TRAFFIC.COM

[MikeShannon914]

Split shift for $11.00 per hour? not that I am aware of....and I would know

Might ask Roger Pena what numbers he was throwing at former Traffic.com employees. I believe that bargain basement price also included doing 2 to 4 reports an hour for WBAP, 4 reports an hour for XM/Sirius, producing for DFW, and producing for KC, Houston, SA, and another city. In my book, that's 4 times the work for 2/3rd's the pay.

And I'll allow some padding in there...the number I was told was "$11-something" an hour. Still stinks, IMHO.

Sorry, not trying to air out your business--but this kind of disparity underscores what's wrong with the radio industry. It proves a bigger point that I'm sure reflects the M.O. at Westwood One and CBS as well.

BUT...you get what you pay for. Turn on the radio and listen.

 

[little1]

. I believe that bargain basement price also included doing 2 to 4 reports an hour for WBAP,

So that's what, 1 to 2 minutes of actual time?

4 reports an hour for XM/Sirius,

And another 2 minutes of actual time?

producing for DFW, and producing for KC, Houston, SA, and another city

.How much time does 'producing' actually take? is it 5 minutes per city per hour?

In my book, that's 4 times the work for 2/3rd's the pay.

In my book you're getting an hours pay for about half an hour's worth of actual work.

And even if it's 10 minutes per hour per city, wow, bosses actually have the nerve to ask you to work a full hour for a full hours pay. The temerity!!!

BUT...you get what you pay for.

And maybe you're just upset because YOU aren't what stations are willing to pay for. To use some recent departures and their supposed salaries, Greg Williams making 500K, Russ making 1 mil. THEY are what draw/drew listeners, not some spare traffic reporter...

 

[oldmanradio]

Based on this type of thinking, no station would ever hire AccuWeather or The Weather Channel because every forecast they offer originates in either State College, PA (AccuWx) or Atlanta (TWC). How could they possibly know the weather in your local city, I wonder...could it be technology?

Call me stupid, but how a company believes someone who lives in Dallas can report traffic for several other cities as well as reporters who know those cities' streets and highways is just beyond me.

Regarding weather, when the National Weather Service in Fort Worth issues severe thunderstorm
or tornado warnings, do you tune to the Weather Channel or a local TV or radio station?

Most of us tune to a local TV or radio station, and on that, I would bet good money.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

 

[oldmanradio]

Money vs. health

. I believe that bargain basement price also included doing 2 to 4 reports an hour for WBAP,

So that's what, 1 to 2 minutes of actual time?

4 reports an hour for XM/Sirius,

And another 2 minutes of actual time?

producing for DFW, and producing for KC, Houston, SA, and another city

.How much time does 'producing' actually take? is it 5 minutes per city per hour?

In my book, that's 4 times the work for 2/3rd's the pay.

In my book you're getting an hours pay for about half an hour's worth of actual work.

And even if it's 10 minutes per hour per city, wow, bosses actually have the nerve to ask you to work a full hour for a full hours pay. The temerity!!!

BUT...you get what you pay for.

And maybe you're just upset because YOU aren't what stations are willing to pay for. To use some recent departures and their supposed salaries, Greg Williams making 500K, Russ making 1 mil. THEY are what draw/drew listeners, not some spare traffic reporter...

Although this was not directed to me, I would say that I would much rather be a pauper in good health than make half a million or whatever and suffer the problems that Greg Williams and Russ Martin have.

Good health ... mental and physical ... is worth more than ALL the money in the world. Look at the later years of Howard Hughes' life. The richest man in the world simply could not enjoy living because of the lack of knowledge and treatment for his severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Think about it.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

 

[little1]

Ooh, hit a little to close to home, huh?

Sorry 'bout that...

And while you didn't say you deserved 500K, you certainly look to be up on your high horse, deciding that 11$ an hour is an insult...

It may be, but there are people lining up to take that job I'll bet...What's your pride worth?

And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe traffic reporters really do more than work a handful of minutes an hour...But I know I've seen PLENTY who do just that...

And again,. no offense, but traffic reporters are traffic reporters. I've heard people complain about bad ones, but I've never heard of anybody tuning in to a station just to hear a 'good' traffic reporter...

I highly doubt, for example, that a democratic activist is going to sit through Rush or Seans's show, no matter how good their traffic reporter might be...Traffic reporters are a nice side dish, they can compliment the main course, but when push comes to shove side dishes don't get people in the resturant, and side dishes dont command teh same menu price as the entree...

 

[oldmanradio]

Ooh, hit a little to close to home, huh?

Sorry 'bout that...

And while you didn't say you deserved 500K, you certainly look to be up on your high horse, deciding that 11$ an hour is an insult...

