• 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

When a dj gets let go.

The couple of times I've been laid off (once in radio and once outside of radio) my computer login has stopped working before I'm taken into the meeting. I can see why it's done that way - you don't want to give a fired worker any access to the company's data or networks. It's not the best, though: a few times since then at subsequent workplaces, PC logins have stopped working for wholly technical reasons and the situation has caused panic among the staff who fear that the worst is happening.

For airstaff, if they're leaving to move elsewhere you don't want them to go on air and say "hey, come follow me up the dial to 103.5". If they're being fired or laid off, you don't want the "FU" situation. In this day and age, they can make their goodbyes on their personal social media, not on the company's air.
 

You're a Listener and you don't get it...


A door code that doesn't work can strike fear in the heart of a radio station employee. The reason? You can always tell when someone has been fired at a radio station because the door code doesn't work anymore. Radio stations NEVER change door codes unless they fire someone. The changing of the door code almost always precedes the memo about someone being let go to pursue "other Interests". Many of us in the business consider a functioning door code proof of continued employment.

1651323829183.png
 
DavidEduardo said:
Unless there is a great deal of trust, goodbyes are not usual. All kinds of liability issues, even FCC violations.

Usually, today, dismissed people are escorted out and their locker or office personal items are packed and sent/delivered.

We all have heard of bad experiences... or had them happen to us. A friend told me of one production person let go on a late Friday afternoon; he was told to "get your things out of the production room and give back the key". The guy went into production and bulk erased as many carts as he could (decades ago, of course) and the, in a coup de grace, he opened the board and peed in it. When the staff came in on Monday, the smell was awful and the urine had ruined much of the board, requiring thousands of dollars in replt
Click to expand...

DavidEduardo said:
Unless there is a great deal of trust, goodbyes are not usual. All kinds of liability issues, even FCC violations.

Usually, today, dismissed people are escorted out and their locker or office personal items are packed and sent/delivered.

We all have heard of bad experiences... or had them happen to us. A friend told me of one production person let go on a late Friday afternoon; he was told to "get your things out of the production room and give back the key". The guy went into production and bulk erased as many carts as he could (decades ago, of course) and the, in a coup de grace, he opened the board and peed in it. When the staff came in on Monday, the smell was awful and the urine had ruined much of the board, requiring thousands of dollars in replacements.
Click to expand...
A good reason to change the locks!
 
MRBIboredop said:

You're a Listener and you don't get it...


A door code that doesn't work can strike fear in the heart of a radio station employee. The reason? You can always tell when someone has been fired at a radio station because the door code doesn't work anymore. Radio stations NEVER change door codes unless they fire someone. The changing of the door code almost always precedes the memo about someone being let go to pursue "other Interests". Many of us in the business consider a functioning door code proof of continued employment.

View attachment 2910
Click to expand...
I did once get fired and they forgot to tell me. 2 of us showed up at midnight.
 
Don CT said:
When WCCC was sold they let the Jocks do a final 5 hours of programming before pulling the plug. It's rare that stations that get sold or pulled get a proper send off.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, the kiss-my-a** moment when they played "Highway to Hell" right before EMF rendered all of them unemployed and flipped the station to K-Love!
 
My outfit was being bought by a competitor. We figured our office would be closing as we were both based in the same general geo area and we were the ones who had been bought.

About 10AM the phones stopped working. Once you finished your call you couldn't make a new one- no "dial tone" as it were. Eventually only a few folks in the office were on their calls, then two, then the last one. The rest of us listening to her continue to sell the virtues of our outfit, while the rest of us knew what was up. She finally wrapped up and asked us all "did I miss anything?" LOL
 
gr8oldies said:
I did once get fired and they forgot to tell me. 2 of us showed up at midnight.
Click to expand...
That (kinda sorta) almost happened to me. The GM of the station had made changes to the station's staff that he just conveniently "forgot" to tell ME about. (I honestly believed that he wanted me to show up for a shift that I no longer had.) But instead, that "other" jock told me (out of turn, as I later found out) that he was getting my soon-to-be former shift, and that I was going to be squeezed out! (I only know that he talked "out of turn" because they were actually upset with HIM for telling me!) But what they didn't know was that I ALREADY knew what was about to happen because I had been doing some detective work of my own. My then-apartment complex was after me to sign another lease, and I wasn't about to do that if my hours were about to be vastly shrunk (as they were). They wanted me to stay on weekend overnights, but by then, I was GROSSLY overqualified for such a shift, and told them so in no uncertain terms. But I had the last laugh. Less than six months after I left, that ogre GM was hit with a sexual harassment charge, and was soon forced out of the station, himself! Meanwhile, all of my former coworkers who had brown-nosed him in an effort to try to hold onto their own jobs (including the tattletale above) were soon ALSO forced out when the inevitable format change happened.
 
