Let's have a little fun, shall we???? What were the characteristics of the worst GM you ever worked under? No need to mention names, call signs or markets. Share your horror stories! My worst was this short guy with his short man complex. He claimed he was the owner and thought we were too stupid to figure it out. He wasn't. There were three or four partners and he wasn't one of them. This guy was mad at the world and it seemed like the world was equally made at him. At Chamber meetings, he was known for bad mouthing the other stations and media to the point others would ask him to sit down. He spread rumors about other managers and had bunches of union members upset due to his comments about their strike. At the stations, he usually ended his memos saying he was the owner and he wants things done his way otherwise he will sell the stations and we will be out of jobs. Guess what, Mr Short Man was the one who ended up on the street as the real owners sold the place out from under him. By contrast, there was, let's call him Tony. Tony was GM at another station many miles away. He respect us as individuals and our skills and talents. He let us do our jobs unless we did something he didn't like. He was a good man! Your turn!
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Your Worst!
- Thread starter DOGDOG
- Start date
The station advisor at the college station I was on air at once punched a hole in the wall outside the studio because some equipment wasn't working. I found out about him before my first airshift, when I asked the student manager who was training me about the hole. I never met him and I'm glad! Later on when someone kept changing the Telos machine settings so that my friend/cohost couldn't call in and be put on air, I kind of wanted to punch a hole in the wall myself...
I never had that happen but I very strongly suspected a competing PD shot a hole into a tower junction box where the transmitter output hardliners connected to the feed line going up the tower to the antenna.
I'll share two. One affected me personally so I'll do that second.
I arrive at my first rated market and I'm working a CHR that was the dominant station. When hired, I was introduced to the GM. As we hunted for an apartment, my wife says the GM is a bad guy and I should avoid him at all costs. She could always sniff out the good and bad guys. She never told me to avoid somebody I worked with.
Within a week, the station's mandatory staff and family meeting the station did quarterly where everybody got free food and booze, the GM get's too loaded. We had hired this stunningly beautiful young lady to do sales. She was schooled in all the social graces, was very kind and accessible. She really could have graced the cover of Cosmopolitan. The GM explains to her he is going to 'have' her anytime he chooses if she's to continue to work there. Some staff members hear him, get him away from her and console her. They decide to go to the owner's home to make him aware of what he did. The GM knew who left the party and fired them all including that lady. I am on the air about 9:30pm when he phones and says he is going to ask a question and all he wants to hear from me is yes or no. He asked if I'd do morning drive. The GM dodged a bullet there since his accusers were fired before getting a chance to hold the GM accountable.
As the months go by I hear things. I know his wife is wanting him to check himself in because she thinks he losing a grip on reality. Then one day he gets in an argument with the owner about some little detail like whether we will have 'window stickers' or 'bumper stickers'. Not getting his way, he quits on the spot and lands at an AM/FM about 60 miles away as GM.
About a month in at his new job, it seems he stayed in his office all weekend and just at the appointed time of his Monday sales meeting he comes out of his office wearing only his underwear and attempts to conduct a sales meeting. Police were called. The wife files divorce papers. The former GM calls her many times saying if he can't have her she's better off dead. Laws were not in place back then to protect the wife.
One afternoon he walks in the travel agency where his estranged wife is working and empties a gun into her at point blank range and tells them at the travel agency he's off to the stations he quit (the ones where I work) to settle the score because that's where his trouble began. A cop shows up and says get your guns, tire irons, baseball bats and anything that can protect us. He says he'd stay but must get going as we begged him to stay. Come to find out, the cop drove around the block constantly to keep him from coming to the station. I was terrified so I called my wife and said listen to my show. If a record ends and there's dead air, call the cops to head to the station because something bad happened. Later that night he turned himself in to the police and was sentenced to a stiff prison sentence.
Second, I'm at an FM working for a GM who is also owner. The average person was there a month because of the way he was. For example, he hired me to do sales. Finding out I could write commercials, produce them and do on air too, I got extra duties mainly because the male morning jock had made amends with his Dad after 30 years and wanted to see him before his passing with stage 4 cancer. The jock was told if he went to see his Dad out of state, he didn't have a job when he got back. That was me that got his duties too all at a zero dollar increase in salary.
A few months in a pick up pulls out in front of me on the highway totaling my car. I owe more than the payoff on insurance. I go to the car dealer on my account list. I explain things. They say to buy a new car now and tell the finance company where to go. There was no gap insurance then. My insurance company dragged their feet (accident was in district 1, I lived in district 2 and my policy written in district 3). Sales are hurting with no car. I have to call the state insurance board. During this time I found the exact car I had. I qualified for financing. My client was good with it and I had asked the secretary to drive me over and I'd buy her lunch.
My GM hears about this and says we are trading my apartment for ads, trading the restaurant and then there's the gas trade. If you follow me to your client and buy whatever they say to buy, you still have a job, a place to live, a restaurant to grab lunch and gas for the car. If you take delivery on the car you are intending to take delivery of, you're fired, are homeless and so on.