It may be, but there are people lining up to take that job I'll bet...What's your pride worth?

And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe traffic reporters really do more than work a handful of minutes an hour...But I know I've seen PLENTY who do just that...

And again,. no offense, but traffic reporters are traffic reporters. I've heard people complain about bad ones, but I've never heard of anybody tuning in to a station just to hear a 'good' traffic reporter...

I highly doubt, for example, that a democratic activist is going to sit through Rush or Seans's show, no matter how good their traffic reporter might be...Traffic reporters are a nice side dish, they can compliment the main course, but when push comes to shove side dishes don't get people in the resturant, and side dishes dont command teh same menu price as the entree...

Well, I do know that morning traffic reporters work their you know what off.

When I was asked to do that shift, I hated it. Hated the hours and frankly, I do not know the streets and highways, like many who have lived here all their lives do. I don't know all the shortcuts and alternate routes the natives know.

Couldn't wait until 9 a.m. arrived and the traffic every six minutes on WBAP and every 10 on KRLD ended.

Keep in mind that Mike worked that shift for SIX years.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

 

[Shoot From Hip]

Based on this type of thinking, no station would ever hire AccuWeather or The Weather Channel because every forecast they offer originates in either State College, PA (AccuWx) or Atlanta (TWC). How could they possibly know the weather in your local city, I wonder...could it be technology?

Call me stupid, but how a company believes someone who lives in Dallas can report traffic for several other cities as well as reporters who know those cities' streets and highways is just beyond me.

Regarding weather, when the National Weather Service in Fort Worth issues severe thunderstorm
or tornado warnings, do you tune to the Weather Channel or a local TV or radio station?

Most of us tune to a local TV or radio station, and on that, I would bet good money.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

It's all I can do not to take you up on your offer. We don't live in the days of pony express. Using current digital tracking technology, freeway and street cameras, and other devices I won't identify, I can see traffic patterns more clearly in your city from where I sit 2000 miles away than the people working for certain traffic services in Dallas. And using your thinking, Clear Channel wouldn't be able to voicetrack from market to market, or use their own hub-and-spoke system for delivering news (San Diego stations, for example, get news from KFI/LA now). It's not the occasional freak storm we're talking about...it's the day-in and day-out delivery of information. The steamroller of change is coming; be careful not to stand in the way.

 

[txchipk]

Based on this type of thinking, no station would ever hire AccuWeather or The Weather Channel because every forecast they offer originates in either State College, PA (AccuWx) or Atlanta (TWC). How could they possibly know the weather in your local city, I wonder...could it be technology?

Call me stupid, but how a company believes someone who lives in Dallas can report traffic for several other cities as well as reporters who know those cities' streets and highways is just beyond me.

Regarding weather, when the National Weather Service in Fort Worth issues severe thunderstorm
or tornado warnings, do you tune to the Weather Channel or a local TV or radio station?

Most of us tune to a local TV or radio station, and on that, I would bet good money.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

About that Weather Channel or local TV...

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser...s_were_looking_at_that_opportunity_121662.asp

On the Weather Channel providing the local weathercasts for co-owned NBC O&Os like KXAS: It may be some time away, the new head of the Weather Channel says "there is clearly the opportunity to do that. I can tell you we're looking at that opportunity."

 

[txchipk]

Reading through some of the posts, a couple of questions:

(1) There seems to be some back and forth on how much work traffic reporters do (and their worth). Out of curiosity, what is the work? The TV newscasts have reporters standing in front of TxDOT cameras. Do Metro, Traffic.com or any other private service gather info on their own, or does it all just come from TxDOT?

Does TxDOT offer its own traffic reporting to stations? Before you got locals on satellite, you could get Fox-owned KTTV Los Angeles. KTTV's morning news and "Good Day LA" show used to have traffic from a California Highway Patrol officer (in his CHP uniform) at the CHP HQ (at least they did in the late '90s/early '00s anyway). If I recall, in the afternoon drive in the late '80s on the old KSAQ "Super Q" San Antonio, similarly, the traffic report was from an officer.

(2) KJKK and KESN don't offer traffic reports. Obviously, KJKK is doing pretty well as the top CBS station in the 25-54 numbers posted here. Is that the likely future on radio, except for maybe news stations? With iPhones, Blackberries, and other smart phones with Internet connectivity increasing daily (plus navigator systems with traffic information), is waiting for traffic information to come on the radio going to be an antiquated thought when people can go to TxDOT's site or other places and get it on-demand?

 

[oldmanradio]

Based on this type of thinking, no station would ever hire AccuWeather or The Weather Channel because every forecast they offer originates in either State College, PA (AccuWx) or Atlanta (TWC). How could they possibly know the weather in your local city, I wonder...could it be technology?

