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Someone seems frustrated!

Don't Call Us We'll Call You, by Sugarloaf comes to mind once again.

While some of the great ones are on the beach, a lot of the junk ones are doing impersonations of perceived audiences while creating images of Oprah Winfrey, stealing and impersonating copyright international syndicated programming and eating moldy crumbs leftover from other jocks another time in history; at the same time they are spending money on Internet advertising for something at which they will never succeed. They are small potatoes, being encouraged to continue being small potatoes under the guise of moving ahead by the very people they lie to, steal from and cheat on. The chumps, male and female alike, are the ones who are frustrated. They missed the good times and got educated in the wrong field at the wrong time, while claiming to be in the right place at the wrong time.

Not all of the greats are on the beach. There is a deadbeat here and there mixed in with them, hiding under the boardwalk.

Don't lose heart.
 
I think a lot of people are coping with the fact that radio is a young man's business.

If you're lucky, and you build an audience, and you have a lot of industry contacts, it doesn't have to end when the regular job with benefits ends. There are lots of ways to reach your audience and make money doing it if you're creative, have a little technical knowledge, a few bucks saved up for the equipment, and a lot of moxy. A WHOLE LOT of moxy.

There are a lot of options in terms of podcasts and internet radio. Go that route, and you don't have to complain about the boss telling you what to say or play. At the end of the day, it's their party. You just get to occupy the space for the time being. You have to make the most of it while you can. Then it's time to move on. Nothing is forever. The awards and the accomplishments are yours to keep. They can't take them away from you. But the mic belongs to them. Until you buy your own.
 
Yeah. "Until you buy your own." And in that frankly unlikely event: be sure it's REALLY what you want. Never has the old saw "be careful what you wish for" been truer.

Don't get me wrong: 24 years ago I looked around at the radio industry and said "well, if I HAVE to work for an a$$hole, it might as well be me." I've never regretted it...no matter what has happened, or not happened.

But there is a price for being in charge of your own destiny. To be brutally honest ownership (I'm talking about an actual live radio station here, not a podcast) is not only not for everyone - I think really relatively few on-air types I've known over more than 4 decades in radio, would have the energy or dedication (not to say stubbornness) to do this successfully. It's a LOT of work. Definitely "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation.

It has been said that people who are truly excellent at what they do are a little bit obsessed. I would say that's a prerequisite to success in ownership.
 
Lee Rust said:
Obsessed. Crazy. A little bit odd.

Now more than ever.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that, but there is a "pride of ownership" that certainly prevails. That can border-line on "crazy."

One thing that's for sure is it really is a lot of work as Savage has pointed out. For instance, last night we were just locking the doors when the next to the last guy to leave (I’m the last) comes back from his car to say "I think we are off the air." We were. A computer glitch had hit. We had backups, so all the audience noticed was a couple of minutes of dead air, but it was a hell of a time to have it: The end of drive time before a long holiday weekend.

Everything is fixed now, but I spent well into the wee hours last night and all of today getting things back to normal. That was not how I planned to spend my weekend.

Maybe it isn’t “crazy.” It might be “stupid.” Be careful what you ask for…. :D
 
I cut grass yesterday, 2 acers, yes it was a beautiful day in SC, great weather and the grass was getting a foot high in places. About five minutes before I finished a friend of mine called and said lets move some of that equiment that's been sitting and waiting, I said ok let me shower up. On my way out the door another station called said one of their receivers was out on satellite feed for their 8:00 show, told them I would look at it soon as I moved some equiment. Went and took care of equiment move left and went over to other station checked satellite receiver found problem and fixed it. On my way back to WLRE Roger calls and tells me the timer for our country music show that comes on at 8:00, it's pre taped won't set computer glitch. I told him I was about 15 minutes away, gee it's 13 minutes till 8:00, hum go a little faster. Get to station run in like a mad man manually set up play list for show, load intro, first segment, grant announcements, promo, second segment, then there is a knock at the door. I went to check to see who was at the door, it was granter who was suppose to record a segment Monday afternoon, they said they would be out of town and could they do it now, in the back of my mind I said gee must not have a phone, by now I was exhausted but looked at them with a smile and said sure no problem come on in. Roger had left so I get them started on the recording, run back and load more grant anouncements and segments on the saturday night show which is still in manual, go back check on them recording give advice and corrections, my wife brings in chinese take out, I eat while recording and finish setting up saturday night show. I wouldn't trade this for anything, crazy, probly and wish I could afford to hire some help but right now that's just out of the question, by the way I finished by 11:00.
 
Jeez Gatekeeper - whaddya, working "half-days" now? ;) :D

Happy, emergency-free Fourth to all! (Main TX blew control fuse associated with step-start relay 5:45am today. Enjoyed DD coffee from the drive through. Let's hope no further fireworks!)
 
Now you're getting me excited. As I begin preparations to build out my little TV station and accompanying translator, I suspected that I might not have a life beyond it. Now you're saying that I'm guaranteed not to have a life.

