Back in the 90s, the station that I still program had one of the first digital automations in Central PA. While the promos, spots, sweepers and jingles were on the hard drive, the music was programmed from 6-pack, 25-pack and 100-pack CD players. And although the system was reasonably reliable, it was never left unmanned, even during syndication. To make the Cd part of the system function, you had to make sure that the machine number, disc number, cut number and run-time for each track were all correctly entered into Selector. Then you had to make sure the disc was properly inserted, right-side up, correct slot number, into the correct player. If any of these things was incorrect, who knows what might go wrong. One Saturday night I was returning with my family from an out-of-town shopping trip. I was listening to a syndicated show we were airing. At the end of one of the show's segments, I heard about a minute of dead air before spots fired Because the syndication discs were changed each week, there was a great margin of error. They had to be re-timed and re-inserted. I deduced that the wrong disc was in the wrong slot or machine. The CD machines were not in the studio, but locked in my office (there was no need for air people to touch the machines and it was probably best they didn't). After I dropped off my family at home, I headed to the station. When I arrived, I realized I did not have my station keys. I grabbed my cell and called the hotline. No answer. Again I tried. Still no answer. So I decided to climb the fire escape 4 stories to our studios. This sucked because it was pitch black and I fear heights to begin with.Arriving at the 4th floor, I pounded on the outside door, which was only about 10 feet from the studio door. No answer. I tried the hotline. Again, no answer. I then pounded and pound until the door was answered. Not by the guy whose job it was to be in that studio. Oh no, it was answered by the AM guy board oping a baseball game next door. I assume the guy I was looking for was probably lounging in the break room on the other side of the building. I was tired and wanted to get home, so I got into my office with my emergency key, fixed the problem rather quickly and left without ever seeing the FM board op. I was able to get in and out and fix the problem and leave with out him ever knowing I was there, unless the AM guy said something. It was at this point I realized how unreliable and dispensable most part-timers were. I knew just it would be a matter of time before they would mostly all be eliminated. Thank God 911 didn't happen on a weekend!
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How I lost my faith in parttimers
- Thread starter RockofHBG
- Start date
There is a station in Florida that has an unpublished hotline into the control room that is always manned. The rule is that it must be answered within 5 rings no matter what. In you hear the jock on-the-air at the time you call in, they are given time to answer. The GM called in about a problem on a sister station and the hotline was not answered. That person was looking for work elsewhere the next day. The GM was not kidding.
J
John-Summers
Guest
pdgreatness said:
Hope they gave some leeway for the occasional bathroom break!
I would think that would be accepted once, but not each time the GM called. In this case the phone was never answered, even though the person was in the control room. They did live breaks between songs. I think he was on the phone with a "fan" of his.
A lot of bashing of part-timers here (and some of it apparently justified), but how many of us started out as full-timers?
Did you ever find out what that guy was doing?
Did he ever make full-time?
Shoulda made him full-time to ensure he didn't make any more mistakes.
Did he ever make full-time?
Shoulda made him full-time to ensure he didn't make any more mistakes.
The dirty little secret about why (some) GMs hate part-timers is because they actually have to pay them (albeit minimum wage) to cover those weekend shifts. With salaried full-timers, the GMs can force them to cover those same shifts for free! How do I know this? It happened to me! By the time the weekend rolled around, I had already worked (at least) 45 hours, yet still had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to cover a Saturday morning shift that I was not getting paid for! Needless to say, that didn't last long!
Just another example of what is wrong with radio today.
In the minds of some GMs, all that matters is 6a-7p M-F. The "money" hours.
Yet, smartly programmed weekend stations could add greatly to the bottom line.
You need to make them special but a big part of that is having a live person on the air who can interact with the audience.
It takes time and commitment to work with the part timers to help them become as good as they can be.
Yes, the PD has to give these folks some attention..for starters....
In the minds of some GMs, all that matters is 6a-7p M-F. The "money" hours.
Yet, smartly programmed weekend stations could add greatly to the bottom line.
You need to make them special but a big part of that is having a live person on the air who can interact with the audience.
It takes time and commitment to work with the part timers to help them become as good as they can be.
Yes, the PD has to give these folks some attention..for starters....