It can go so many ways. A lot of stations won't even allow a last show when a jock has given notice. They'll either thank them and pay them that day or they'll get them off the air a bit ahead of schedule to avoid a "legendary last show".

It's a tough call for PDs and it's been going on for a long time. Fifty years ago, Ted Atkins at KHJ denied Charlie Tuna a last show after he mentioned on the air the day before that the next day would be the last (Charlie felt he needed to do that since there was a story in the L.A. Times that morning about his leaving and Robert W. Morgan returning).

Charlie was the LAST guy who'd ever burn a bridge on the air...but that was Ted's decision.

Fast-forward 16 years and somebody at the same company---RKO---thought letting Bobby Ocean, who had talked to TV about the format change and had been told to just shut up and play the music for a week---essentially making him a board op---who was so pissed about that he called in sick for a few days--- have a live mic on the last weekday afternoon of KFRC before it flipped to "Magic 61" was a good idea. I'm sure they didn't think so three hours later:


As for myself, I've been lucky. I think I've been at a total of 13 radio and TV stations in 51 years. Only two didn't let me say goodbye on-air.
 
Last edited:
michael hagerty said:
It can go so many ways. A lot of stations won't even allow a last show when a jock has given notice. They'll either thank them and pay them that day or they'll get them off the air a bit ahead of schedule to avoid a "legendary last show".

It's a tough call for PDs and it's been going on for a long time. Fifty years ago, Ted Atkins at KHJ denied Charlie Tuna a last show after he mentioned on the air the day before that the next day would be the last (Charlie felt he needed to do that since there was a story in the L.A. Times that morning about his leaving and Robert W. Morgan returning).

Charlie was the LAST guy who'd ever burn a bridge on the air...but that was Ted's decision.

Fast-forward 16 years and somebody at the same company---RKO---thought letting Bobby Ocean, who had talked to TV about the format change and had been told to just shut up and play the music for a week---essentially making him a board op---who was so pissed about that he called in sick for a few days--- have a live mic on the last weekday afternoon of KFRC before it flipped to "Magic 61" was a good idea. I'm sure they didn't think so three hours later:


As for myself, I've been lucky. I think I've been at a total of 13 radio and TV stations in 51 years. Only two didn't let me say goodbye on-air.
Click to expand...
I've noticed some djs leave in the middle of the week when they leave. They have someone announce they are filling in for them the rest of the week, then they don't say that line the next week, until they hire a new talent.
 
tall_guy1 said:
I've noticed some djs leave in the middle of the week when they leave. They have someone announce they are filling in for them the rest of the week, then they don't say that line the next week, until they hire a new talent.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Fairly common. A TV station in the Bay Area had their anchors say they were “in for Frank” for months. Frank was suspended and ultimately let go, but they used that line at the beginning of every newscast until the separation was complete.

In the 60s and 70s at RKO, the rule was that even with a fill-in, the jock jingle for the talent that usually did that shift was played. First clue a jock wasn’t coming back was when the fill-in jock’s jingle aired.
 
tall_guy1 said:
I've noticed some djs leave in the middle of the week when they leave. They have someone announce they are filling in for them the rest of the week, then they don't say that line the next week, until they hire a new talent.
Click to expand...

michael hagerty said:
Yeah. Fairly common. A TV station in the Bay Area had their anchors say they were “in for Frank” for months. Frank was suspended and ultimately let go, but they used that line at the beginning of every newscast until the separation was complete.

In the 60s and 70s at RKO, the rule was that even with a fill-in, the jock jingle for the talent that usually did that shift was played. First clue a jock wasn’t coming back was when the fill-in jock’s jingle aired.
Click to expand...
On a separate note, audacy has old djs listed on their program schedule on their website for months, even some who've left the state!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom