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josh out at krth
- Thread starter krth101
- Start date
Okay, just checked out Don Barrett's site and he couldn't get an answer from CBS but had a quote from Escondon and it's apparent that he was canned. I'd paste in what was said but I believe it's against the rules. I will say that the guy's ego is still intact.
Barrett's implication is that it was a budget cut.
Barrett's implication is that it was a budget cut.
I believe it said something to the effect of, "if you want a guy that plays video poker while he's on air, give me a call..."
You know it's true, Joshua...
You know it's true, Joshua...
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BACKnUSSR
Guest
It was the right move. Would love to see Charlie in there, but those short shifts are tough to justify these days.
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OCradiodude
Guest
Should we get ready to smell some Tuna in afternoon drive?
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BruceC
Guest
Budget cut, plain and simple. Read no more into it. From CBS: "In today's economic climate, it makes no sense to have 4 people cover 3 dayparts." Check out all of the other CBS music station websites and you'll see that NONE have 3 hour shifts anymore; they're all 4 and 5, mostly covering the exact 6-10a, 10a-3p, 3-7p and 7p-Mid dayparts. Just like the price of gas, it'll never revert back to anything else.
BruceC said:
Those who have worked with Escondon would probably read more into it. Yeah, could be as simple as "last hired, first fired", or it could be that if you've got to let someone go because of company budget tightening it would be the guy who doesn't really fit in. As far as longer shifts go and your feeling that they'll never revert back to anything shorter, it's all a matter of some bean counter's opinion and a lousy one at that. Anyone who works on the air on a daily basis knows that 4 hours is just about perfect, and while 3 hours is a luxury that few could ever afford, there was a reason for it, especially in the MAJOR MARKETS. Back "in the day" those on the air were expected to perform at a higher level in the top markets and having shorter shifts and board-ops helped achieve this. Listen to people doing marathon shifts and it becomes clear that being on the radio is NOT like working at a desk, as you hear more human error as that long shift progresses. By making talent do these longer shifts you're actually watering down your product.
One thing is for sure, the talent at Clear Channel stations would LOVE to be doing the 6-10a, 10a-3p, 3-7p and 7p-Mid dayparts that CBS has in place at KRTH. These poor people have to contend with 6 hour shifts. Now that's really ridiculous. Can you imagine Robert W. Morgan and the Real Don Steel doing 6 hour daily shifts? I'll bet if they were alive today they would think it's crazy to make your people go that long. To me, reducing the on-air workforce al la Clear Channel is stupid. If you did this in other industries you’d find your sales dropping because the quality of your product is below what it should be. People complain about radio all the time, but all the companies do is make more cuts and that may improve your bottom line in the short run, but in the long term is contributes to a weakening of your product. But that's only my opinion and I guess it's not one shared by the idea makers at the top levels of these companies...
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BruceC
Guest
To Cal Guy...you're right...four hours feels about right, 3 hours is optimum in order to keep up the energy and passion. FIVE hours is draining, SIX is almost impossible. One of my best friends had a SEVEN hour shift, 11pm-6am in the late 60's when cartridges for spots and turntables for hit tunes was the delivery system. He was FRIED when he got off the air. I think that now, FOUR hours is about the extent of a shift if one is to feel GOOD about what he or she puts out over the air. Anything over that and the product definately does suffer. One thing: With most stations using the hard drive digital system of delivering on air programming (i.e. highlight and load onto monitors) it takes less mental strain than if we were still in the "turntables and cart machines" way of doing things. It's almost like playing a "video game" when you're on the air. I reiterate though...the days of 3 hour music shifts are GONE forever, and, you're lucky to "only" have to do FOUR or FIVE. SIX is unrealistic for the personalities' mind and spirit. No one can keep focused and fresh for SIX hours on the air a day. It's just too too draining. A former PD of time once told me "four hours on the air is equivalent to working EIGHT hours a day doing anything else." He was right....
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BruceC
Guest
oops, that should read: "PD of MINE, not TIME..."
All true BruceC. You're preaching to the choir here. Back in the dark ages when I did Top 40, a time when you had to talk over almost every song I would come off a 5 or even a 4 hour shift and was totally fried. Hard drive systems should on paper make your shift easier, but in reality it can actually mean more work, especially if you work with a system like Prophet and have to drop & drag all of your program elements in and segue edit the next day's show while your on the air. I have a friend who does this on a daily basis and he says that it's a grind and with longer shifts and less people on staff that he's multi tasking so much that the show suffers. At least in the days of carts you only had to worry about the show you were doing at the time. Then again, back then you needed a song like Stairway to Heaven or Freebird to go to the rest room. Now you can walk away during a sweep and get a snack or take care of business. The problem as I see it is that with many of those making the decisions the closest they come to the programming department is when they give a tour. If they did have knowledge, they would know that you can't treat an air shift like it was the swing shift at a manufacturing plant or a desk job. Pretty sad eh?
