scopejock said:
Can someone who works in radio explain to me why management is so secretive whenever changes are made at a station? Why don't they just announce that P&K are no longer on 105.3 and are 'pursuing other opportunities, yada, yada, yada? Why the 'they're on vacation' and best-ofs? And when they change formats, why don't they announce it ahead of time instead of one morning you turn on the station and it's country music instead of talk?
Let's say I show up at your place of employment, and you're no longer there. What's your old boss going to say. He left teh company, he's no longer here, etc. Because if they said "we fired his a** because he was stealing from the register" or "we caught him banging the bosses wife in the stockroom", it's going to make you look bad. Which leaves your old boss open to a lawsuit.
Radio is EXACTLY the same way. If they say anything more than 'they left the company', they're open to lawsuits, unfair discharge claims, etc. Most jobs all they do anymore is confirm 'yes so and so worked here from xx/06 to xx/08".
Talk to your boss on what your companys policy is. Go ask HR what they will or won't say. And you'll see that radio isn't all that different, just more visible. But the high profile doesn't give us an exception from labor laws.
And a lot of times, the lag time between a on-air disappearence and the official announcement is because they may be trying to work out contract details. For example, if P&K's ratings were down, they might have been willing to keep them around at 1/2 or 3/4ths of their original salary. But might not be willing to contnue to pay them if the ratings don't justify it. So they take them off the air as they renegotiate, and if it doesn't work out (i.e. P&K won't take a paycut) they cut them loose and make the official annoucement.
And as for not publicizing format changes in advance- why let your competition know what you're going to do- if I publicize that I'm going to flip 105.2 to smooth jazz, but I'm not going to do it for 2 weeks, there's nothing to stop some other station from flipping to SJ before I do?
If I say I'm going to put on a hybrid of clasic rock and 80's alternative (Early KDGE), what's to stop KZPS from dropping the southern rock and replacing it with Tommy Tutone and the Cure and beating me to the punch? And now they've got the advantage of not only being on teh air first, but already exposing themselves to listeners as "The best mix of 70's classic and 80's alt rock". When I show up a coupel of weeks later calling myself "The best mx of 70's classic and 80s alt-rock'" I look like a pale imitation, a copycat.
