The Boss Using A Studio Hotline to chew out jocks while they're on the air

[Ur-A-Dawg]

Sometimes you might have to do this! "That's an FCC rule violation!" "Hey you forgot to play
that spot!"

Except for the 2 reasons listed above, use the office for the chew out after they get off the air.
I know of many cases where a jock has walked after being slapped by the boss while on the
job and letting the station go to dead air.

Any owner or boss who makes a habit out of doing this, should be prepared to do the show himself.

There is some good remote control software for bosses who need to take over the station from home.

 

[Timewarp]

Only someone with personal experience would write that. So Dawg, were you the jock
who walked off the job? Or were you the boss who got walked on?

 

[SheJay]

I'll go one better than that, but you might have to be a chick to pull this one off. Start crying. Just bawl your eyes out. After that, they would not hotline you if the transmitter was on fire. My bosses know better than to screw with me while on the air, so they just email me after I am done, and very gently.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Cry on the air or on the telephone?

May have to try that one ... since Monday, 3 "hotline" calls

 

[Ur-A-Dawg]

Throw that phone in the toilet blowl! Tell the boss you're really sorry. Someone spilled a
drink and the equipment won't work anymore. Sorry you missed his Hotline call.

If they have a no drinks allowed in the studio rule, try this one after you have smashed that
phone. I'm really sorry. I brought my dog to work and he was really bad, he likes to chew.

If they have a no dogs allowed rule, then you must be creative after you have ripped
out that damn phone!!!!!

 

[miketurner]

I'm really sorry. I brought my dog to work and he was really bad, he likes to chew.

If they have a no dogs allowed rule, then you must be creative after you have ripped
out that damn phone!!!!!

"Why's there a dog in the studio?!"

"Someone had to board-op as I caught up on production!"

 

[Kent]

Sometimes you might have to do this! "That's an FCC rule violation!" "Hey you forgot to play
that spot!"

Except for the 2 reasons listed above, use the office for the chew out after they get off the air.
I know of many cases where a jock has walked after being slapped by the boss while on the
job and letting the station go to dead air.

Any owner or boss who makes a habit out of doing this, should be prepared to do the show himself.

A few years ago, I was getting cussed at on the hotline by my PD because I didn't answer the request line. Why did I not answer the request line? Because I was the only one in the building, and one of our other stations was off-the-air. So, I was out of the studio letting AudioVault do its thing while I got our AM news/talk station back on-air. What was my solution to getting the boss to shut up and listen? He called during the song before the break, and I calmly potted up the phone and put his tirade on-the-air! He seemed to have forgotten that two of the four stations in the building, his being one of which, had the hotline wired into the Telos.

I also got chewed out on the hotline by one of the owners of the same group of stations during severe weather. He was mad that I didn't answer the request line or the hotline the first time he called. I explained that I didn't answer because I was on-the-air giving out weather information. I further explained that we had four stations and two people in the building. I told him that we didn't have enough bodies in the building, and I'd really appreciate it if he would come in and help. He quit complaining, told me I was doing a great job and suggested I keep doing what I was doing!

 

[Bongwater]

Sometimes you might have to do this! "That's an FCC rule violation!" "Hey you forgot to play
that spot!"

Except for the 2 reasons listed above, use the office for the chew out after they get off the air.
I know of many cases where a jock has walked after being slapped by the boss while on the
job and letting the station go to dead air.

Any owner or boss who makes a habit out of doing this, should be prepared to do the show himself.

A few years ago, I was getting cussed at on the hotline by my PD because I didn't answer the request line. Why did I not answer the request line? Because I was the only one in the building, and one of our other stations was off-the-air. So, I was out of the studio letting AudioVault do its thing while I got our AM news/talk station back on-air. What was my solution to getting the boss to shut up and listen? He called during the song before the break, and I calmly potted up the phone and put his tirade on-the-air! He seemed to have forgotten that two of the four stations in the building, his being one of which, had the hotline wired into the Telos.

I also got chewed out on the hotline by one of the owners of the same group of stations during severe weather. He was mad that I didn't answer the request line or the hotline the first time he called. I explained that I didn't answer because I was on-the-air giving out weather information. I further explained that we had four stations and two people in the building. I told him that we didn't have enough bodies in the building, and I'd really appreciate it if he would come in and help. He quit complaining, told me I was doing a great job and suggested I keep doing what I was doing!

