WHAT ARE YOUR PET PEEVE(s)?

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Not that I want to go out of our way to have a negative topic...but was just "flashing" (goodbye, Chuck) on a memory and thought it might be interesting to ask what sort of regular occurence things in your radio workplace used to get under your skin (that may not bother the next guy/gal).

The one I was flashing on were the times I worked overnights and was told I should do a wake-up call to morning guy because he was just coming in from some evening of partying. In those days my overnights usually were in addition to doing morning news ... so it was easy to get distracted with checking news wires, newspapers, etc and before I realized it often 60-90 minutes after the "wake up" call was due. Morning guy would be late for his show...tear me a new one and off we'd go. But one time my retort was to remind said morning guy that HE makes a helluva lot more money than the overnight guy and could PROBABLY afford a freaking alarm clock that was more reliable if he couldn't be bothered just to go to bed at a decent time and back off the night life. Not a good argument as PD would up giving me involuntary marching orders not long after that.

(Which, by the way, is another pet peeve...talent that goes out of their way to be a PD's "pet"!!!)

 

[Wonderfulwino]

Having to take the board from the previous jock who had six straight hours of farts-into-the-chair.

 

[Bongwater]

Getting my brand new EXPENSIVE headphones stolen......

 

[Dick Skinner]

Threads like this...I'm just sayin'.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Threads like this...I'm just sayin'.

I apologize. Didn't mean to offend.
I'll try to stick to topics about offensive Pat Benatar cuts on KMCQ and signal strength of a translator in Darrington vs. a Nanaimo flamethrower on same frequency.

 

[dunno]

1. No TP in the station john.
2. Person after you not at least poking head in to say I'm here, or worse yet being 20 min late.
3. On air PD moving music to wherever to make it sound good.
Then you moving same catagory to make a contest work and getting ripped for it.
4. Coming in after control room party and doing the cleanup. One station, many years ago, being the night guy, had to clean the whole joint every night because owner was too cheap.
5. Gary Crow putting his name and crow on every record! lol

2 good topics in a row blue!

 

[dunno]

Another one,

The lack of real radio people on this board. C'mon, a fun topic. There must be more gas in the chair peeve's. lol This should be enough to get Bean back on board!

 

[Randy Roadz]

Hmmm... where to start-

On air people who, when talking about the following day actually say the day of the week instead of tomorrow
(in other words... on Thursday you wouldn't say "coming up Friday"... you should say "coming up tomorrow" DUH

Phrases like "top of the hour", "it's ____ after the hour", "tonight at 10pm" (redundant), "it's ____ DEGREES OUTSIDE"

Lack of planning for breaks... going in with no idea what they're going to do

Just the tip of the berg...

 

[TowerLamp]

PD who constantly fiddles with the processing. Just get used to a certain sound in the phones and next day it's all changed (Not such a biggie now with HD delay).
Squeaky Control room chair
coffee and Coke spills on console
noisy pots
hotline ringing while I'm on mic.

 

[Randy Roadz]

Oh... and when going into a commercial break...

"I'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH ________"

Where are you going???

 

[The Street]

Oh... and when going into a commercial break...

"I'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH ________"

Where are you going???

I completely agree.... I don't know who teaches that but yet almost everybody does it.
If I am a sponsor, I don't want anybody going anywhere!

 

[dunno]

Good ones.

One of my many PD's peeve's: Coming up next _______." His point it wasn't next. Coming up was OK.
Ugh......ugh.. Like, like, like
You know...you know.
Love the 35 degree's outside! I know of a newsman at a major news stations that always wanted his head phones left a certain way when you left the studio.
At one station also had to wake up the morning man, but he would sleep right through my calls. Would have to put on Inna gadda divida, Autobahn, Do you feel or any other record 20 min long and pound down his door. He was the PD too, what job security! lol

 

[dunno]

How about the PD that says he loves your work and has something in mind, let me get back to you....When? Hey, it's been 10 years now!

Or just as bad, he or she tells you to get back to them, but after trying every way possible, zip!!

 

[scott salvatori]

besides music, i do a lot of talk show listening while on the road. biggest pet peeves are conservative talk show hosts, who think theyre also entertainers, and funny. i can handle the news talk just fine, but come on old farts! listening to beck with his zoo crew side kick shoe shiners, is like hearing the half baked paul schaeffer, and david letterman banter back and forth. then you got rush, and hannity. these cats aint funny. stick with the politics! same goes for that one local feller, whos left with the one hour show on KTTH. the laugh tracks, the applause tracks, the instant inserted sound bites aint funny no more! humor comes naturally in most cases, not preprepped, and canned. if you aint funny, dont try to be!

