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WKDF Afternoons part-time? Wow!
- Thread starter Radio456
- Start date
Cumulus has in the past had real bad PR over this issue:
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=155847.0
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=155847.0
True dat. So sad.
This "part time situation" has generated more than one topic.
After reading what everyone has to say I am left with this question: "Why do we expect the guy who talks on the radio station to be better paid than the guy on the speaker-system as you place your drive-up order at McDonalds?"
They both talk for a living.
After reading what everyone has to say I am left with this question: "Why do we expect the guy who talks on the radio station to be better paid than the guy on the speaker-system as you place your drive-up order at McDonalds?"
They both talk for a living.
The difference USED to be the guy talking on the radio was communicating with 200,000+ people at a time, entertaining, informing, and influencing lives of listeners. The guy at the drive-thru is asking "want to supersize that?" It's sad that Cumulus now puts both employees in the same category.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
How much revenue is at stake? The drive thru guy mess up a $5 or $10 order if the customer complains it is fixed and they "give away fries that cost them 25 or 30 cents to "appease" the customer. Your announcer says SH*T or worse it is a multiple of $1,000 fine.
What I wonder about is why don't they VT with somebody from Atlanta (or one of their other Country stations and not pay anyone?
IMHO: They are just inviting union organizers. If I was an Union organizer ( I am not ) this would make my job easier to organize the remaining full time employees at any Cumulus operation. Don't think it is impossible, if the announcers at a station or cluster picket, the TV stations will cover it on a slow news day, and Social media's power is greater than we give it credit how may announcers have there own Facebook or other social media site. I hope it never comes to repeating history but the French bourgeois*, who we think as passive, during their revolution took out the Royalty.
* http://www.geneseo.edu/~easton/humanities/frrev.html
secondchoice said:
Organizing a union is somewhat tangental to this discussion when you look at today's national climate.
Influential broadcasters have lobbied congress and the FCC to change the rules of broadcasting to make broadcasting more financially viable in the current economy.
Have you truly contemplated "the financial viability in the current economy" of organizing and sustaining a union? If all the announcers at a given station.... even at a given cluster... all contributed 100% of their pay as dues to the union, there still would probably not be enough cash to make the union economically viable.
Yeah, it's a feel-good event to go to the local watering hole after work and mouth-off: "We ought to form a union." I've worked for a company (non-broadcasting) who decided to circle the wagons because of the smell of a possible unionization attempt. I've seen that battle from the inside. Actually, a better metaphor was "they decided to circle the armored trucks".
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
It is a financially viable business! Cumulus had an EBITDA of $110 Million last quarter on revenue of $285 Million* or a 38% gross profit. The only problem is their debt. Grocery stores (on average) have a 10 or 15 gross and most chains have benefits for their full time workers**. Kroger even has $3 a week heath insurance for their part time employees. Different business but: anyone with capital can open a grocery store, In most cases there are a limited number of radio stations licensed to a market.
*http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105645&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1724307&highlight=
** Walmart's benifits are questionable:
dch.georgia.gov/.../121418289Medicaid%20%20the%20Economy%...
IMHO: certain companies paid too much for their radio properties and want to change the rules so they can survive. I am not for organizing Cumulus or any other broadcaster. Radio at time had an "entertainment" value that differentiates it's workers from fast food workers.
R
Radio-X
Guest
Just try and start a union in a place like TN...Management circling around you with tanks is a good metaphor ;D
Fact is, even in non-"right to work" (pro-union) states, setting up and maintaning a union in this climate with the income people make would be insanity. Some of us tried doing that when I worked in a big hotel in FL, and it was funny how many of the "instigators" of this union push ended up fired or encouraged to resign within 12 months...
If collective bargaining in the traditional sense will not work, beat management at their own game and organize an impromptu "work to rules" workplace. If it is not written down as a job description or employee rule, don't do it. If you are part-time, refuse to board op extra shifts because it would make you full-time while receiving PT bennies (AKA none in this case). If your job description simply requires you to show up at remotes and do your on-air, do nothing else but that.
