Did any of you ever work for a station in which the manager would not permit you to say goodbye to your listeners on the air? I'm assuming this is in situations in which you were voluntarily leaving, maybe for a better opportunity, and you knew you were leaving. I am not referring to situations in which there was bad blood, or you were fired.
At the only station in west Tennessee where I ever worked full time, I got a call about the third week I was working my day shift, asking about the woman I had replaced. (I suppose this caller probably thought she had been on vacation up to that time.) I simply told the caller that she had moved on to bigger and better opportunities. That seemed to satisfy the caller, who told me that I, too, would probably move on to bigger and better things, but that never really happened.
The morning guy at that station told me that he, too, had gotten a call about this same woman, saying they had heard her "sister" on another station. I don't know if she had a sister or not, but it actually was her that he had heard on that station. She was just using her real first name, rather than the name she had used with us.
When I left that station, I left the air about three days before I left the station, but that was because they wanted to break in my replacement. I knew him from when we had taken broadcasting courses together in college, and we had even worked on projects together for that class, so I had no problem with him going ahead and taking over for me.
Whenever anyone left that station, the manager not only wanted them to leave without saying goodbye, but he wanted to make sure that every promo they ever recorded was axed. This was usually not a problem, considering that such promos usually became obsolete anyway once the person left the station. Since I was the production director of that station, I was relieved that the manager did not require me to recut all the spots done by the departed individual. But usually over time, he would require me to recut them anyway. At least I didn't have to do it all at once.
At one point, a public-affairs program produced by our former news director aired about two months after she left our station. I told the PD the next day about hearing that, and he cringed when I told him. I'm not sure if the manager ever heard it or not.
I don't understand why such a strict policy against saying goodbye, because it creates confusion in the minds of listeners when someone leaves without any explanation, as I said above. However, other listeners probably never cared one way or the other, and may have never even noticed when one announcer left the station, and another one arrived to take his place. (Again, I understand not allowing disgruntled announcers to say goodbye, but they were usually removed from the air before they ever had a chance to do or say anything that would damage a station's reputation, or get them shut down by the FCC!
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At the only station in west Tennessee where I ever worked full time, I got a call about the third week I was working my day shift, asking about the woman I had replaced. (I suppose this caller probably thought she had been on vacation up to that time.) I simply told the caller that she had moved on to bigger and better opportunities. That seemed to satisfy the caller, who told me that I, too, would probably move on to bigger and better things, but that never really happened.
The morning guy at that station told me that he, too, had gotten a call about this same woman, saying they had heard her "sister" on another station. I don't know if she had a sister or not, but it actually was her that he had heard on that station. She was just using her real first name, rather than the name she had used with us.
When I left that station, I left the air about three days before I left the station, but that was because they wanted to break in my replacement. I knew him from when we had taken broadcasting courses together in college, and we had even worked on projects together for that class, so I had no problem with him going ahead and taking over for me.
Whenever anyone left that station, the manager not only wanted them to leave without saying goodbye, but he wanted to make sure that every promo they ever recorded was axed. This was usually not a problem, considering that such promos usually became obsolete anyway once the person left the station. Since I was the production director of that station, I was relieved that the manager did not require me to recut all the spots done by the departed individual. But usually over time, he would require me to recut them anyway. At least I didn't have to do it all at once.
At one point, a public-affairs program produced by our former news director aired about two months after she left our station. I told the PD the next day about hearing that, and he cringed when I told him. I'm not sure if the manager ever heard it or not.
I don't understand why such a strict policy against saying goodbye, because it creates confusion in the minds of listeners when someone leaves without any explanation, as I said above. However, other listeners probably never cared one way or the other, and may have never even noticed when one announcer left the station, and another one arrived to take his place. (Again, I understand not allowing disgruntled announcers to say goodbye, but they were usually removed from the air before they ever had a chance to do or say anything that would damage a station's reputation, or get them shut down by the FCC!
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