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how does one become a Broadcast Consultant?

Re: where credit is due

> It is atypical. You're obviously bitter and resentful--
> those may be the qualities that got you where you are vs.
> having an open mind and executing the game plan correctly.

Thanks for the advice, but I got over "bitter & resentful" a long time ago. I am very comfortable where I am, and am no longer in a position where I have to listen to pap like "executing the game plan correctly." There are still places that have escaped "corporate-speak".

PS - All those of you who have had to put up with the corporate "cookie-cutter" type, raise your hands. Did they make you bitter and resentful?
 
Re: typical radio

> What you describe... is typical of radio in general-
> good, caring folks and also jerks. Has nothing to do with
> consultants but they get unfairly painted anyway, mostly by
> the most bitter and jaded in our industry who can't look in
> the mirror honestly to check if THEY may actually be to
> blame for their misfortunes.

I'm sure you're right - especially from a consultant's point of view.

PS - Please note - this statement above is meant to be wry, not insulting. Please try not to take this entire thread too seriously.
 
Funny you should say that ...

> PS - I'm sure that NONE of the consultants who participate
> in this board are in Group 2. Most of the guys in Group 2
> don't want to hear what anybody except the voices in their
> heads and the guys with money are saying to them.

At most of the stations I have been brought in to "fix", I've found it useful to have a chat with the airstaff, one at a time. They sometimes see things the management is blind to, which gives me additional places to look for problems.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
Re: How does one become a fool?

> Where do I sign up for this job?

It has often been said that a defendant who acts as his own lawyer is represented by a fool.

A lawyer is a good example of a consultant... someone who knows more than you do and who can, sometimes with inspiration, prevent you from making mistakes (or making another one, if you are guilty!)

I just can not see why the resentment, hatred and total misunderstanding towards consultants.
 
Re: Funny you should say that ...

> At most of the stations I have been brought in to "fix",
> I've found it useful to have a chat with the airstaff, one
> at a time. They sometimes see things the management is
> blind to, which gives me additional places to look for
> problems.

Which is why you're in Group 1, not Group 2. No Yoko Ono for you!
 
Everybody Plays the Fool, sometimes...

> I just can not see why the resentment, hatred and total
> misunderstanding towards consultants.

You might be taking this thread a tad too seriously, David. Most of us recognize that consultants are part of life in broadcasting. Good ones are like gold. It's the bad ones that evoke such venom.

PS - Thank you Main Ingredient
 
Consultant?

Consultant is a euphemism used when you're between jobs.

I prefer the word freelancer, which is more writing-specific.

Or contractor.

Also see Consultant.

Or even Getting Started in Consulting
ir


YMMV.

73s from 954<P ID="signature">______________
Guest Deejay on WFUN, 1971</P>
 
Re: Everybody Plays the Fool, sometimes...

> > I just can not see why the resentment, hatred and total
> > misunderstanding towards consultants.
>
> You might be taking this thread a tad too seriously, David.
> Most of us recognize that consultants are part of life in
> broadcasting. Good ones are like gold. It's the bad ones
> that evoke such venom.
>
> PS - Thank you Main Ingredient
>


Yeah, what he said.

KL
 
Re: Consultant?

> Consultant is a euphemism used when you're between jobs.

Actually, this is very seldom true. Occasionally, someone between jobs will get a gig with a friend to do an outside evaluation, but this is rare.

That is tantamount to saying an auditor is a CPA between jobs.
 
> > The old saying is:
> > "A consultant is a PD who can't keep a job".
> >
>
> Like many such sayings, there is no truth to this one. Most
> program consultants (there are sales, engineering, traffic,
> management and other kinds of consultants, too) are very
> successful and become consultants because there is a demeand
> for their expertise from many stations.
>
> No station would file with the FCC without a legal
> consultant in the form of an FCC attorney. Nor would they
> submit a major engineering application without the
> assistance of a consulting engineer. Nor would they go to
> court without an attorney. Nor would they build a building
> without an architect. Or submit tax retruns without going
> through a CPA.
>
> Most of us would not do a major medical procedure without
> consulting a specialist. We don't generally do major
> plumibing and electrical work in our houses, either.
>
> Consultants are simply specialed experts and useful when we
> want some outside help. The vast majority are very good. The
> bad ones do not, as mentioned before, last long.
>

David, I'm not a fan of consultants.
Sorry.

I've been around many who didn't do all that much.
 
Re: Consultant?

> > Consultant is a euphemism used when you're between jobs.
>
> Actually, this is very seldom true. Occasionally, someone
> between jobs will get a gig with a friend to do an outside
> evaluation, but this is rare.
>
> That is tantamount to saying an auditor is a CPA between
> jobs.

I did not say "radio consultant".

If you don't believe this is true, you
ought to leave the station for a while
someday and breathe the air in the real world.

;-)

73s from 954<P ID="signature">______________
Guest Deejay on WFUN, 1971</P>
 
Re: Consultant?

>
> If you don't believe this is true, you
> ought to leave the station for a while
> someday and breathe the air in the real world.
>

Hmmm. Ready, fire, aim syndrome.

Fact: I travel over a hundred thousand miles a year, and spend half of my time talking to listeners and the rest working on how to satisfy listener needs. In fact, my group spoke with over 100 thousand listeners in the last year.

The world is very real on the street.
 
c & cc

I've never said "corporate and cookie-cutter" is the only way to go, nor the best way. In fact, I'm anti-cookie cutter.

I also think it's tremendously unfair to paint all consultants with the same strokes. Most care deeply about their clients' success. Are there arrogant idiots out there? Sure, but those qualities aren't exclusive to consultants-- that could be said about radio AND about business in general.


>
> Thanks for the advice, but I got over "bitter & resentful" a
> long time ago. I am very comfortable where I am, and am no
> longer in a position where I have to listen to pap like
> "executing the game plan correctly." There are still places
> that have escaped "corporate-speak".
>
> PS - All those of you who have had to put up with the
> corporate "cookie-cutter" type, raise your hands. Did they
> make you bitter and resentful?
>
 
typical radio

I'm just tired of the oh-so-easy "consultants suck" drone. Blame "the consultants" and "the suits" seems to be the easy way out for many in our biz.

>
> I'm sure you're right - especially from a consultant's point of view.
>
> PS - Please note - this statement above is meant to be wry,
> not insulting. Please try not to take this entire thread too
> seriously.
>
 
lotsa fools

It's called sour grapes. GMs and PDs who are lightweights tend to blame "the consultants" when they have to make changes and don't have the courage to say it was their decision (and often, the talent takes them at their word).

It's also an easy way out for those in our business who've never made it. Usually, they fail to look in the mirror to figure out why they're not stars and it's always a lot easier to point the finger of blame elsewhere.

"Well, it CAN'T be my fault! Even though I have a negative attitude, whine about everything and give as little as possible, I can't understand why I'm stuck in this part-time job/small market. It has to be 'the consultant'!".


> I just can not see why the resentment, hatred and total
> misunderstanding towards consultants.
>
 
this & other consultant threads

Read through back through these postings- many are extremely negative and venomous toward consultants (and not just in this thread). It's difficult NOT to take them seriously when most of them are just that.


> >
> > You might be taking this thread a tad too seriously, David.
> > Most of us recognize that consultants are part of life in
> > broadcasting. Good ones are like gold. It's the bad ones
> > that evoke such venom.
> >
> > PS - Thank you Main Ingredient
> >
>
>
> Yeah, what he said.
>
> KL
>
 
Re: Consultant?

> > If you don't believe this is true, you
> > ought to leave the station for a while
> > someday and breathe the air in the real world.
>
> Hmmm. Ready, fire, aim syndrome.
> Fact: I travel over a hundred thousand miles a year, and
> spend half of my time talking to listeners and the rest
> working on how to satisfy listener needs. In fact, my group
> spoke with over 100 thousand listeners in the last year.

That has absolutely nothing to do with my assertion.

> The world is very real on the street.

That's nice, David. You conveniently ignored what I said.

I said I was NOT referring to radio consultants. NOT. NOT. NOT.

The real world of consulting is a lot more like
Dilbert than it is like DE.

You've never met ANYONE who referred to himself as a
consultant while between jobs?

(revised) If you don't believe this is true, you
ought to leave the station for a while someday and
breathe the air in the real NON-RADIO world.

Maybe you just travel in high-rent circles where people
merely go to the Caymans or Malibu in between jobs
rather than freelancing.

73s from 954<P ID="signature">______________
Guest Deejay on WFUN, 1971</P>
 
Re: Consultant?

> > > If you don't believe this is true, you
> > > ought to leave the station for a while
> > > someday and breathe the air in the real world.
> >
> > Hmmm. Ready, fire, aim syndrome.
> > Fact: I travel over a hundred thousand miles a year, and
> > spend half of my time talking to listeners and the rest
> > working on how to satisfy listener needs. In fact, my
> group
> > spoke with over 100 thousand listeners in the last year.
>
> That has absolutely nothing to do with my assertion.

You said, "you ought to leave the station for a while someday and breathe the air in the real world."

The fact is, I am seldom in a radio station.
>
> > The world is very real on the street.
>
> That's nice, David. You conveniently ignored what I said.

Nope. You did.
>
> I said I was NOT referring to radio consultants. NOT. NOT.
> NOT.

This is a radio board. Since you did not specify any other kid of consultant, the assumption is logical that you were referring to radio.
>
> The real world of consulting is a lot more like
> Dilbert than it is like DE.

Not really. At least in radio. I am not in the machine tool or insurance biz, so I would not know nor even theorize about the competency of consutants in other fields.
>
> You've never met ANYONE who referred to himself as a
> consultant while between jobs?

Nope. Not in radio. I have known consultants who have been employed previously by radio stations who worked as a consultant, by choice, for some time only to be given the "offer they could not refuse" and come back to being an employee of a station.

> (revised) If you don't believe this is true, you
> ought to leave the station for a while someday and
> breathe the air in the real NON-RADIO world.

I spend 90% of my work time outside stations. I talk to listeners.
>
> Maybe you just travel in high-rent circles where people
> merely go to the Caymans or Malibu in between jobs
> rather than freelancing.

No, I go to places like the Las Vegas Hispanic Community Center, Barrio Obrero in San Juan, Downey in LA, Chula Vista in SD, S. Phoenix, Hialeah, Queens, Cicero, South Dallas, Harlingen, Clovis and Hayward. Or La Boca, Cd. Nezahualcoyotl, Boca Chica, etc. outside the US. I don't think I have ever been to Malibu, nor have I ever been in the Caymans. I have been in Cochabamba, Chitré, Arica, Iquitos, Machala, Chinandega, San Pedro Sula, Cd. Guzman and other less than garden spots.
 
> David, I'm not a fan of consultants.
> Sorry.
>
> I've been around many who didn't do all that much.

So you paint all consultants with the same brush? Have you ever been around a really focused, caring, effective, involved consultant? (That wasn't a dig ... you said "many" which implies you have been around some who you had some respect for.)

I would prefer to be rated based on my own merits and failings, not those of others in my line of work.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
Re: Consultant?

> This is a radio board. Since you did not specify any other
> kid of consultant, the assumption is logical that you were
> referring to radio.

I said already twice that I was NOT referring to radio consultants.

Pay attention.<P ID="signature">______________
Guest Deejay on WFUN, 1971</P>
 
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