Mistreatment and X-mas Bonuses

[The Former Mac Austin]

Radio is supposed to be fun???

Dang, that may come as a shock to most people...

Actually, with everything as automated as it is, you would think that jocks would have the ability to be more creative. No more pulling carts, cueing up tracks, etc. All they have to do is turn on the mic.

However, it seems that the opposite effect has come about - jocks are LAZY and get paid the same whether they are original or whether they just sit and read cards and liners while watching their favorite TV shows between talk breaks.

I taught at CSB for a few years, and the passion some of the students exhibited amazed me. My only advice to them was to not lose that passion once they were behind the mic, because I had seen it happen way too often.

I miss the old days... :'(

 

[masterg]

Actually, with everything as automated as it is, you would think that jocks would have the ability to be more creative. No more pulling carts, cueing up tracks, etc. All they have to do is turn on the mic.

Very interesting observation. It got me to wondering if automation isn't the culprit, if the less a jock has to do, the less he/she does. Disc jockeys invented the term multi-tasking, long before it found its way into our vocabulary. Remember ALL the things you were doing at the same time while you jocked? Picking music, cueing records, pulling carts, detailed filling in of logs, x-mitter readings, working the phones, running contests, recording callers while a record spun and then cueing the tape. And often enough, you did half these things while your mic was open and you were trying to be bright, cheerful, and at least somewhat entertaining. And don't forget that more than a few of us were guzzling coffee and smoking big while we were in the middle of all this.

My passion ebbed and flowed over the years; when I was looking for that big gig, my passion could be white-hot. If I wasn't in the hunt for a job, I could spend most of an airshift reading newspapers, and I often did.

 

[ElectricNoodle]

I taught at CSB for a few years, and the passion some of the students exhibited amazed me. My only advice to them was to not lose that passion once they were behind the mic, because I had seen it happen way too often.

I remember those 'prep sheets'! I used to get them on and off myself.

But in reference to Mac's post, I would believe you would help to try keeping the spark alive in the students. But it would be like a person going to auto mechanic school because they love working on cars then end up getting a job on a Ford assembly line. It would get pretty boring real fast. I believe that's how the business has evolved. But I do agree that if you have the talent, and haven't had the spark whipped out of you yet, you could throw in a few quick one-liners every so often. But with today's radio product and listening habits would anyone really notice?

Sad....

 

[The Former Mac Austin]

I agree with both masterg and ElectricNoodle...

One of the reasons I stopped teaching was the fact that I could no longer lie to these bright eyed kids who thought they were going to make it big in broadcasting. Computer automation and ownership rules have cut the number of jobs to very few, so the chances of getting a spot on-air is very thin. Add in the fact that most stations are looking for lackeys (low pay and just enough talent to keep the signal on the air) and you get some very discouraged folks in a very short time period.

I just couldn't put them through it anymore, nor could I tell them with a straight face that a career was waiting for them outside the CSB walls.

So, I picked up and left, just as I had done with the radio business. I still keep my hands in both to an extent, but for now I am happy to just be who I am, doing what I do, and living like I want to live. But to all of my bretheren who are still in the biz, let me say that you have my utmost respect for continuing to keep on keepin' on.

 

[masterg]

Although out of radio for a number of years, I always thought of it as a cruel mistress - she brought unrestrained joy at times, but could smash your dreams into little bits the next second. Over the years, I came within an inch of several "big gigs" but never scored. Why? Long story, but I am to this today convinced I had a bad reference rattling around out there, someone who had a hard** for me and made it known to anyone who asked. Sadly, this person's crappy opinion of me(personally, not professionally)was entirely predicated on a completely false assumption.

In all fairness, I have to say that I got my first radio job in the '70s, a time when every single town in America had at least one radio station. And that one station had a full-time staff, real bodies, actual human beings who drew a salary, benefits, were part of the operation. You might this hard to believe, but it is seasonally relative - my second radio job took me to Williamsport a few months before Christmas. By Thanksgiving, I was hearing everyone buzzing about "the bonus," the Christmas bonus. My guess is that there was no way in hell one would come my way, I'd just shown up. The week before Christmas, I did indeed get a bonus. Still, to this very day, I am amazed. It was two weeks' salary, a check for two weeks' salary. This small station, in a small town, gave its employees a minimum of two weeks' salary each and ever year. Some employees were given up to a month's salary. Sorry for the long story, but good God, are those days gone forever or what?

 

[Nokmo True]

A two weeks salary bonus? Wow, I wish. I've been at this for quite a while and frankly I don't think I've ever opened a bonus check and thought anything except, "Jeez, can they spare it?" I know, a bonus is not a requirement and anything is better than nothing. But you see the logs, you know the spot load, you have a pretty good idea if not an exact one what the rates are. "Can they spare it" is the nicest thing I might have said.

