Ethics

[radiorob2.0]

My radio life extends before, during and after the mid-nineties free for all called deregulation. Everywhere I worked until 1995 operated within the rules whether it was a corporate environment or "Mom & Pop". This includes contest, honoring program agreements, EBS, transmitter operations such as AM pattern changes, and many other areas. It was made clear to follow the rules. But since then I've been put in one situation to another where ethics are thrown out the window.

Case in point, my last full time radio job was with a publicly traded company that locally operated with little regards to rules. It all happened, rigging contests, falsifying network affidavits, program and transmitter logs and my favorite using an EBS tone, recored on tape no less, and calling it EAS and logging it that way. Bonus: This station is considered by area DES agency as the one to monitor. However, when I would point out these discrepancies management would retort with something to the effect of "none of your business, just do as your told."

So, has the ethics of radio changed since deregulation or have I just migrated from one sleazy situation to another?

 

[oaktree]

Being "ethical" would be sharing these findings with those that run the station ... or beyond ... or settle back and become "part of the problem -- not part of the solution."

Tough call. A paycheck or doing what's not "right." Your call.

But if it were your station ... what would you do if a bright, hard-working employee came to you and said, "What are we doing here?"

Afraid to get fired? I bet. But what if you end up getting fired as an "at will employee" for no reason in a "cutback" ... then if you do anything, you're just "sour grapes" and a "disgruntled employee."

You'd be surprised how many are in your position. It's up to you to do something about it ... or live with it. Again, a tough one, but ultimately, your call. "Do unto them before they do unto you" IF what you're saying is true. If they let you go for their being unprovably wrong, then you went about it the wrong way.

If you cause them to think about it ... you've saved jobs, including yours and a GM's.

I've never worked at a radio station where "ethics" were so poor that I felt "forced" to stay.

No matter what ... put it in writing. But be sure ... very very sure before you do anything, or it will seem like you've got a chip on your shoulder, don't know what you're talking about or you participate in the "un-ethics" of it all.

It's all in the way you handle it. "None of your business ... just do as you're told," sounds like irresponsible management taking the situation for granted ... and you are the situation. Don't be a scapegoat ... just don't participate in the process ... and go to the one who either "enforces" the rules, privately, or go up the ladder to those who do. I assure you, a job like that's not worth the time or aggravation if what you end up doing is against the rules ... and the law.

Good luck.

 

[radioboy]

Rob,

I've been in radio since 1979, and it HAS changed, and not for the better.

I can remember when we used to have to write in the actual time the legal IDs ran..it's been a while.

Most of the owners I've worked for have been local people. When you have an owner who's there day in, day out, working right alongside you, it's more of a team. and a feeling of loyalty.

I left my last full-time gig because things just weren't right. Absentee owner..EAS problems..Now, being a notary, I would NOT notarize any affidavits that were not correct, so no problem in that department. This
did keep the billing and network forms in order.

This station ultimately ended up with a $7k fine. A cluster owned by a well-known publicly traded company
(but NOT CC) was recently hit with a $22k fine when the FCC agent came to visit.

It's way less enjoyable working with no sense of security whatsoever. I still do radio, but for myself and on my own terms. Now I don't have to deal with the daily stress caused by the owners/management themselves.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Fed Up

I think that there has been a serious decline in ethics in broadcasting. A lot of it is directly attributable to the death of the FCC licensing requirement for operators.

Most jocks or board-ops these days are woefully unaware of broadcast law. When 3rd Class licenses were required for operators, you had to pass an exam that included knowledge of the basic rules and regulations. A licensed operator was required for the station to be on the air, and the licensee at the controls was aware that falsifying an EAS test, falsifying logs, and rigging contests are FEDERAL OFFENSES. If you were caught, your license could be revoked, and you'd be out of the industry.

Today, jocks are not held directly responsible. The company may be fined, and a jock or board-op may be fired, but there's no threat to their overall livelihood. They can move on to another station and start over.

