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Shortest stint at a radio station and how many stations have you worked?

T

tlyle

Ok radio fans. I have 3 questions for you to discuss.

1. What is the shortest stint you worked at a station and why did you quit or get fired in such a short time?

2. Who has worked at the most stations?

3. This does not include voice tracking. How many stations have you worked where you had more than one live airshift in a day - meaning did you jock a shift at station A and then drive to station B to do the next one (you may have simply walked across the hall)? Any horror stories in working multiple station live airshifts?

Discuss among yourselves.
 
Shortest stint, about 2 minutes at WLDB in Atlantic City in 1970. I was hired because I had a big library of 60's rock and folk albums. The owner, Dorothy Bremmer warned me not to play any "druggie music." The first day, my first song was "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends," a Phil Ochs song about apathy. It has a line that goes, "Smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer, but a friend of ours got busted and they gave him 30 years..."

Dorothy burst into the studio and fired me for playing a "drug song." No explaining to her that it was a song about apathy. Getting fired in the middle of your first song might be a record, I never checked.
 
Ladytalk said:
Shortest stint, about 2 minutes at WLDB in Atlantic City in 1970. I was hired because I had a big library of 60's rock and folk albums. The owner, Dorothy Bremmer warned me not to play any "druggie music." The first day, my first song was "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends," a Phil Ochs song about apathy. It has a line that goes, "Smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer, but a friend of ours got busted and they gave him 30 years..."

Dorothy burst into the studio and fired me for playing a "drug song." No explaining to her that it was a song about apathy. Getting fired in the middle of your first song might be a record, I never checked.
Click to expand...

Thank Gawd for lunatic ownership in radio......the genesis of many a good story. Where DO these people get the money to buy radio stations?
 
A few years ago, I worked at GST as a board-op for about 3 months. I left on my own.

The guy who trained me was a bit of a jerk. He'd come in late (after my 8 or 9 hour overnight shift), THEN make his coffee, THEN make his breakfast, THEN...MAYBE he'd come in to the control room...THEN he'd have to find the right channel on TV to watch....THEN...MAYBE he'd take over the board.

The PD at the time (who shall remain nameless) wasn't much better. The PD called my jerk-trainer-guy (not me) on Easter Sunday (during must have been my 3rd or 4th shift) to tell him to send me home....because I played a GST sweeper when I shouldn't have. Classy.

I stuck it out for a couple more months, but the 9-hour Saturday/Sunday overnight shifts were starting to get old...quick.

Leaving GST was one of the better decisions I made in my brief radio career...without question.
 
I thought I might have a shot at the prize til I saw Ladytalk----that just may be a record. I went to WMDM in Lexington Park, MD---the $175 a week I was supposed to get was $145 and the $50/wk nightclub gig turned out to be $25 in a sleazy greasy join doing wet T-shirt contests. With heifers. B00bs down to the belly button. So I worked there one week and did the dumbest thing, gave two weeks notice. Worked 3 weeks total. Should've just never unpacked the '68 Beetle when the money got funny.
 
Let's see...KOBS, KOGT, KLVI, KQXY, KVLU,KSNS, and two in Southwest Louisiana that I can't remember the call letters to back in the early 80's. I've done a lot of onesy-twosey shifts at different stations when the jock wanted a day off or was sick, but I guess the shortest "official" job was KLVI. They just bought some new automation equipment that crapped out on day one and I worked two twelve hour shifts one weekend pretending I was the computer while they fixed it.
 
Oh, speaking to the lunatic fringe of station owners, at KOBS the owner would censor the songs he didn't like by taking a screwdriver to the record surface.
 
Shortest stint. About a year and a half at a station in Provo/Salt Lake City. Left for a bigger market (Boston)

Multiple Stations: On a Saturday did a 5 hour shift at the old WPCH 10-3, then worked the 6 or 7 to Midnight thing on WFOX when they were holding their annual oldies concert. Then the next day did a four hour 3-7 shift on Z-93.
 
Shortest stint: 5 months (That was a LOOOOONG 5 months!)

My favorite "censorship" moment was when I was told to pull a record because of the line, "Let's smoke a little wood". This was an Americana song, it was talking about playing the mandolin. The manager SWORE it was drug referrence! Meanwile the other station was Oldies, where every other song is loaded with drug referrences!

Results: I pulled the song for two weeks and quietly slipped it back in. She never noticed.
 
This was not for mee, but it is entertaining none the less:

Back before everyone had a computer on the desk, i got a call from the GM early one morning: "can you install one of the 386's on the new sales manager's desk?" "yep" I replied....it'll be done before he starts work at 8:30 I said. Hooked the thingup...check the machine out, and I was just getting out of his office as he walked in with his box of personal items. I introduced myself, said "welcome aboard" etc. I then went about my business.