In situations where a station is owned without much debt, things such as "live" weekends are possible. Those that have been purchased in the last 5-7 years are highly leveraged and it just doesn't make sense monetarily.I will leave you with this. Just being live does not make it good. I'll take good before live. Ideally "good and live" is where I'd like to see radio all the time. There's just not enough good part-timers to go around and there never have been. What you may or may not realize is that most full-timers and in some cases even morning shows, were working live six days a week not long ago, covering most of the prime shifts, leaving mostly part-timers to non-prime such as nights, overnights and Sunday mornings. It is rare that that is the case anymore. Hey, full-timers, wanna go back to a six-day week?
I'm not sure what you mean by this. The "bottom line" is the profit you have left over after expenses. Cutting weekend talent expense is what helps the bottom line. Now perhaps you're referring to the "top Line",aka sales revenue. Perhaps someone could add money to the top line, but there is no real demand for weekend inventory with or without jocks. Unless you came up with some mass-appeal specialty show that could sell out at a high rate and even then it would have to be a good deal greater than the cost of talent, to quote "add to the bottom line". Honestly, people listen to radio a lot differently on the weekend. It's a lot more casual, background and sporadic then during the week. A clean jukebox is probably better than a stumble-mouth trying to be funny or reading a liner card.
Not sure what you mean by that?
A) Soliciting requests that you can't play?
B) Hanging on the phone or Facebook chat for hours on end rather than focusing on making your show sound its best.
c) Recording long, pointless phone conversations for the air.
D) Arranging a date or inviting a listener up for a visit?
Being there to provide weather information, especially on the weekend when people have plans and there is changing weather, especially during the summer in Central PA.
Answering the phone live to answer listener questions or point them who to call back during business hours
Getting traffic info on the air if an accident occurs. On the weekend, you'll be depending on callers to give you that info
Relating info about local events that are happening in the area, including a quick phoner from someone involved with the event. I've heard this done quite successfully in other markets.
The four points you mention are problematic, but not if you've hired someone who gives a damn.
Answering the phone live to answer listener questions or point them who to call back during business hours
Getting traffic info on the air if an accident occurs. On the weekend, you'll be depending on callers to give you that info
Relating info about local events that are happening in the area, including a quick phoner from someone involved with the event. I've heard this done quite successfully in other markets.
The four points you mention are problematic, but not if you've hired someone who gives a damn.
The forecast doesn't change that much in the short-run and as long as it's not recorded more than 24 hours before the shift, you can easily voice-track it. Yes, there are no current temps mentioned, but nobody cares. You can even fake that if you follow the National Weather Services hour-by-hour temp predictions. Some automations can do up-to-date current temps like WHP's. EAS does a great job with weather emergencies. Its on top of the weather situations more quickly than most jocks.
Being that most jocks, even good ones, aren't quick to answer the phones, an even run-of-the-mill voicemail system will do as good or better job at this. Most jocks won't know the answer to a question anyway.
I'll give you that. But it's rare that you ever hear stations that are live on the weekend cover traffic.
Come on...this is the easiest thing in the world to record and voice-track. Probably sounds better that way anyhow. You can edit down "the local" who calls in.
Basically, you're paying someone to sit and wait for an accident to happen who probably won't sound as good as a voice-tracked fashion, 8 times out of 10 it'll sound better than a live part-timer.
I like the idea of having a meteorologist from a local TV station give the forecast on local radio stations. That has been done for years. Of course, that would entail some sort of "partnership" between the local radio station and the TV station, but it could be done. Even stations that are live still have their forecasts done by the local TV station's meteorologist. The meteorologist already has credibility with listeners, and of course, it is a cross-promotion for the TV station. A win-win for all!
It also prevents the local announcer, whether live or voice-tracked, from having to read the weather, except maybe give the temp (if live). And it also provides additional "cover" if your station is voice-tracked, because most listeners will likely never know the difference.
It also prevents the local announcer, whether live or voice-tracked, from having to read the weather, except maybe give the temp (if live). And it also provides additional "cover" if your station is voice-tracked, because most listeners will likely never know the difference.
Great idea! There's always one forecaster in a market that carries a lot of "meteorological" weight and it makes a station sound more local. Lots more credible that a green part-timer.
On the other hand, it has been researched that having a "service" such as Accuweather, really doesn't have any more cred than a station's own "satellite weather " read by a jock. The average listener doesn't care.
I can't speak about now days, but I can tell you back in the 80's, the problems were existent with some full timers too. I can think of one specifically where I worked that had a severe smoking problem. He use to smoke in the studio to the point there was a blue haze. After he got caught a few times, he had to go outside in the back of the building and smoke. Every time you heard a 7 or 8 minute song, like "My Homes in Alabama" or "Trampled Under Foot", you knew he was heading out back, any many times still would not make it back into the studio before the song was over. You would see him running like a bat out of hell.
I also remember the full timers who drank booze out of the fake binoculars during their show, yakked on the request line to groupies for hours while doing their show, and even the ones who had the automation on and decided to sleep on the floor, until one night the owner came in and caught him.
I could go on with more stories, but you get the idea. These were full timers who were on the air for many years and well known.
I also remember the full timers who drank booze out of the fake binoculars during their show, yakked on the request line to groupies for hours while doing their show, and even the ones who had the automation on and decided to sleep on the floor, until one night the owner came in and caught him.
I could go on with more stories, but you get the idea. These were full timers who were on the air for many years and well known.
J
JimmyJames
Guest
And part of the reason none of those part timers will ever "sound good" is the shifts they had to grow and develop have been eliminated for voicetracks and automation.
Here's a good, true story about a part-timer...
T-40 station hired an experienced jock to work Sunday night. He was a part-timer who didn't sound like a part-timer...sounded like a pro. Along comes the production guy who gets extremely jealous. The PD who hired the part timer quit and the part timer applied for and indeed got the job. The production guy got angry and of course was controlled by his jealousy. He started spreading rumors around about the new PD including claiming the new PD was going thru people's desks at night to dig up dirt on the office staff which wasn't at all true. Eventually the rumors started by and spread by the production guy took hold. The new PD was fired and the production guy got the job. Soon enough he was fired too. Fast forward to today. The part-timer kissed radio good bye and now has ownership positions in a bank, auto lender, trash removal company, two trucking companies and an LED manufacturer, not to mention his radio station ownerships! The jealous PD? He's still playing around in small market radio going no where with nothing! True story!!!
T-40 station hired an experienced jock to work Sunday night. He was a part-timer who didn't sound like a part-timer...sounded like a pro. Along comes the production guy who gets extremely jealous. The PD who hired the part timer quit and the part timer applied for and indeed got the job. The production guy got angry and of course was controlled by his jealousy. He started spreading rumors around about the new PD including claiming the new PD was going thru people's desks at night to dig up dirt on the office staff which wasn't at all true. Eventually the rumors started by and spread by the production guy took hold. The new PD was fired and the production guy got the job. Soon enough he was fired too. Fast forward to today. The part-timer kissed radio good bye and now has ownership positions in a bank, auto lender, trash removal company, two trucking companies and an LED manufacturer, not to mention his radio station ownerships! The jealous PD? He's still playing around in small market radio going no where with nothing! True story!!!
I read with interest the threads on part-timers and the 4 types of air talent that were recently posted here. I think anyone with 10+ years in the business, no matter what era, can attest to all of what is posted being pretty much true. We can all think of one or two people that we worked with that fit the mold of the "4 types" or of the "less-than-acceptable" part-time people. But I think that is where our industry is going to fall short. Back in the day, no matter how annoying those part-time people were, they were the future of our business. You had to have a start somewhere, and most of the time, it was the current on-air talent that assisted the part-timers in "grooming" their delivery, their content, etc.., as a lot of PD's (not ALL, but some) didn't really pay much attention to that, they were just bodies to fill in when the full-time people needed off.
I started my career as a janitor in a local radio station and 4 weeks later, was asked if I wanted to be on-air. If it wasn't for the airstaff to guide me, critique me, and sit with me in those early days, I may not have developed the career that I did. I, by no means, set the world on fire in my early radio days (or in future full time gigs for that matter), but I gained the confidence of PD's in the beginning of my part-time career that I could be relied upon to provide a solid part-time airshift and sound good so that the quality of the station didn't suffer when I was on the air. I truly believe it was because of that training and development that I was able to land full-time gigs for the next 20 + years. It was THAT kind of experience and the talks I had with now legendary personalities that molded my style and delivery , allowing me to have what I consider to be a successful run in radio. If it wasn't for those people, I never would have gotten as far as I did.
