First Christmas out!

[ShadowB]

This will be my first Christmas out of the business and you know what? It hasn't been that bad! I started right here in Nashville in 1982 (ish) at WLUY. (Yes Romer I was one of those bad broadcast students that did weekends! ) I have been lucky to work at some great stations and with some great people over the years and each person and station thought me a lot. I even have even able to say the legendary WSM calls on the air. (ok so it was FM but it still was WSM!)
As we all know radio is not what it once was. For me the best station was WPFM in Panama City Beach back in the mid 80's and from that point it has changed so much it just isn't fun anymore. I know some of you young guns will say NOW is the best time.. but for me I feel I was in on the tail end of working when radio was great. I moved over to Country Music TV and then to a local TV station but missed being on the air and started working part time for WKDF in December of 03. My last gig was as the PD of WGFX from 04-07. I could go on for days as to the good AND bad but I did the best job I could do with what I had. ( I'm sure some will take shots but it's Christmas give it a rest)
What is the point to all of this? Always have a back up plan! No matter how good you feel you are and no matter how good a job your boss says you are doing make sure you have a plan "B"!! We have all seen good jocks and or PD's get the ax in the name of the budget...Make a back up plan because it can and will go away. I started putting mine together when I saw the first wave of cuts at WKDF. Really put it in place after the 2nd round of cuts and was let go in the 3rd round.
I DO miss some things about broadcasting but all in all this has been one of the best years I've had in years!
You CAN have a life out of radio!
Merry Christmas
Kent Bailey

 

[scottwmro]

This will be my first Christmas out of the business and you know what? It hasn't been that bad! I started right here in Nashville in 1982 (ish) at WLUY. (Yes Romer I was one of those bad broadcast students that did weekends! ) I have been lucky to work at some great stations and with some great people over the years and each person and station thought me a lot. I even have even able to say the legendary WSM calls on the air. (ok so it was FM but it still was WSM!)
As we all know radio is not what it once was. For me the best station was WPFM in Panama City Beach back in the mid 80's and from that point it has changed so much it just isn't fun anymore. I know some of you young guns will say NOW is the best time.. but for me I feel I was in on the tail end of working when radio was great. I moved over to Country Music TV and then to a local TV station but missed being on the air and started working part time for WKDF in December of 03. My last gig was as the PD of WGFX from 04-07. I could go on for days as to the good AND bad but I did the best job I could do with what I had. ( I'm sure some will take shots but it's Christmas give it a rest)
What is the point to all of this? Always have a back up plan! No matter how good you feel you are and no matter how good a job your boss says you are doing make sure you have a plan "B"!! We have all seen good jocks and or PD's get the ax in the name of the budget...Make a back up plan because it can and will go away. I started putting mine together when I saw the first wave of cuts at WKDF. Really put it in place after the 2nd round of cuts and was let go in the 3rd round.
I DO miss some things about broadcasting but all in all this has been one of the best years I've had in years!
You CAN have a life out of radio!
Merry Christmas
Kent Bailey

Kent,
Add this to your back up plans:

1. Build you a studio in your house. If your married, like I am, use one of the bedrooms in the house and flip it into a studio. Start an internet station & you can also legally broadcast on the AM band using a Rangemaster 1000 transmitter that will go about 2 to 3 miles, without an FCC license! The most important thing to remember is that terrestial radio is dying a "slow death" and internet radio will become the future. I think you know this by now.

2. Here is another idea. There are sites that have small stations for sale, if you're willing to relocate. Buy a small AM station and run it, but do it right. You may have to start on a shoe sting budget, but it can be done. I saw all this corporate consolidation coming while at WQQK, 92Q in 1990, and that's the reason why I own a small AM daytime station.

Do a google search on buying radio stations and you will find sites of brokers trying to sell stations. Don't worry about financing, that can be worked out in an LMA with the owner of the station and you.

You have a lot of experience and you can "Own & Operate" a small facility by yourself like me and my wife are doing. I wish you the best of luck and Merry Christmas.

Scott Bailey
President/General Manager/Owner
WMRO-AM
Gallatin. TN

 

[romer979fm]

(Yes Romer I was one of those bad broadcast students that did weekends! )

my biggest problem with that arrangement was the constant "no-shows"...(not you, Kent)
dreaded hearing the phone ring at home...'cause I'd be back down to 810 Division to cover another weekend shift.
hard to make someone work when they're not being paid...so it happened a lot

 

[firepoint525]

hard to make someone work when they're not being paid...

Why? It will just prepare them for an actual broadcast career in which they are salaried and forced to work 50 hours a week, but paid based on a 40-hour week. (If you split the pay over a 50-hour week, it comes to less than minimum wage! :) I very much resented having to get up at 4:00 a.m. and work a Saturday morning shift that I was actually not being paid for. Go to www.krud.com and go into the cartoon archives and click on "the perfect production job" or something like that. That cartoon perfectly depicts my unhappiness at being salaried and being forced to work a basically unpaid Saturday shift, only to still have to deal with the GM's complaints about something not getting done.