Since there's no personal penalty, most jocks feel no personal responsibility. Personally, I would have filed an anonymous complaint with the FCC over the EAS situation. Eventually, they might have sent an inspector out to resolve that situation. A non-working EAS unit is a threat to the safety and welfare of the entire community, and I wouldn't want to have that on my conscience if people were hurt or killed because they weren't notified of a major weather event or other disaster.

As the responsible licensee, you also had a different standing with ownership. Even the worst owner had to respect that you wouldn't put yourself and your license in danger by violating Federal broadcast law.

 

[Bongwater]

Ethics...WHAT ETHICS?! This is corporate radio, not a monastary.

But seriously, it's been falling apart, like the rest of this country, since the '80s. Too much emphasis on the $$$ factor, not enough on the human factor. You can only play it this way so long before it comes back to bite your bum. The record industry had to learn this the hard way: The rest of the world doesn't turn that way.

Once it got easy to get rich in radio, all other important things such as Broadcast Law began to be translated as "little inconveniences", nothing that a few million and some powerful lobbyists can't fix with an already deaf, dumb and greedy Congress. Do your math from there and you'll see how it all went straight down the tubes.

It's good to see the FCC getting off it's Nipplegate trip and focusing on what really matters, like localism. But the trouble is, we have a whole generation of owners/managers/programmers who know of no other way of radio being done other than the cheap and cut-throat way. Or ones that do, but were among the ones who lobbied hard for the rules to change in their favor. Again, the $$$ factor. A factor that no longer exists in commercial radio as we know it.

The new ways (deregulation since the '80s) just aren't working. They never have and it's useless to keep plodding along, assured that you can always fix it with some minor modifications here and there. You could only patch a leak in the Titanic with so much duct tape and spit.

It's time to go back to what REALLY worked. Inconvenient as hell, but honesty is as inconvenient as it gets....

 

[KFodor]

This is a topic that's near and dear to my heart, since I've P.O.'d more than a couple of bosses in my career (Sales Managers, too) pointing out E.A.S. rule violations, and lame brained promotional proposals that violated state and FCC laws.

I totally agree operator testing and licensing should come back. But, I don't think the FCC necessarily has to do it. A station C.E. or designated "Chief Operator" could administer a test, then sign off on the new hire who sends a card in to the FCC to get his/her license.

By the way, I work for a station group that does administer such a test. A new hire must pass it as a condition of employment if they are going anywhere near the transmitter controls.

You know and I know (and if any FCC inspectors are reading this, you should know) that there certainly are renegade operators out there. AM stations not powering down or not going directional when they're supposed to. Stations that never (or rarely) take a transmitter reading. Stations whose PD's have no clue how to properly operate E.A.S.

But, to say it's all "Big Radio" and "Corporations" is dead wrong. Smaller stations in small towns violate the rules because the owner either can't (or won't) pay to fix an engineering problem, too. Yet, the FCC hardly ever inspects, rarely cites and even more rarely fines for this. So, this was all brought about by not just consolidation, but the continued deregulation that has gone on since Jimmy Carter was in office. And, to be fair, that deregulation has often cut the number of agents the FCC could put in the field, too...so there are problems on both sides of the regulatory fence.

On the programming side, a PD really needs to know the rules. In the past 2 years, a major hamburger chain (whom I will not identify), sent a promotional proposal to us. The deal was a sampling event to be held in a city park, or other large venue. It was free food for 500 people! In return the station was to pony up a major value cash or prize that would be put in one of the 500 lunch sacks.

OK so far. Then I got to a little statement at the bottom of the proposal. "The station agrees that the grand prize will not be placed in any of the first 250 sacks to be given out." It didn't even take me a nanosecond to tell the Sales Manager we'd do that promotion over my dead body. He huffed and puffed and went to the GM's office, who overruled him in 5 seconds. We weren't going to jeopardize the station license to get a buy.

And, yes...I work for a corporation.

Oh yes, I've heard stories about how some companies are hiring lobbyists and leaning on Washington. Given the current trend and FCC hearings about "localism" and proposals to mandate stations have warm bodies in the house 24/7, it doesn't sound to me like "Big Radio" is going to totally get it's way.