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Bob_Hudson
Guest
airpab said:
Even way back when I was at KHJ in 1979-80 we had union jocks and union audio engineers, but the jocks ran their own boards while on the air, an engineer ran the mixer and tape machines in the news production room and, I believe, in the general production room (this made for an expensive 60 second newscast twice each hour: they paid me to write and anchor the news, another person gathered audio clips for the news and while they did the interviews on the phone a second person took notes and an engineer ran the audio gear - three of them to put together the occasional 15 second audio cut that I could have just as easily done my myself. Awww, those were the days... (but I was always jealous because the jocks did three hour air shifts and I worked something like a seven hour day.
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BruceC
Guest
In answer to Cal Guy...the jocks ALL do their own boardwork. The days of jocks having engineers to just point to through the glass are long long gone....
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BruceC
Guest
actually "airpab" asked that question, but I answered it for Cal Guy 
To Bob_Hudson, you're right, at that point in time KHJ, like all of the other RKO's had been combo for several years. I believe KFRC went combo in the mid 70's. For the un-initiated "combo" means that the jock ran his own board. I worked Top 40 in the late 70's & early 80's and you are totally correct in that the jocks had a much shorter day than the news anchors and writers did. I believe that management’s thinking at that time was that the news only happened once or twice an hour and was a different animal than jocking an airshift. News departments had long hours then, and actually they still do.
airpab, it really depends on the station. Some will have one person designated to drop all the elements into the "control room" page on the hard drive and leave the actual segue editing to the jock, while others do it all for the deejay. There's no hard and fast rule on this, it really depends on the preference of the PD. I have a friend at CC and he tells me that the jocks at KBIG segue edit their own shows, but the sweepers and other program elements are placed in to Prophet by the programming department. I believe that KBIG's sister station may do it this way as well, but I'm not sure. KRTH is on Audio Vault and I've heard that they still manually punch up each element, but I have no contacts there so I can't tell you how it's run, sorry. By the way, engineers now days mostly handle repair and installation of equipment. The engineers 30 to 40 years ago fell into two types. Engineers that did maintenance & repair and board-ops who worked running the console for the talent. Most engineers in the majors were NABET members while the talent was signed up with AFTRA...
Whoa, Bruce must've just posted as I hit the send key. Thanks for the answer. By the way, my friend at CC tells me that the Disco Saturday Night show and the now defunct Boogie Nights show at KBIG use/used board-ops to mix with the talent pointing to cue the elements. However they weren't in separate rooms. Kind of like the way the old ABC stations did it in the late 70's.
airpab, it really depends on the station. Some will have one person designated to drop all the elements into the "control room" page on the hard drive and leave the actual segue editing to the jock, while others do it all for the deejay. There's no hard and fast rule on this, it really depends on the preference of the PD. I have a friend at CC and he tells me that the jocks at KBIG segue edit their own shows, but the sweepers and other program elements are placed in to Prophet by the programming department. I believe that KBIG's sister station may do it this way as well, but I'm not sure. KRTH is on Audio Vault and I've heard that they still manually punch up each element, but I have no contacts there so I can't tell you how it's run, sorry. By the way, engineers now days mostly handle repair and installation of equipment. The engineers 30 to 40 years ago fell into two types. Engineers that did maintenance & repair and board-ops who worked running the console for the talent. Most engineers in the majors were NABET members while the talent was signed up with AFTRA...
Whoa, Bruce must've just posted as I hit the send key. Thanks for the answer. By the way, my friend at CC tells me that the Disco Saturday Night show and the now defunct Boogie Nights show at KBIG use/used board-ops to mix with the talent pointing to cue the elements. However they weren't in separate rooms. Kind of like the way the old ABC stations did it in the late 70's.
calguy is right about KBIG. When I did Boogie Nights I sat across from the mixer. He handled the segues and cued me when to jump in and I cued him as to when to start the spots or :OO intro songs. I also handled recording and editing of the phoners. It was a fun show to do and I thought it was pretty cool to not have to worry about doing it all by myself.
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TVC1500
Guest
Wasn't a big deal after all music was put on cart. But it made a difference before,
when music was played with turntables. it gave the jock more time to work on content.
KHJ sounded great with engineers. With the rapid pace of the original Boss Radio and
those 2 1/2 minute songs you bet it kept KHJ consistent. Now it's all for shit. The only place it means
anything is Talk and Sports radio. Board operators and yes hand cues, close
to real radio. Outside morning drive, or the rare pm drive star, jocks are a joke. Sorry
it's true, wish it wasn't the case.
when music was played with turntables. it gave the jock more time to work on content.
KHJ sounded great with engineers. With the rapid pace of the original Boss Radio and
those 2 1/2 minute songs you bet it kept KHJ consistent. Now it's all for shit. The only place it means
anything is Talk and Sports radio. Board operators and yes hand cues, close
to real radio. Outside morning drive, or the rare pm drive star, jocks are a joke. Sorry
it's true, wish it wasn't the case.
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