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Question about noncompetes

While y'all in the SEC beat each other up, the Beast of the East has three cupcakes and a date in Miami. Texas Tech won't likely survive the Big XII without a loss, either, so it's probably State Penn & either the Gators or Okies for the title. Hope it's the Gates. Can't stand to hear "Boomer Sooner" one more f***ing time.

Poledo is right, of course, about the prudence of reading/negotiating/amending a non-compete before signing one. What may not be apparent, though--particularly on the air-talent side--is that radio has boiled down to an industry with very few jobs and too many qualified employees. So the supply/demand ratio is tilted heavily toward the employer--to a point where the terms of employment are often "take it or leave it." Yes, hundreds (or thousands) of people have replied with "Screw you" (a direct quote from Tibbs, I believe) but others have just gritted their teeth and elected to stay in radio.

As I had mentioned before, it is very common to have non-compete agreements go completely unmentioned until all other employment terms have been agreed upon (unscrupulous bastards) and then sprung on the new employee along with the W-4 & insurance application, et cetera. So the $25,000-a-year 28-year old jock who just drove the U-Haul down to Pensacola from Dubuque with his young wife and baby ain't exactly in a great negotiating position. Again, it's rotten, but it happens all the time.

Is every radio CEO or GM an A-hole? No. But we seem to have more than our share.

Calling on a prospective advertiser after hearing their spot on a competing station is no more illegal or immoral than asking to bid on a construction job for a new project you read about in the newspaper. Public information. (And, again, we all share advertising clients. Big advertisers will buy radio time from 3-4-5-6 radio stations + newspaper(s) + all the TV stations + cable + websites + matchbooks & swizzle sticks. So clients are not proprietary in the media biz).
 
The problem is that most radio folks looking for a job have little bargaining power to avoid a non-compete, nor the resources to fight one and Big Radio knows it. As a result, hungry radio people sign them and never fight them, thus non-enforceable contacts are enforced..
 
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