That having been said, I am not as "gloom and doom" as Bongwater. Though, I agree with a good part of what he says. I think (and hope) that the answer is somewhere in the middle between over regulation (which the business doesn't need) and the current almost no-regulation. (Or regulation with little oversight.)

No, we're not likely to head back to live 24/7 operation...ever. But, a middle ground can be found. Profit can be made. The community can be served. And stations can sound local and be a part of their communities.

I am also a radio instructor in a local college. As our school prepares to rewrite our syllabus, I am working to make it a point that our final semester students will have to study the Society Of Broadcast Engineer's broadcast operator course. I'd love to eventually see our school be allowed to administer the real test for certification. But, until that day comes...at the very least, I want our students to pass a 50 question sample test as a requisite for graduation.

There are still ethical people in radio. (And, too many unethical ones).

 

[Bongwater]

Jason,

Sorry if I sound "gloom and doom" (black humor is almost natural when almost nothing works out right in an industry you once loved.) There IS hope for radio. I'm just not sure if the people running the industry ever know/knew where the expectations end and the REALITY begins. And to be frank, I'm not sure if they ever have.

A radio station is like an open blank canvas. It depends on what you put on it. You can make it into a work of art. Or just another billboard. Billboards make money in the short term, works of art last a lot longer. You are also free to graffiti, vandalize and tear all you want.

 

[FredRichards]

Ethics. Like anything in life, you have a choice. One can take either road. It's easy to justify the lapses in ethics, and easier to find excuses. The problem (IMHO) is that a lot of money has been made by not being ethical. Sometimes it's like an alcoholic working in a liquor store, but there are rewards for those who can look back and know they cheated noone.

 

[KFodor]

Jason,

Sorry if I sound "gloom and doom" (black humor is almost natural when almost nothing works out right in an industry you once loved.) There IS hope for radio. I'm just not sure if the people running the industry ever know/knew where the expectations end and the REALITY begins. And to be frank, I'm not sure if they ever have.

A radio station is like an open blank canvas. It depends on what you put on it. You can make it into a work of art. Or just another billboard. Billboards make money in the short term, works of art last a lot longer. You are also free to graffiti, vandalize and tear all you want.

Your points are very well taken. However, let me assure you that I have strong reason to believe there are people at the top levels of at least some of the radio companies who are taking a hard look at the lessons learned over the past 10-15 years. I've spoken with at least a few who, years ago, expressed serious doubts, for example, that Clear Channel could achieve the total "synergy" they wanted to achieve to make their operating plans succeed. It's obvious that trying to run 1,200 stations at once in markets with diverse operating characteristics with a one-size-fits-all solution may prove to have been a faulty idea.

Some of the things consolidation brought about weren't totally bad ideas. For example, I am not against the proper use of voicetracking. I understand that few stations ever made money with their overnight shifts. Most overnights can be tracked. (But, I do contend someone needs to be in the station to update for severe weather and other emergencies.)
In small markets, most shifts could be voicetracked...but, at least most of those people are in the building during those shifts and can update the tracks as needed, allowing them sufficent time to do the other internal station work.

But a lot of stations don't pay any serious attention to how shows are tracked...and that's a big problem. You can still be personable...and local...in 30-50 seconds time. But a lot of people don't seem to know how to pull it off. That's where a good PD/coach comes in. And radio has done a lousy job of locating, nurturing and growing new talent. That's got to change.

And lastly, some companies have got to rediscover you have to spend money to make it. I know of at least one station in the past couple of years that had some ratings challenges. The company bigwigs investigated and found out "the plan" was being followed, but the station was being outmarketed. So...they marketed more, and the station more than recovered. Some of the "old ways" are still in use where it counts.

So, you see...at least some of the higherups are paying attention. Maybe not every company, but some. And, as far as the ethical thing goes: I'm sure there's got to be unethical PD's/SM's/GM's. There are in every business. But, if you are an ethical person, you can choose to try and change things from within. Or else find another place with better ethics and work to find a job there.