How I lost my faith in parttimers

[Boss302]

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.

BINGO!
Also does Rock work with the part time help or just complains about what they are doing with no direction or help?
If I tell an employee to do something and they don't do it, they why do I keep them?

 

[RockofHBG]

Not all part-timers are bad. Like I've stated in earlier posts, a good part-timer is worth their weight in gold. Sad fact, like it or not, most part-timers are bad! Ask anybody who programmed a radio station when you had to schedule 20- 30 part-time hours every weekend. The only reason many people ever go their foot in the door in radio is that the FCC once mandated that a transmitter had to be manned during hours of operation which for many stations was 24/7. Compare the quality of a full-time staff to part-timers. There is quite a gap. Why wouldn't you give your listeners full-time quality 7 days a week. And the technology didn't always exist like it does today to create high quality non-live radio. And guess what....most listeners would rather not hear gab anyway. I learned this the hard. I've been programming the same radio station for 25 years. In the 80s, it was a high profile, personality CHR and it was consistently rated #1 or 2. In the early 90s a decision was made to switch AC. I didn't agree with it, but the early 90s were a bad time for CHRS. The owner brought in a consultant to change the format. He knew his stuff musically, but he made the station a jukebox outside of morning drive. The only time the dj spoke after 9 AM was into the two stopsets per hour and out of one of the sets with weather. That's all!! From :45 to :25, the dj sat in the studio and alternated sweepers with segues. He was chained to the studio then as this was the pre-automation era. I thought the station sounded terribly sterile. Guess what......no listener complaints, not one. And the station jumped up in share 25-54, which was the goal. Nobody noticed or cared that we were talking only three times an hour. In 1995, we evolved to Hot AC. Today, we are again a high personality adult CHR, but I've never forgotten the lesson is that dj talk is not necessary and can be a liability. So no offense to part-timers, but what once was a necessity is now a luxury.

 

[firepoint525]

It's worth noting that part-timers have more opportunity to get into trouble (and stir up trouble!) than the full-timers do, mainly because part-timers are more likely to be working hours when the GM is not in the building, and more often than not, those part-timers are much more likely to be ALONE in the building than their fulltime counterparts. Leave a full-timer alone in the building, and he, too, might have more opportunity to be a troublemaker.

 

[firepoint525]

Then there is this little story about "Captain Midnight." I am assuming that he was a full-timer. Keep in mind that this was sometime in the '60s, so this story has survived for more than 40 years!

According to Lee Dorman, one of the former WKDA Good Guys, Captain Midnight was fired from his job on at least a couple of different occasions. Dorman recalled one time when Captain Midnight had taped his show and, instead of being on-the-air live, was eating at the Noel Hotel Coffee Shop. It seems that his tape broke during his absence, resulting in 40 minutes of “dead air”- and his dismissal. Each time Captain Midnight was fired, it was Dorman who would come in to take the all-night show on WKDA, from midnight until 6 am.

Here's the link, in case you want to read the rest of it for yourself:
http://www.aroundtheblock.us/wkda.html

 

[worldsfair]

I was a hell of a part timer and worked sometimes as much as a full timer when I was in radio. I was really good because I had a PD that took the time and aloud me the chance to grow as a person during those weekend shifts. I tresured that time in the studio. automation is great because of what it can do but I remember countless times that if I wasn't there the "imagine what could have happened" question popped into the PD's head. People want to hear a Local DJ and trust me with giveaways and remotes the listeners def know what fake and hacky and whats real they dont want to be treated like idiots. I love radio and would give anything for those moments back.

 

[RockofHBG]

I was a hell of a part timer and worked sometimes as much as a full timer when I was in radio. I was really good because I had a PD that took the time and aloud me the chance to grow as a person during those weekend shifts. I tresured that time in the studio. automation is great because of what it can do but I remember countless times that if I wasn't there the "imagine what could have happened" question popped into the PD's head. People want to hear a Local DJ and trust me with giveaways and remotes the listeners def know what fake and hacky and whats real they dont want to be treated like idiots. I love radio and would give anything for those moments back.

Well, hopefully you spoke more clearly than you write!

 

[gabba2]

Hopefully you're not as big of a toolbox as you are coming off as on here. Nice ego.

 

[jefflaurence]

Holy Crap

 

[Stormychuck]

I just happened across this thread, and read from beginning to present and RockofHBG has alot to offer and I respect his views and he's sooo correct in so many aspects. My radio career lasted 35 years 1968-2004 and yes I started out as as a part-timer in a small town, weekends on a 500KW daytimer and quickly rising to major market status in just a couple of years as I knew where I wanted to be and where I was headed, and I ran with it....

There was a time in radio when dependable part timer's, good quality major market part timers, were in abundance, you could count on em, but as years moved forward and I moved into management in all different forms, it was good luck in trying to find a weekender that EVEN wanted to work, let alone maybe by chance finding the ones who were dependable, good luck there too.

In later years and all to often, and I'm sure RockofHGB can relate, the phone call from the talent on air calling you at home at midnight on a Saturday night to tell me such and such didn't show up for their air-shift and can't be located, so off I go to the station to do the midnight shift. Dozen's and dozen's of times this has this has happened to me, and I know of other friends who were PD's had the same problem. At one time one station I programmed paid $40.00 hour for weekend part timer's who had the talent. That's not to shabby and if you had two 6 hour board shifts on a weekend you do the math. Those day's are long gone and part timer/weekenders are just NOT a valuable commodity anymore and stations now-a-days have recognized this and have all but eliminated these weekend problems, needless to say the part timer/weekenders' have quickly started falling by the wayside, then there's these part-timers of today lucky enough to have a weekend gig who would prefer full-time status and pay without paying their due's and they themselves can't understand why their being treated like idiot's...