens to these that waste so much time posting about nothing
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That's a peculiar comment. By "...no one listens to these..." are you referring to those on this post, or the stations? As for "...posting about nothing" does that include you? The issue at hand has less to do with whether it is your favorite station, does well in the books, or has much of an audience at those hours of the morning. The remarkable nature of the story is that takeovers do happen, that management has historically placed great trust in the airstaff to not expose the licensee to legal woes, and that there is little management does to police its employees or mechanisms in place to secure the signal from abuse.
 
I should mention a "take-over" that happened several years ago here in Palm Springs. The 7 to midnight jock on "oldies" KDES 104.7 recorded a 90 second rant saying he was going out on strike,complaining of low pay putting the degital unit into the loop mode so it would run over and over, which it did for 3 hours ! At about a quarter to 10 the general manager called me at home informing me of the situation as someone had notified him. He told me to drive to the station and finish out the show. I arrived at 10pm, stopped the loop and jingled into a song. I mentioned nothing about the incident on the air. The next day the jock was walking in front of the station with a picket sign. He only did this for one day. Shortly thereafter he was hired for an on the air job at the local "standards/beautiful music stations were he remained for a couple of years. Now he is the afternoon drive guy at the A.O.R. station in the market !
 
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