Today, we don't have that....you just need to come in, lay down your voice track on pre-written scripts...if you mess up, you can erase it, and try it again...that type of atmosphere doesn't promote creativity, doesn't excite the mind, doesn't "entertain" like we did in earlier days. All of us started somewhere...all of us had one or two people we can point to and say "If it wasn't for them, we would not have gotten our break"....its not that way anymore, and that is why I think that our present crop of part-timers will never enjoy the success that some of us did...they don't have the resources we had. I'm glad I encountered the people I did during my radio career...I'm satisfied with my body of work...and I'm glad that I'm not starting out in this business now, because I have no doubt, the outcome would be all together different.
I also cringe sometimes when I listen to local radio and hear part-time people that seem to have no direction, no idea as to what they are doing & I wonder aloud to myself "WTF are you doing on the air?" I feel bad because I remember those days and I am thankful that I had enough people that cared about me (and the station) to help me...the ability to break into this business is so much harder these days than it was for us 20-30 years ago...those that do should be afforded the ability to grow their talent with some direction....and if you are not willing to do that, then let the computer do the shift. However, on the flip side, don't complain of the lack of good air talent available....it may very well be there...you just have to cultivate it....people took chances on us, we should continue that today or else the era of "air personality" is doomed....
But then again, that's just my opinion...I could be wrong....
I started my career as a janitor in a local radio station and 4 weeks later, was asked if I wanted to be on-air. If it wasn't for the airstaff to guide me, critique me, and sit with me in those early days, I may not have developed the career that I did. I, by no means, set the world on fire in my early radio days (or in future full time gigs for that matter), but I gained the confidence of PD's in the beginning of my part-time career that I could be relied upon to provide a solid part-time airshift and sound good so that the quality of the station didn't suffer when I was on the air. I truly believe it was because of that training and development that I was able to land full-time gigs for the next 20 + years. It was THAT kind of experience and the talks I had with now legendary personalities that molded my style and delivery , allowing me to have what I consider to be a successful run in radio. If it wasn't for those people, I never would have gotten as far as I did.
Today, we don't have that....you just need to come in, lay down your voice track on pre-written scripts...if you mess up, you can erase it, and try it again...that type of atmosphere doesn't promote creativity, doesn't excite the mind, doesn't "entertain" like we did in earlier days. All of us started somewhere...all of us had one or two people we can point to and say "If it wasn't for them, we would not have gotten our break"....its not that way anymore, and that is why I think that our present crop of part-timers will never enjoy the success that some of us did...they don't have the resources we had. I'm glad I encountered the people I did during my radio career...I'm satisfied with my body of work...and I'm glad that I'm not starting out in this business now, because I have no doubt, the outcome would be all together different.
I also cringe sometimes when I listen to local radio and hear part-time people that seem to have no direction, no idea as to what they are doing & I wonder aloud to myself "WTF are you doing on the air?" I feel bad because I remember those days and I am thankful that I had enough people that cared about me (and the station) to help me...the ability to break into this business is so much harder these days than it was for us 20-30 years ago...those that do should be afforded the ability to grow their talent with some direction....and if you are not willing to do that, then let the computer do the shift. However, on the flip side, don't complain of the lack of good air talent available....it may very well be there...you just have to cultivate it....people took chances on us, we should continue that today or else the era of "air personality" is doomed....
But then again, that's just my opinion...I could be wrong....
holy crap "Rock"...
you seem to hold part-timers in contempt as unable to even answer the phone...unable to
provide answers if they do...presume that all a PTer does is troll for dates and surf the internet...assume that a canned weather forceast will do (as long as it's
less than 24 hours old)...you locked the CD players in your office (control freak maybe?)...
and then are shocked that they perform up to your expectations?
did you ever work your way up via the part-time route (that's how it used to be done when
stations were live) ?
most of us did...and most of us worked with some talented PDs on our way up...
too bad your employees won't get that chance.
you seem to hold part-timers in contempt as unable to even answer the phone...unable to
provide answers if they do...presume that all a PTer does is troll for dates and surf the internet...assume that a canned weather forceast will do (as long as it's
less than 24 hours old)...you locked the CD players in your office (control freak maybe?)...
and then are shocked that they perform up to your expectations?
did you ever work your way up via the part-time route (that's how it used to be done when
stations were live) ?
most of us did...and most of us worked with some talented PDs on our way up...
too bad your employees won't get that chance.
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