Call me stupid, but how a company believes someone who lives in Dallas can report traffic for several other cities as well as reporters who know those cities' streets and highways is just beyond me.

Regarding weather, when the National Weather Service in Fort Worth issues severe thunderstorm
or tornado warnings, do you tune to the Weather Channel or a local TV or radio station?

Most of us tune to a local TV or radio station, and on that, I would bet good money.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

It's all I can do not to take you up on your offer. We don't live in the days of pony express. Using current digital tracking technology, freeway and street cameras, and other devices I won't identify, I can see traffic patterns more clearly in your city from where I sit 2000 miles away than the people working for certain traffic services in Dallas. And using your thinking, Clear Channel wouldn't be able to voicetrack from market to market, or use their own hub-and-spoke system for delivering news (San Diego stations, for example, get news from KFI/LA now). It's not the occasional freak storm we're talking about...it's the day-in and day-out delivery of information. The steamroller of change is coming; be careful not to stand in the way.

Shoot from the Hip,

We're talking apples and oranges.

And you truly are shooting from the hip ... sometimes with blanks.

Sure the technology exists to do the traffic from another city. That is not my point.

Regardless of what information you can obtain via sensors and cameras, etc., the local person still has more intimate knowledge of streets, highways, alternate routes than someone who lives out of town.

You're touting technology which I support. But the human factor is just as important, and you completely ignore that aspect.

If you think it is advantageous for San Diego stations to receive their news from KFI, KFWB or any other LA station, if you think voicetracking has improved radio, then you and I will just have to agree to disagree.

Airing Ryan Seacrest instead of a live and local show is, ironically, part of the reason radio is "old school" to younger listeners.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

 

[little1]

Reading through some of the posts, a couple of questions:

(1) There seems to be some back and forth on how much work traffic reporters do (and their worth). Out of curiosity, what is the work? The TV newscasts have reporters standing in front of TxDOT cameras. Do Metro, Traffic.com or any other private service gather info on their own, or does it all just come from TxDOT?

Does TxDOT offer its own traffic reporting to stations? Before you got locals on satellite, you could get Fox-owned KTTV Los Angeles. KTTV's morning news and "Good Day LA" show used to have traffic from a California Highway Patrol officer (in his CHP uniform) at the CHP HQ (at least they did in the late '90s/early '00s anyway). If I recall, in the afternoon drive in the late '80s on the old KSAQ "Super Q" San Antonio, similarly, the traffic report was from an officer.

(2) KJKK and KESN don't offer traffic reports. Obviously, KJKK is doing pretty well as the top CBS station in the 25-54 numbers posted here. Is that the likely future on radio, except for maybe news stations? With iPhones, Blackberries, and other smart phones with Internet connectivity increasing daily (plus navigator systems with traffic information), is waiting for traffic information to come on the radio going to be an antiquated thought when people can go to TxDOT's site or other places and get it on-demand?

(1) I've worked with a bunch of traffic scenarios. From having our own person reading traffic infor from traffic pulse, metro or shadow, to having a metro or traffic person in house, to getting a feed from a reporter off site. I think it totally depends on who the person is and where they work as to what the work actually is. Doing am drive at a news station that has traffic on the 8's may be harder than a music station where you might do 2 or 3 reports an hour...

(2) I think a lot of stations pay lip service to having traffic- if you're listening to a music station with only 2 or 3 breaks, your commute can be over before you get a traffic report...so are they REALLY offering a service, or are they just plugging in a 'feature' everybody expects (and one that they can sell sponsorships to and maybe make a little coin from)

 

[oldmanradio]

Once, years ago, at Traffic Patrol, I got a call from one of the suits at KRLD.

A few minutes earlier, I had reported a freeway closure in south Dallas.

The guy said, "Why did you report that accident in such detail? South Dallas is not part of our demographics."

I simply told him that ANYONE traveling south would be tied up in traffic for miles.

I didn't ... and don't believe the guy is racist. But it sure surprised me to hear such an ignorant statement from someone who should know better.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

 

[thunderradio]

Little 1 has amused me the past few days. You're welcome. Obviously a "desk jockey" type. When I did traffic I had a mulitude of suburbs to contact with their respective PD information foks, listen to the scanner, type in the info for other colleagues and my own benefit, plus do about 6 reports an hour, tape 2,so yeah Little 1 there is more than just an hour's work that goes into this,and I am not talking 45 min.either. $11.00 an hr does not justify the work that is being done or working a split that would not allow that particular person a chance to have a second job so they could have more than just "oscar meyer" lunchables and beans for one meal a day for survival. Again you are looking inside your coat and tie, not the tshirt faded blue jean cladworker making your money. True some would jump at the 11dollars,especially in todays economy and naturally Metro will swallow them whole,just dont expect professional quality or accuracy a majority of the time. For example I listened to the ranger game the other night and your traffic reporter decided to move I-20 to Rockwall, not once but twice!.