 

[scott salvatori]

Another one,

The lack of real radio people on this board. C'mon, a fun topic. There must be more gas in the chair peeve's. lol This should be enough to get Bean back on board!

damn those hobbyists, DX'rs, wanna bees, and has beens, who never was.

okay, mr dunno,and now from a has been, who never was, who never intended to be. how come i still have that same nightmarish dream several times a year? it goes like this. I'm unprepared for my show. i have no play list. not much to say, and i cant seem to find, or get the next CD ready to insert. dead air is a constant battle in this repeating dream, which seems to continue in an endless loop, over and over for a few hours. yipes, its been 11 years since i done cracked the radio mic. please make it go away

 

[dunno]

Scott,

I would be a fish out water on a Truckers info board. I like Trucks! Not saying you're not welcome, I just like getting other on air views once in a while. It's my peeve. I enjoy all point of views from everyone. It just so happened that LBB was getting a little negative feedback about a subject that does pertain to on air experience.
BTW, I have your dream sometimes too. Another takes me back to a former station and I'm late or still expected to show up for that shift. Post on!

 

[DJ Alan]

This will date me back a few years...

We had a jock at one station that would put the albums (vinyl LP records for you yougins) in the wrong jackets and put them back in the record library. Sometimes up to half of what he played was misfiled. We used to keep his play log in the studio so the rest of us jocks could find the record we needed. You would just have to find the song on his playlist and look to see what record he played before and after the one you were looking for. Usually it would be in the jacket of one of these records... or you had to dig a few songs back or forward in his playlist to find what you wanted. I'm sure the same thing happened with CD's too for many of us. The change to carts and computer based music is truly a godsend!

The same jock also liked to eat sunflower seeds and you would find shells all over the studio and in some of the LP jackets.

He was a great guy otherwise! Really nice on all other counts, but the misfiles were sure a pain to deal with.

 

[WKomm]

This has happened uncountable times:

The numbers bad? It's the DJs - they talk too much, aren't entertaining, etc.
The numbers good? It's the stellar programming, hot music and outstanding contests.

Other irritants:

Air-check sessions. They're either complete tear-downs where nothing I do is good or BS sessions where the PD tells me how great I am. They're both wastes of time. Over the years, the number of "sessions" I found truly useful has been very, very small.

Crummy remote packages. I was at one large appearance and a well-known consultant was visiting for the first time and was very surprised at what we had. This was a big station in a big market and we're outside a store with a small table - a station banner wrapped around it. Period. Not very classy or impressive. The same station - I guess to save cash - got a load of key chains with the station logo printed on one side only. Nice ...

Unrealistic rules, expectations. I know some of you have gone through this. A PD will get heated and make a declaration along the lines of: "At least 24 hour notice for spots/campaigns". Next day an AE comes in with a $10,000 order and we're scrambling to record the spot and insert it ... because it's cash. Or the PD who declares: "No sales people in the control room." The next day a sales guy is in the room, offering me cash to show up at a car dealership that weekend - and the PD thinks I'm going to kick the guy out?

Finally - a PD who insists every caller be treated like royalty. I'm an extremely friendly guy and love listeners, even the annoying ones. I do everything I can to keep callers happy. But I'm more focused on the show itself with who knows how many in the cume than a phone caller who might distract me from the next break. I have zero problem with putting the lines on hold if I'm stressed, bumming, etc. That next break is way more important to the vast majority who will never call then the person calling to request a song I can't play.

 

[bean9]

Well, since "dunno" busted me for laying low lately, I'll answer.

My pet peeve is when the paperwork for the on-air business is poorly written, incomplete, or confusing. I'm speaking of contest sheets or station liners with important details left out, conflicting or wrong information within, that sort of thing.

Enjoy the game tomorrow everyone and be glad we're not on the air during it!

 

[dunno]

Love your imput and humor Bean! Speaking of copy, ever have a sponsor on the log with no copy, call traffic, and they say, just make something up. Can you imagine them telling that to Stern!!! lol
One more: New Years resolutions! So far R/TGuru's keeping his!