LOL! Reminds me of an incident I had to deal with (sans happy ending)....

One night, during a major windstorm that was knocking out power everywhere, I, the ONLY one at this station was giving out updates and paying more attention to the studio lines for listener updates (tree in the road, utility poles falling down, etc.) Well, my PD decides to call the backline and rip me out for-ready? NOT STICKING TO ROTATION! And too much talk.

"Are you actually LISTENING? Do you actually KNOW what is going on right here, right now?" I asked

This PD was vacationing in sunny Cancun and didn't have the foggiest idea of what was happening at his station. So we approached the break and he kept arguing for his music clock in spite of the fact this was a storm of damn near Biblical proportions and right now, I needed help and the latest hit from Britney Spears wasn't on anybody's mind. It was more like how to get to shelter and higher ground. And I had my own home to worry about and if I was going to sacrifice any of it, it had better be worth it. Then he threatened to fire me if I didn't get back into regular format.

Bad move...very bad move.

And like you, I turned HIM loose on the airwaves (just exactly as he whined about how important that new Britney song was and made that threat). But I also quit right there. I can't work with incompetent idiots like him who think his wonderful Britney hit is more important than getting information out to people in need. And I had my own property to worry about and if I wasn't going to get any support from the people I work for, then f--- 'em all.

The PD was fired upon return from his vacation....

 

[shortbaldguy2007]

WOW, a radio Program Director that could afford to vacation in Cancun!!!!!!! Must have been a major market!

 

[MikeStandardsFromIndiana]

If I was on the air and there was a major blizzard, Tornado, Hurricane or anything like that. I say f*** format and the new Alicia Keys hit for something that could be potentially dangerous. Screw what the owner/boss wants. If he wants the New Panic at the disco hit on his station he can make his way through the tornado to get to the studio

 

[bigtime]

There was an Indy CHR p.d. a few years ago who was given the nickname "Little Hitler" due to his regular screaming hotline calls. He lasted less than a year at the station.

 

[shortbaldguy2007]

My first radio job was for an owner that I swear never slept. Even on overnights, we'd get a hotline call if something went wrong. This was back in the days of large reels and cart carousels, and the only "announcing" we did was pre-recording the weather forecast on a cart and popping it into the triple deck. I managed 10 months for this guy before I walked out after he called me into his office to chew me out for something and he actually threw a cassette at my head. This same guy called me at home and chewed me out for not coming in to do some "optional" training because I was going to the hospital to see my mother who was dying of leukemia.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

The following story happened to a friend of mine while jocking at a CHR station in a certain Top Five market, circa 1977. The jock and PD shall remain nameless; you'd probably recognize both names...

One night during my friend's shift (10P - 2A), the station's office line lit up.

The jock picked it up. Heard a click as the caller hung up.

A few moments later, the office line lit up again.

The jock picked it up. Again, a click.

Thirty seconds later it lit up again.

He picked it up. Click.

About a minute later the hot line lit up.

It was the PD.

"The office line is not to be answered after hours," he said. "If you answer it again, you may consider yourself out of a job."

The PD hung up.

Moments later, the office line lit up... ;D

 

[XRQKFM]

And I thought I worked for the only wack job on the planet! The owner of a Reno Nv. radio station would call nightly from his Encino california home and yell and scream for hours at a time, finally he became the best entertainment on Reno radio. I had no choice! He would not let me put him on hold to do the station ID; We had to call the transmitter Sine System to switch to the studio board to ID the station then back. He even went so far to tell me to not ID the station anymore. I put him on hold anyway made the switch; ID'ed the station and potted him up! at the top of the next hour I just included the ID in the conversation, it went like this "You know boss this is KX** Reno" and let him rant for another hour.

Steve
www.radiobrandy.com

 

[words2you]

Sounds like a lot of radio management could use a good course in HRM 101.

 

[radiorob2.0]

I worked at a station with a GM that was phone crazy. Our station had a transmitter site manned around the clock (FM automation was located at the site). When the new transmitter building was constructed the GM had a phone installed in the bathroom next to the toilet so there was one less reason not to answer the phone.

