And improving response times for rare and occasional tech incidents will not do that, either.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
The Jet has no engineering department?
- Thread starter Cobra14
- Start date
Radio, as an industry, has suffered a loss of over 60% of its inflation adjusted revenues since 2000. It is natural that we take advantage of technology to have people do multiple tasks and that we look for ways of doing everything we do at the lowest cost possible.
“Two bankruptcies, two different solutions and outcomes. And in neither case were they checking the response time to get a station back on the air in the event of a failure”
They want their stations on the air. And they likely have monitoring from somewhere keeping track of response times. In businesses I’ve been in they had a SLA agreement and system that kept tabs on individuals and their response times to issues. It was micro managed and viewed weekly. There’s a human element that’s being overlooked when you’re separated from the daily work experience.
“You seem to think that the administrators of a reorganization bankruptcy are paying attention to whether the EAS test is run or whether the auxiliary transmitter is "air ready".
They’ll pay attention if the EAS tests don’t run and result in those not airing correctly when the FCC issues a fine for it. Engineering keeps this system functional.
The AUX transmitter should be ready and functional as part of a good operation so the clients can be assured they get what theyre paying for and not settling for “make good” Also so the poor person in charge of keeping it all on the air can sleep at night . Zzzzzzz.
They want their stations on the air. And they likely have monitoring from somewhere keeping track of response times. In businesses I’ve been in they had a SLA agreement and system that kept tabs on individuals and their response times to issues. It was micro managed and viewed weekly. There’s a human element that’s being overlooked when you’re separated from the daily work experience.
“You seem to think that the administrators of a reorganization bankruptcy are paying attention to whether the EAS test is run or whether the auxiliary transmitter is "air ready".
They’ll pay attention if the EAS tests don’t run and result in those not airing correctly when the FCC issues a fine for it. Engineering keeps this system functional.
The AUX transmitter should be ready and functional as part of a good operation so the clients can be assured they get what theyre paying for and not settling for “make good” Also so the poor person in charge of keeping it all on the air can sleep at night . Zzzzzzz.
“Radio, as an industry, has suffered a loss of over 60% of its inflation adjusted revenues since 2000. It is natural that we take advantage of technology to have people do multiple tasks and that we look for ways of doing everything we do at the lowest cost possible.”
See comment about Vice Presidents etc. Many of these individuals make more money than they ought to. 6 -7 -8 figures a year. Meanwhile cutting expenses by firing multiple 25-60k a year employees. Dumb.
See comment about Vice Presidents etc. Many of these individuals make more money than they ought to. 6 -7 -8 figures a year. Meanwhile cutting expenses by firing multiple 25-60k a year employees. Dumb.
As memory serves, you were laid off from radio though, weren't you?I’ve never been fired in radio.
Please explain what you’re referring to here.
It’s stimulating for all. Well worth it.
Nobody forces them to work there. I know lots of people who work for iHeart all across the country. When they get dropped from one station, they move somewhere else and work for them again. Nobody I know has ever complained about too much work or anything else. Some of my friends specifically chose to work there because of the opportunities they get of doing VT for other markets. They make good money, with very good health care and retirement benefits. They can't get that by posting comments on a message board.
You, having been laid off from a radio station/company.
I thoroughly doubt that. Nobody pays to have monitoring done to catch off-air incidents of a station group they are invested in.
But occasional off-air incidents are evaluated on the cost to prevent vs. the potential for loss. That is why a station in NYC or LA may have a fully equipped auxiliary transmitter site, but one in Utica or Fresno will not.
And such incidents are so rare that they will simply have an internal set of checks and balances, and also in most states pay for the independent broadcaster association "trial inspection" to see that all is done right.
A "make good" is just as good as the original scheduled spot. A good example is on the news channels like MSNBC, CNN and Fox where breaking news pre-empts all spots to allow non-stop coverage. It's a normal and accepted practice in the business of broadcasting.The AUX transmitter should be ready and functional as part of a good operation so the clients can be assured they get what theyre paying for and not settling for “make good” Also so the poor person in charge of keeping it all on the air can sleep at night . Zzzzzzz.
(It sounds like your experience in management, sales and general administration are very limited)
And no matter how many times you test back-up gear, there will be times when it does not work. The classic case is the mouse that found it's way in and went to sleep between the transformer contacts...
There is a point where the cost of prevention vastly exceeds the saving of airtime or the loss of revenue and is not worth it.
“I thoroughly doubt that. Nobody pays to have monitoring done to catch off-air incidents of a station group they are invested in.”
They do. Most broadcast companies have remote monitoring from out of market that keeps watch on everything from automation to transmission sites. This is reporting any disruption of service. Information is reported to management.
“That is why a station in NYC or LA may have a fully equipped auxiliary transmitter site, but one in Utica or Fresno will not.”
I bet Fresno and Utica have functioning AUX systems in place.
“There is a point where the cost of prevention vastly exceeds the saving of airtime or the loss of revenue and is not worth it”
This is having your cake and eating it too. “It better work 24/7 but don’t spend money keeping it functioning”. Not uncommon.
“It sounds like your experience in management, sales and general administration are very limited)”
Hahaha! Enjoying retirement.
They do. Most broadcast companies have remote monitoring from out of market that keeps watch on everything from automation to transmission sites. This is reporting any disruption of service. Information is reported to management.
“That is why a station in NYC or LA may have a fully equipped auxiliary transmitter site, but one in Utica or Fresno will not.”
I bet Fresno and Utica have functioning AUX systems in place.
“There is a point where the cost of prevention vastly exceeds the saving of airtime or the loss of revenue and is not worth it”
This is having your cake and eating it too. “It better work 24/7 but don’t spend money keeping it functioning”. Not uncommon.
“It sounds like your experience in management, sales and general administration are very limited)”
Hahaha! Enjoying retirement.
Explain in great detail what you’re eluding to here.
Had such a conversation with a Chief of a station in Eureka, CA asking for a studio backup generator. So I asked the question; how many power outages over one hour have occurred in the last ten years? Longest one was ten minutes. Next question; how much would a backup generator at the studio cost? Around $60K. Were any lost spots in that ten minutes unable to be made good? Answer: no spots were lost. Okay worst case; you lose power for a full day. Assuming you can only make good 50% of the spots, would that equal $60K? They stopped asking for a backup generator at the studio.
That’s great for your friends. Glad to know iHeart provides phenomenal health insurance benefits and retirement that is terrific and everyone working there is absolutely satisfied voicetracking for multiple markets and when they need to they can pack up move to another market when that time comes. Turn key. Sounds absolutely heavenly.
I said; I believe at one time you were laid off as part of cuts from a Seattle area radio station to which you were employed? Is that specific enough?
Did they at least have a backup power source so when the power goes out they can see and walk around and shut computers down? Or did it just shut off all at once? Sucks to have a full days work get dumped when a cpu shuts off.
I’ve never worked at a Seattle radio facility. That was discussed in an earlier thread.
They had a building UPS which kept critical systems up for around 30min.
Ah, okay if you say so.
- Status