As for Traffic Chief..Tom/Chris. When several employees current and former have echoed the same information in regards to wages at different times ,unbeknowest of the other.there has got to be an element of truth to it and not a conspiracy committed upon you. It is your job to deny that, and thats a given,if you want to keep your own job and look good for your own bosses. i ahve mentioned before under a similar theme, never go to management, or station woners about if a certain employee is goign to be cut or formats are changing,because truth is often a casualty. In your case traffic chief,truth is D.O.A.

 

[scrtr84]

Another way to say the same thing, is: Ye who increases knowledge, increases sorrow.

 

[oldmanradio]

Another way to say the same thing, is: Ye who increases knowledge, increases sorrow.

"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." -- William Shakespeare

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams

 

[traffic chief]

To Thunder Radio:

Thanks for the insight into management and how I manage employees and what traffic reporters are paid. in short, nothing I have said is a lie....lowest current full time employee per hour pay is just under $14 per hour. Now some may be counting a 40 hour work week when in fact mot work around 25-35 Hours per week.

Looking good to my bosses is not a high priority to me....being a good steward of the compnay assests and working with employees and understanding their concerns has always been first for me.

Perhaps if you knew who I was and how I manage...you might change your mind.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Perhaps if you knew who I was and how I manage...you might change your mind.

Well, Chief, if you were running the show instead of Roger "I'll give you a call back shortly" Pena, we might could have worked a deal. Too late, however; I'll go back to a real job before ever considering Metro. Your stooges there were apparently trying to bully the Traffic.com exes, and, guess what, you only got our 3 airborne personnel and no one else (and you might run a barometer by those folks to see how high their employee morale is these days.) Laura was automatically part of the package since she's on WBAP's payroll.

I haven't a clue what the problem is there, but if Tyler can accept what's going over his airwaves these days, so be it. I'm done with it. Glad it was all SO appreciated and valued.

[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[grantchester]

traffic chief writes:

Thanks for the insight into management and how I manage employees and what traffic reporters are paid. in short, nothing I have said is a lie....lowest current full time employee per hour pay is just under $14 per hour. Now some may be counting a 40 hour work week when in fact mot work around 25-35 Hours per week.

Looking good to my bosses is not a high priority to me....being a good steward of the compnay assests and working with employees and understanding their concerns has always been first for me.

Perhaps if you knew who I was and how I manage...you might change your mind.

Traffic Chief puts in his log-in information that his email is Mike Haake at metro networks. Mike Haake is vice president for affiliate relations for metro. Is the guy in charge of affiliates is the same guy running the traffic operations? Is there a Haake imposter? Is spelling a necessary qualification to be a regional vice president?Does 25-35 hours count as full time? Do metro network employees and their families qualify for food stamps? Inquiring minds want to know. Mike Shannon shakes his head and walks away.

 

[grantchester]

traffic chief writes:

Thanks for the insight into management and how I manage employees and what traffic reporters are paid. in short, nothing I have said is a lie....lowest current full time employee per hour pay is just under $14 per hour. Now some may be counting a 40 hour work week when in fact mot work around 25-35 Hours per week.

Looking good to my bosses is not a high priority to me....being a good steward of the compnay assests and working with employees and understanding their concerns has always been first for me.

Perhaps if you knew who I was and how I manage...you might change your mind.

Traffic Chief puts in his log-in information that his email is Mike Haake at metro networks.
Mike Haake is vice president for affiliate relations for metro.
Is the guy in charge of affiliates the same guy running the traffic operations?
Is there a Haake imposter?
Is spelling a necessary qualification to be a regional vice president?
Does 25-35 hours count as full time?
Do metro network employees and their families qualify for food stamps?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Mike Shannon shakes his head and walks away.

 

[oldmanradio]

To Thunder Radio:

Thanks for the insight into management and how I manage employees and what traffic reporters are paid. in short, nothing I have said is a lie....lowest current full time employee per hour pay is just under $14 per hour. Now some may be counting a 40 hour work week when in fact mot work around 25-35 Hours per week.

Looking good to my bosses is not a high priority to me....being a good steward of the compnay assests and working with employees and understanding their concerns has always been first for me.

Perhaps if you knew who I was and how I manage...you might change your mind.

Just a couple of questions, chief ...

Are Metro employees who work 25-35 hours a week eligible for health and live insurance coverage, 401K, sick leave and vacation?

Has Metro cut its 401K matching contribution in the last couple of years?

Thanks.

Tony
Tony Lyndell Williams
[email protected]