No more than 10 minutes later, call from the GM, "take that 386 off of the new sales manager's desk". I thought about asking...but the tone of the GMs voice told me not to ask. I went back to the desk.....there's a steaming cup of coffee on his desk...its still hot. I start taking the PC down so I can move it. One of the sales guys comes by, he is laughing, and asks me what I thought of the new sales manager? He then tells me that the new sales damager decided that this was not the place for him, after his first meeting with the GM, and he had quit.

Less than 10 minutes for the new SM. His cup of coffee outlasted his stay.
 
tlyle said:
Ok radio fans. I have 3 questions for you to discuss.

1. What is the shortest stint you worked at a station and why did you quit or get fired in such a short time?

2. Who has worked at the most stations?

3. This does not include voice tracking. How many stations have you worked where you had more than one live airshift in a day - meaning did you jock a shift at station A and then drive to station B to do the next one (you may have simply walked across the hall)? Any horror stories in working multiple station live airshifts?

Discuss among yourselves.
Click to expand...

Alright...

1. Shortest stint: one 5-hour airshift, 7PM to Midnight. Hired that day... did the shift... thought better of it (hated the music)... called and quit the next morning. (1972 in Champaign, Illinois)

2. As a jock? 28, that I can remember. I'm counting AM/FM simulcasts as one--otherwise the total would be 32. No VT, and no fill-in gigs.

3. For six months I did 10A-3P at one station, then drove 40 miles east and did 7P-Mid at another. The stations were in different states, were not co-owned, and neither one ever knew--both stations were directional AMs and didn't come within 20 miles of overlapping. I used different on-air names at each, keeping a file card with my "name" & call-letters propped-up behind the mike at all times. Did I ever slip up? Well...
 
bnaivar said:
Oh, speaking to the lunatic fringe of station owners, at KOBS the owner would censor the songs he didn't like by taking a screwdriver to the record surface.
Click to expand...

Elmo Ellis would supposedly do that, too.
 
Not sure if this counts. Midday Jock is hired. The morining he is supposed to start he calls from a phone booth saying he decided not to take the job & is on the way out of town.
 
Blown out in less than a week - at WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware. PD: "For some reason I just can't understand you. Your voice doesn't go through the transmitter" Me: "I'll buy any equipment you think I should use..." No. Irony: I had worked there for about two years several years before that, tripled the ratings in my shift and was #1.

That was a LONG time ago - and I can't let it go. I'm still pissed!
 
bobwood said:
Blown out in less than a week - at WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware. PD: "For some reason I just can't understand you. Your voice doesn't go through the transmitter" Me: "I'll buy any equipment you think I should use..." No. Irony: I had worked there for about two years several years before that, tripled the ratings in my shift and was #1.

That was a LONG time ago - and I can't let it go. I'm still pissed!
Click to expand...

A friend had the same thing happen to him at the "legendary" Z104 in Frederick, Maryland (suburban DC) about 35 years ago. Had moved his family from Davenport, Iowa--he was at KSTT--and was told a week later "You don't sound like your aircheck." Came back into the building waving a pistol: "Where is that little SOB. I'm going to kill him!" Fortunately the little SOB was gone...

Hey, man, having WAMS on your resume is still a distinction all these years later. Great radio station back in the day!
 
1. Shortest stint-7 hour shift at WGST. The reason I quit was that I couldn't balance working another 20 hour a week job at another station plus student student plus a full load at college.

2. Who has worked at the most stations? 8 Stations 1- 3station group in Carrollton, 1 3-station group in Newnan, 1 GPB station, WGST

3. I have had 2 one airshifts in a day. One was from 12-1pm on WCOH in Newnan then walking two door down to WVCC for a 3 hour talk show shift on WVCC. No horror stories other then occasionally mixing up call signs.
 
Answer to #2, Late 70's: Mid to 6 on a country station. 10a-2p on another country station about 70 miles away from the other one. Both had the same slogan...I had to concentrate to not get the wrong call letters going into the mic.

Both had production as well, so they were long days. It really cut into my drinkin schedule.

I made up for that a few years later by working 5pm to sign off on a daytimer in S. GA...my december shift consisted of ready the 5pm news, playinga few spots, then running the sign off cart....oh yeah...lock the doors.
 
I once worked for 2 months for one company. My boss was ridiculous and prone to tantrums. Luckily, I got a better offer and quit. I'm sure it's not a record in the world of radio, but it's the shortest amount of time I've ever worked anywhere.
 
There was a time when I did afternoons at a mom & pop oldies station in the suburbs Mon-Sat and then worked as a board op at a big "3 call-letter" AM in Atlanta. That lasted for maybe three months. "Mom's" checks bounced too many times and I started full-time at the big station, but board opping didn't feed my ego, so I added a shift on the sister FM PT weekends. The FM shift would end after 6 hours and I would walk down the hall and do another 6 hours on the AM. Too much, too often. That arrangement lasted about two months and it was back to the AM only.
 
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