He went totally nuts a year later as one of the first cell phone customer (Our company brought cell service in the area back in 1986). From there on out it was "hot line hell" as every little thing we did that he did not approve was vented with obscenities and the occasional "do it again and your ass is out of here!". The air staff became a nervous wreck and dreaded seeing the light flash. Finally, the Operation Manager and Program Director carefully suggested to the GM that if he heard something wrong to call them instead and that seemed to work.

A funny side note, in the mist of the GM's "I have a cell phone and I'm going to yell at you" phase he got owned by a transmitter engineer. He was on a trip with employees and listening to our automated FM. The GM heard something that he thought was out of place and called the transmitter site. The "hard headed I'm right and that's all there is to it" transmitter engineer answered the phone. The GM conveyed his complaint and the engineer responded, "Are you sure you're listening to the right radio station?". The GM retorted, "I sign your God**** paycheck every week Mot***f***er; what do you think?" The engineer proceeded to lecture to the GM about the rotation pattern of the programming service. The GM hung up on him and threatened to fire him and/or kick his ass when he got home, neither happened. The rest of the staff in the van held back laughter the rest of the trip, several of which had been at the other end of the GM's phone fury.

 

[dave johnson]

I have one better.....
I was working for a Southern Gospel station in North Central Kentucky. We did a request show at night. One particular night, I couldn't take requests because the owner's son got pissed off doing afternoon drive that day and slammed the phone and shattered it. That night, the owner's wife was in the building and noticed that there were no phone calls being played that night. I was giving a weather update..and she stormed in the studio and asked this question..."Am I paying you to be a lazy ass? I want to hear PHONE CALLS!!!!" while my mic was open!!!! When I reminded her that I was doing the weather when she stormed in and her question rang out over the air....she turned very red. Then I told her to look at the phone. She asked who did it? I said her son. She told me that if anyone else did that, they would be fired on the spot. Then I asked, "Then why not your son?"....She stormed off and I had a new telephone in the studio in an hour.....I left the station three months later. *In four part harmony we trust*

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I had a GM who used to drunk-call me on the hotline. You know, those long, rambling, slurry, embarrassing calls that some people get the urge to make as they get toastier? Well, she'd hired me to do her afternoon drive shift, and when she left the station around 4:30pm I'd pray that each day would be a day that I could get through the 5pm (heavily-traffic-and feature-intensive) hour without the hotline starting up. She'd call during the shift and want to ramble from topic to topic, becoming more slurred and incoherent as she poured down her drinks. I learned to baby her pretty well, because as long as she was drunk-calling me, it meant I was one of her "favorites." Oh, joy. Then, one evening as I got home and started making the kids their dinner, the phone rang. Yeah. She started drunk-hotlining me at home, too. It wasn't long afterwards that I packed up and took another job in a different state. No forwarding number.

 

[Osama]

Back in 1980, I was quite new to the business and was working weekend overnights at a major New England rock station, that still exists. They hired a new PD from a competitor who had previously only been a morning show jock. He had a hotline/telephone installed in the studio that would literally RING very loudly. Back in those days, we were required to "rip and read' the news overnight, apparently to fulfill an FCC requirement. This PD would RING the telephone at 3AM, and than say "What the fxxk is going on there?" if he heard even a simple mispronunciation in the "newscast", or the slightest technical glitch of any kind. Keep in mind that this was an 18-24 year old male AOR station, with an audience that had no interest in the news, particularly at those hours and the station honored their commitment to broadcast the news by burying it overnight! Well...all these years later, I am still in the business and that PD is a cab dispatcher, I understand....

 

[halloaaryn]

If I was on the air and there was a major blizzard, Tornado, Hurricane or anything like that. I say f*** format and the new Alicia Keys hit for something that could be potentially dangerous. Screw what the owner/boss wants. If he wants the New Panic at the disco hit on his station he can make his way through the tornado to get to the studio

EXACTLY. PD's tend to forget that the stations are using the PUBLIC AIRWAVES and that during ANY catastrophe their #1 job should be to serve the PUBLICs needs, not play some stupid song that was just played two hours ago.