 

[emo474]

Speaking of a Christmas bonus and "jez, can you spare it".... The station I worked at gave out a $100 gift certificate to Bartikowski Jewlers to each employee.. The PD, Morning Drive Jock, Newsman, everyone... Hey, we took them and thought "THIS IS GREAT!"... Only years later did I learn, while talking to the Sales Manager that he got a trip to Disney with his family and a new corvette. I thought he bought/paid for these items himself. The thing is, the disparity between the hard working staff who get a small gift and the top one or two employees who get unbelievable perks is astounding. I'm out of the business now, and the company I work for gives no bonus to employees.. no Turkey's or gift certificates at Thanksgiving, NOTHING for Christmas. But the CEO of the company typicall averages an 18 million dollar annual bonus (even in bad years). When times are rough, were all told we have to put a nose to the grindstone and work harder to achieve our goals. But when the tide turns, we never see a "bonus", let alone and gifts at the Holidays.

 

[masterg]

True story - being arrogant and cocky in my early 20s, I turned down my very first raise in radio. My PD proudly announced he'd gotten me a five-dollar a week raise, whereupon I turned to him and said, "If that's all you've got, you need it more than me, keep it." He thought I was kidding. I wasn't. Take a a whopping five bucks, divide it by a six-day week, and you end up with 83 cents more per day. After taxes, not even enough to buy a large coffee. Getting into radio cost me money; I lost fifty bucks a week going from loading dock to studio. And it would take two jobs and three years to get me that fifty bucks back. Nuts? Yeah, maybe so.

 

[warmland]

True story - being arrogant and cocky in my early 20s, I turned down my very first raise in radio. My PD proudly announced he'd gotten me a five-dollar a week raise, whereupon I turned to him and said, "If that's all you've got, you need it more than me, keep it." He thought I was kidding. I wasn't. Take a a whopping five bucks, divide it by a six-day week, and you end up with 83 cents more per day. After taxes, not even enough to buy a large coffee. Getting into radio cost me money; I lost fifty bucks a week going from loading dock to studio. And it would take two jobs and three years to get me that fifty bucks back. Nuts? Yeah, maybe so.

One of the worst Christmas bonus of all time was a jar of Smuckers given out by a radio station owned here by a certain newspaper. I don't want to mention any company names, but I'm sure you all know who they are.

 

[ElectricNoodle]

...a jar of Smuckers given out by a radio station owned here by a certain newspaper...

Was it 'Razelberry Dressing' Smuckers by chance? Poor Tiny Tim. He's now working the drive thru window at Top Dog just to pay the bills.... And Billy 'Bah Humbug' Scrooge is staying all cozy in his third floor lair plotting how he can get the ones left behind to pay him to work there...

 

[yonkstur]

and the company I work for gives no bonus to employees.. no Turkey's or gift certificates at Thanksgiving, NOTHING for Christmas. But the CEO of the company typicall averages an 18 million dollar annual bonus (even in bad years).

Yeah, the American workplace is a joke these days. CEO's make millions while the true backbone of a company gets their health care costs cut, more work with less pay and higher goals to meet. But the overpaid, scatter brained CEO sends you an e mail and tells you how much they appreciate you by providing pizza in the breakroom. Great! Send it to the Indians you hired to outsource half of your workforce and be sure to load plenty of hamburger on it.
In my entire time in private industry, I have never, ever recieved a monetary bonus. A friend of mine who barely got through high school and has had manufacturing jobs all his life gets a yearly bonus. There is a special place in hell for these CEOs (Oh look!! m a CEO and I'm a mom, gee wizz how do I do it!!!!!!!!!?????? Aren't I great????????? Oh I'm soooooooo awseome!!!) that have no regard for workers in America today.
When I was in broadcasting, Shamrock gave you 4 options, a bottle of Johnny Walker, a bottle of wine, Shamrock shot glasses or cheese sampling. You had to pick one. I was grateful for even that, I usually picked the Johnny Walker. At Citadel, they had an outside Christmas party, then right before Christmas they had a whole day party that was pretty nice. One year the GM gave us WARM hoodies as a gift. Nice gesture. At least Shamrock and Citadel made the effort, these people today don't even try.
The funniest bonus story I heard was in the early seventies when a radio station gave its employees a free???? ham for Christmas as a bonus. Then two weeks later, deducted the cost of the ham out of the next check.
Since Robert P. Casey Junior is signing my checks this year, I don't expect a bonus which is just as well. Don't want my family passing out from the shock.

Yonkstur