At least when they can you, the odds are you will collect full unemployment and may make the suits question whether they want to incur the extra unemployment tax involved in that. If most the staff is doing it, chances are they will at least listen to your demands before they tell you to sit down, shut up, and collect your $10/hr.
Its good to see radio is still the glamorous, thankless, highly underpaid, multi-tasking industry I left five years ago...not that I was expecting much different from a major radio broadcaster in the south!
Radio-X
(Now making a smidgeon more money in the glamorous, thankless, and underpaid world of hotels as a GM.)
Fact is, even in non-"right to work" (pro-union) states, setting up and maintaning a union in this climate with the income people make would be insanity. Some of us tried doing that when I worked in a big hotel in FL, and it was funny how many of the "instigators" of this union push ended up fired or encouraged to resign within 12 months...
If collective bargaining in the traditional sense will not work, beat management at their own game and organize an impromptu "work to rules" workplace. If it is not written down as a job description or employee rule, don't do it. If you are part-time, refuse to board op extra shifts because it would make you full-time while receiving PT bennies (AKA none in this case). If your job description simply requires you to show up at remotes and do your on-air, do nothing else but that.
At least when they can you, the odds are you will collect full unemployment and may make the suits question whether they want to incur the extra unemployment tax involved in that. If most the staff is doing it, chances are they will at least listen to your demands before they tell you to sit down, shut up, and collect your $10/hr.
Its good to see radio is still the glamorous, thankless, highly underpaid, multi-tasking industry I left five years ago...not that I was expecting much different from a major radio broadcaster in the south!
Radio-X
(Now making a smidgeon more money in the glamorous, thankless, and underpaid world of hotels as a GM.)
The only problem with a "by the rules" is the "other tasks as assigned by management" (or similar language depending on your state's labor laws) in 99 percent of the job descriptions.
One can only hope that the other Country stations in the market take advantage of the part-timer ratings wise and this cost rather than saves Cumulus money.
One can only hope that the other Country stations in the market take advantage of the part-timer ratings wise and this cost rather than saves Cumulus money.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
That's a really stupid analogy. Typical from a Goat Cowboy.
Just a heads up, the guy that did afternoons at KDF is now, from what I've been told, the afternoon guy at WVVR in Clarksville.
JollyRancher said:
One of the tasks of a "rodeo clown" is to provide a bit of humor now and then, and to defuse tense situations in the ring.
Good talent working in market where stations put good talent to good use will certainly see my analogy as... as... "a really stupid analogy."
But my point is this. Too much of radio has become a lot like a McDonalds. Nobody sitting at the corporate office of a hamburger chain believes that having a golden voice on the speaker system makes the location work. Have quality meat prepared in a factory somewhere cooked according to the recipe developed and tested in the corporate office is what beats the competition. If I like the Burger King recipe and style better than McDonalds, I will put up with a crappy voice on the speaker system to get the product I want.
Isn't the jist of this whole thread that fact that radio management has decided that if they pick the right meat (can you say "play list") and if they can set up a cooking line that forces the hired help to cook and assemble the burgers correctly (can you say "automation machine") then the voice coming through the squawk-box is not a make-it-or-break-it issue.
I'm not saying they are correct... I just offer an analogy that hopefully stirs up a few brain cells on the topic.
By the way.... Would you like fries with that? (That's what is on the liner-card here in the GRC announce booth.)
Radio456 said:
Or presumably because he wants to keep his family in the Nashville area, and that's the nearest acceptable gig available.
I've seen people willingly take pay cuts to go to jobs that are better for their families. Or they're parked on a shelf somewhere convenient waiting for the next real opportunity to happen.
The real question is how long does Cumulus keep two country stations with two local staffs in Nashville?
I would venture to say that IF Crums is going to make a format flip, we will see a Christmas format on very soon. It would seem to make sense that they'd isolate a format against a competitor with ratings, revenues, etc. But, then again, why sink money or effort into starting a war? Anyone have any clues or ideas as to the chances?
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