And by the way, this will be my "first Christmas out" in quite a while (since about 1995), too.

 

[ShadowB]

Well Chris it went both ways...can't recall his name but the 12m-6a jock was late almost every sunday night / monday morning and I would have to stay till he came in....almost always all drunked up! I also remember the first weekend we worked, you were working the mid day shift and were also doing production, we were so blown away when you would walk into the control room, do a break and walk back out...we thought that was so cool! How did he know when the song was about to end?!?!?! ahah...Remember the guy who wrote on the board? That almost did us all in!

 

[olebud]

Firepoint wrote:
Why? It will just prepare them for an actual broadcast career in which they are salaried and forced to work 50 hours a week, but paid based on a 40-hour week. (If you split the pay over a 50-hour week, it comes to less than minimum wage! ) I very much resented having to get up at 4:00 a.m. and work a Saturday morning shift that I was actually not being paid for.

Pardon me for being 'old school,' but 'back in the day' when we got a radio job, we were so glad to get it we never asked about the hours. It was understood, it paid x-amount for a six day week. And that was whether yo were the new guy or a Gerry House. We never resented nor questioned the hours and it was fun. Sure, getting up at 3 or 4 could be a pain, but we learned how to get home, take a shower and go to work. If the job were so bad you had to complain, you sent out air checks and moved on. I once had a person who thought it was so glamerous to be in radio ask me, "what holidays do you get?" The answer....whichever one fell on sunday. No extra pay. But most of us remember those as "the good ole days"
If you get in it strictly for the money, then getting out is the right move.
by the way....congrats on the first christmas out.
I've been enjoying not being regularlly on the air for the past five years, and in return I don't have to carry a pager and cell phone with me everywhere and be ready to staff a news story on a moments notice. It was fun, but that's for young people.

Merry Christmas, Buddy

 

[firepoint525]

Firepoint wrote:
Why? It will just prepare them for an actual broadcast career in which they are salaried and forced to work 50 hours a week, but paid based on a 40-hour week. (If you split the pay over a 50-hour week, it comes to less than minimum wage! ) I very much resented having to get up at 4:00 a.m. and work a Saturday morning shift that I was actually not being paid for.

Pardon me for being 'old school,' but 'back in the day' when we got a radio job, we were so glad to get it we never asked about the hours. It was understood, it paid x-amount for a six day week. And that was whether yo were the new guy or a Gerry House. We never resented nor questioned the hours and it was fun. Sure, getting up at 3 or 4 could be a pain, but we learned how to get home, take a shower and go to work. If the job were so bad you had to complain, you sent out air checks and moved on. I once had a person who thought it was so glamerous to be in radio ask me, "what holidays do you get?" The answer....whichever one fell on sunday. No extra pay. But most of us remember those as "the good ole days"
If you get in it strictly for the money, then getting out is the right move.
by the way....congrats on the first christmas out.
I've been enjoying not being regularlly on the air for the past five years, and in return I don't have to carry a pager and cell phone with me everywhere and be ready to staff a news story on a moments notice. It was fun, but that's for young people.

Merry Christmas, Buddy

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but I was not a newcomer to radio by that time. I was working full time, trying to start a career. (I was production director at that station.) I understand about paying dues and all that, but I felt that I had paid mine by that time, and worse than that, I felt unappreciated by an anal-retentive, perfectionist manager, who was impossible to please. He would find fault with everything. Nearly the entire staff turned over in the year I was there. And yes, I moved on. Gladly.

In my most recent station, I lasted 11 years. I couldn't have made it that long under conditions I described in the first paragraph. I didn't really mind working most holidays, because they occasionally fell on the weekends, so I was off anyway. But Labor Day is always on Monday, and Thanksgiving always falls on Thursday, so I started scheduling vacation time so I could be off those weeks. After working 10 straight Labor Days and 10 straight Thanksgivings, I felt entitled. And no one else had been there as long as me, so they really weren't in any position to complain about it.

 

[ShadowB]

BUDDY ROCKS!!!!
People like him are what I miss the most! He ALWAYS had time to talk and had some great tails to tell. In fact WSM had a lot of guys like him when I did my time. Sherm, Bill, Lisa, Ron , Walt ( RIP) Harel (sp?) Kyle... What a great bunch of people.. And as for holiday time off Buddy is right. I never got extra pay and always had to work 6 days in a row and if a holiday fell on the day you worked well you worked...
Now that I'm out on my own my wife can tell that my stress level is way down and I LOVE my boss!!! I can work as much or little as I want, when I want and will always be told I've done a good job! See when you work for your self it's like that. ;D

 

[deltas69]

i worked probably 7 days a week..sometimes at both the AM and FM..didn't really consider it work..i kept thinking..these people are paying me to sit on my butt, play records, drink, and have women call or come by at all hours of the night...why the hell would i want time off ???

 

[Journeyman]

BUDDY ROCKS!!!!
People like him are what I miss the most! He ALWAYS had time to talk and had some great tails to tell. In fact WSM had a lot of guys like him when I did my time. Sherm, Bill, Lisa, Ron , Walt ( RIP) Harel (sp?) Kyle... What a great bunch of people.. And as for holiday time off Buddy is right. I never got extra pay and always had to work 6 days in a row and if a holiday fell on the day you worked well you worked...
Now that I'm out on my own my wife can tell that my stress level is way down and I LOVE my boss!!! I can work as much or little as I want, when I want and will always be told I've done a good job! See when you work for your self it's like that. ;D

Thanks for the kind words, and as I am sure OleBud will understand "I Love Life"

 

[scottwmro]

e

Firepoint wrote:
Why? It will just prepare them for an actual broadcast career in which they are salaried and forced to work 50 hours a week, but paid based on a 40-hour week. (If you split the pay over a 50-hour week, it comes to less than minimum wage! ) I very much resented having to get up at 4:00 a.m. and work a Saturday morning shift that I was actually not being paid for.

Pardon me for being 'old school,' but 'back in the day' when we got a radio job, we were so glad to get it we never asked about the hours. It was understood, it paid x-amount for a six day week. And that was whether yo were the new guy or a Gerry House. We never resented nor questioned the hours and it was fun. Sure, getting up at 3 or 4 could be a pain, but we learned how to get home, take a shower and go to work. If the job were so bad you had to complain, you sent out air checks and moved on. I once had a person who thought it was so glamerous to be in radio ask me, "what holidays do you get?" The answer....whichever one fell on sunday. No extra pay. But most of us remember those as "the good ole days"
If you get in it strictly for the money, then getting out is the right move.
by the way....congrats on the first christmas out.
I've been enjoying not being regularlly on the air for the past five years, and in return I don't have to carry a pager and cell phone with me everywhere and be ready to staff a news story on a moments notice. It was fun, but that's for young people.

Merry Christmas, Buddy

Hi Buddy,

I came along on the "tail end" of the fully staff radio station days. I recall one Christmas morning, I had been on the air at WVOL from 11 PM to 6 AM. Well, 6 AM rolled around and nobody showed up, and my dad had stressed to me the day before that I needed to be on time at my grandparent's house for Christmas Breakfast. Well, at 6:30 AM I knew nobody was going to show up. I called Sam Howard at home, woke him up and he had Damon King come to the station to relieve me. My grandparents lived in Clarksville at the time, and I made it on time for Christmas Breakfast, thanks to I-24! Sam Howard was friends with my parents and knew the importance of me being home some at Christmas, even though I enjoyed being at the station as well.
I give thanks to automation. I don't believe anybody should be working an air shift on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I know some of you younger folks would enjoy it, and yes, when I was younger I did to a point, but......it's God's Day, God's Holiday, and fellowship with family and friends are much more important than any radio or TV station, but I always was thankful for the folks that worked airshifts on Christmas. Someone should be on call in case of an emergency, especially a news story, but I believe the world should stop and for at least 48 hours, give thanks for what we have. The last Christmas I worked an airshift was in 1991 at 92Q.
With that, I'm going to get off here and turn on Elvis Christmas music. This is my first Christmas without my dad. My dad passed away this year on February 9th and he loved Elvis, and so do I. Too all of you, we may agree or not agree within topics of this industry, and I can really "cut up" on this list, but there is a human side of me, and I wish you a Merry Christmas.

P.S. Buddy, if your at home, give me a call if you want on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the station's main line will be forwarded to my cell phone, so if my friends want to call me and wish each other a Merry Christmas, (if I can remember to answer it.....) and my cell phone will be on. Never mind the screaming, excited, kids in the background! (HA!) :

 

[Tibbs4]

Scott --- wth? Are yuh dippin' into the Arbor Mist Christmas Egg Nog flavor? You, the king of anti-X-mas, being
warm and fuzzy (navel)? THAT'S IT! I am definitely getting you the Mattel Chris Romer Barking Mad GI Joe Radio Doll for
Christmas, complete with dead air gasps, pass out mode, cussing like a sailor feature (until you figure out the mic is on and then just a little), really cussing when you're locked out of the building in the pouring rain, gotta pee at a remote, did I just wreck the van, did I just play that song three songs ago, caller 13 never wins cause I ain't answerin no phones EVER, argue with Scott about everything, corporate suit Clear Channel tool, gung-ho pro-Crumulus too --- life like battery-operated, safe for the entire family, inflatable,
I better stop there.

Get back to being mad. Forget this human side junk. NO! It's more fun going after that "man" and makes this more interesting. Fire Romer up one time REALLY good for his Christmas present. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Seriously, Merry Christmas to a lot of really great hard working VIP's on this board and ONE 'retired' extra VIP that works
'part time' now four days a week...about 50+ hours. Sarge, expecially Merry Christmas to you my friend. It's
been a monumental Christmas because of Mix 92-9. Please, you and Barbara make sure we all love you even
more (if that is even possible) and play Escape as your first non-Christmas song. The world will then be at Peace.
Except for one angry doll. lol.