One thing that gets me a little nervous, and something that any station owner deals with, radio or TV, are the labyrinth of FCC rules. EEOC & ownership filings, public inspection files, record keeping on localism issues, political campaign avails sold, EAS tests--it just never seems to end. Make a slip up and the FCC nails you with a fine or two (or three). Looks like I may need to retain a communications attorney.

It's this kind of stuff that could get me "frustrated." Of course, equipment shutting down unexpectedly or a breakdown in the signal path to the TX would be a close second.

c5
 
Absolutely get a communications attorney, one who is licensed to practice both your state and the District of Columbia.

Yes it's frustrating, but it's a different kind of frustration. Instead of a big corporation, you're dealing with big government. I've always said that the US government is way bigger and way more impersonal and more bureaucratic than any big radio company I've ever worked for. And while we all have the ability to work for smaller companies, none of us has the option to bypass the federal government.
 
I have to agree with "Big A" on this. A great deal of your time will be occupied with paperwork and filings that are essentially just Federally mandated "busy work."

That isn't a problem that is exclusive to broadcasting though. Just about any successful business spends a lot of time dealing with bureaucracy. The fact that broadcast facilities are Federally licensed, just complicates the issue.
 
That's not the most frustrating part, though. The most frustrating part comes after an 18 hour day, when someone who has never filled out a government form criticizes you for not doing enough community service, or enough live & local, or playing their favorite song. Everyone hates a critic, but now everyone IS one. They were easier to ignore when they wrote a newspaper column.
 
Once again, d'accord: Holiday weekend: bad relay screws up morning pattern change, necessitating trip to station (after you've given the staff the day off to enjoy with their families.)

Last night - yet another excruciating, hair-pulling stroll through the FCC's Byzantine e-filing web site for a two-hour cut-and-try in filing the FCC Form 323 Ownership Report, due Thursday.

We could just write a one-page, two-sentence letter to the FCC, explaining that we are owned by me (90%) and another guy (10%.) But: NOOOOOO! A massive online form must be waded through. And a FLOW CHART (!) explaining in pdf form how our ownership "structure" operates!

My flow chart should show me mowing the 14-acre transmitter field....replacing tiny little fried 24gg wiring 3 inches from the floor....listening to a dentist client telling me the station would be number one if we just played a polka or two every hour....if "we could just get Stephanie Miller a lot more people would listen"......trapping woodchucks that munch on co-ax....etc., etc.....

Radio! GOTTA love it!
 
Savage said:
We could just write a one-page, two-sentence letter to the FCC, explaining that we are owned by me (90%) and another guy (10%.) But: NOOOOOO! A massive online form must be waded through. And a FLOW CHART (!) explaining in pdf form how our ownership "structure" operates!
Click to expand...

Funny..wonder if Copps has ever seen that form. He's the guy who's been on the one-man campaign to outlaw corporate ownership. They say one thing, but their forms support another. They talk about increasing community involvement in broadcasting, but you need a corporate lawyer to handle their paperwork.
 
You want frustration try and get funding to by an AM radio station, gee. Are you buying it because everyone is going to listen to it? really? No it's because the FCC rules will then allow you more power and height on that FM translator. Try explaining this to a bank or lending institution, it all sounds good until they hear the words AM. Then you get a look like your from mars and asked an AM station? Do they still have those? Why would you want one? Now try an explain the FCC rules to someone who doesn't have a clue and simply tells you well change the rules. And this doesn't even begain to cover all the rules ie:hoops you have to go thru to even get this far and then the rules you have to follow before you can get a working station much less make a penny. Frustration? you bet.
 
Savage said:
We could just write a one-page, two-sentence letter to the FCC, explaining that we are owned by me (90%) and another guy (10%.) But: NOOOOOO! A massive online form must be waded through. And a FLOW CHART (!) explaining in pdf form how our ownership "structure" operates!
Click to expand...

That Flow Chart was really "special." It made me want to get out the Crayolas, but it had to be done electronically which is a whole new adventure as well as a time eater.

It makes me wonder whom we are doing this for? Are people so ignorant that they can't figure out a simple sentence like "I own 100% of the station?" Instead, I have to draw a picture. That's real progress.
 
I've tried to watch the FCC's video on how to fill out Form 323 but the banter among D.C. bureaucrats seems to have a hypnotic effect on me and I zone out, missing the actual how-to part of it. :D

Too bad they don't have a Form 323 EZ for sole proprietors and partnerships.

I'm thinking that, at some point, I will get into the "rhythm" of filling out the required FCC paperwork and do it in clockwork fashion. I still can't imagine how a station can miss, in some cases by months, a deadline for license renewal.

I will take your advice, Chuck and Big A and get an attorney. So far I've been fortunate not to get things like formal or informal objections but I'm sure, down the road, I'll get stuck with something requiring a lawyer.

If nothing else, I'll need one when I collapse from sheer exhaustion and economic ruin and have to sell my station. C5
 
I don't know if you're doing this as a non-profit, but when we started our NCE, we put our attorney on the Board of Trustees, and he did a lot of our work pro bono.
 
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