I'm ticked so I tell my client, the GM at the car dealer, the threat by boss leveled right in front of my boss. Then I said, to not be homeless, it appears I'm buying whatever you choose. I was so lucky. They had sold a new vehicle last year to an elderly lady who had passed away. The car had about 8,000 miles on it. The son brought it in that morning. I could afford $200 a month and still pay off my downside. I had 42 payments of $203 and change. (Yes this was about 1992)
I arrive at my first rated market and I'm working a CHR that was the dominant station. When hired, I was introduced to the GM. As we hunted for an apartment, my wife says the GM is a bad guy and I should avoid him at all costs. She could always sniff out the good and bad guys. She never told me to avoid somebody I worked with.
Within a week, the station's mandatory staff and family meeting the station did quarterly where everybody got free food and booze, the GM get's too loaded. We had hired this stunningly beautiful young lady to do sales. She was schooled in all the social graces, was very kind and accessible. She really could have graced the cover of Cosmopolitan. The GM explains to her he is going to 'have' her anytime he chooses if she's to continue to work there. Some staff members hear him, get him away from her and console her. They decide to go to the owner's home to make him aware of what he did. The GM knew who left the party and fired them all including that lady. I am on the air about 9:30pm when he phones and says he is going to ask a question and all he wants to hear from me is yes or no. He asked if I'd do morning drive. The GM dodged a bullet there since his accusers were fired before getting a chance to hold the GM accountable.
As the months go by I hear things. I know his wife is wanting him to check himself in because she thinks he losing a grip on reality. Then one day he gets in an argument with the owner about some little detail like whether we will have 'window stickers' or 'bumper stickers'. Not getting his way, he quits on the spot and lands at an AM/FM about 60 miles away as GM.
About a month in at his new job, it seems he stayed in his office all weekend and just at the appointed time of his Monday sales meeting he comes out of his office wearing only his underwear and attempts to conduct a sales meeting. Police were called. The wife files divorce papers. The former GM calls her many times saying if he can't have her she's better off dead. Laws were not in place back then to protect the wife.
One afternoon he walks in the travel agency where his estranged wife is working and empties a gun into her at point blank range and tells them at the travel agency he's off to the stations he quit (the ones where I work) to settle the score because that's where his trouble began. A cop shows up and says get your guns, tire irons, baseball bats and anything that can protect us. He says he'd stay but must get going as we begged him to stay. Come to find out, the cop drove around the block constantly to keep him from coming to the station. I was terrified so I called my wife and said listen to my show. If a record ends and there's dead air, call the cops to head to the station because something bad happened. Later that night he turned himself in to the police and was sentenced to a stiff prison sentence.
Second, I'm at an FM working for a GM who is also owner. The average person was there a month because of the way he was. For example, he hired me to do sales. Finding out I could write commercials, produce them and do on air too, I got extra duties mainly because the male morning jock had made amends with his Dad after 30 years and wanted to see him before his passing with stage 4 cancer. The jock was told if he went to see his Dad out of state, he didn't have a job when he got back. That was me that got his duties too all at a zero dollar increase in salary.
A few months in a pick up pulls out in front of me on the highway totaling my car. I owe more than the payoff on insurance. I go to the car dealer on my account list. I explain things. They say to buy a new car now and tell the finance company where to go. There was no gap insurance then. My insurance company dragged their feet (accident was in district 1, I lived in district 2 and my policy written in district 3). Sales are hurting with no car. I have to call the state insurance board. During this time I found the exact car I had. I qualified for financing. My client was good with it and I had asked the secretary to drive me over and I'd buy her lunch.
My GM hears about this and says we are trading my apartment for ads, trading the restaurant and then there's the gas trade. If you follow me to your client and buy whatever they say to buy, you still have a job, a place to live, a restaurant to grab lunch and gas for the car. If you take delivery on the car you are intending to take delivery of, you're fired, are homeless and so on.
I'm ticked so I tell my client, the GM at the car dealer, the threat by boss leveled right in front of my boss. Then I said, to not be homeless, it appears I'm buying whatever you choose. I was so lucky. They had sold a new vehicle last year to an elderly lady who had passed away. The car had about 8,000 miles on it. The son brought it in that morning. I could afford $200 a month and still pay off my downside. I had 42 payments of $203 and change. (Yes this was about 1992)
I worked in radio news for about a year before moving to TV news. May recall some stories, but later.
At one of the TV stations I moved to, a medium-sized market, in the 70s-80s markets, the day I arrived the chief engineer took me aside and over the 3/4" tape machines told me "anyone in (and out of) this building knows more about TV news" than the news director who hired me.
Gee, what a great pep talk to hear.
Turns out he was right. But, he wasn't an abusive boss. Didn't do anything remotely similar to what was posted earlier. Just horrible and didn't really understand the media. An out of work actor, was told.
At one of the TV stations I moved to, a medium-sized market, in the 70s-80s markets, the day I arrived the chief engineer took me aside and over the 3/4" tape machines told me "anyone in (and out of) this building knows more about TV news" than the news director who hired me.
Gee, what a great pep talk to hear.
Turns out he was right. But, he wasn't an abusive boss. Didn't do anything remotely similar to what was posted earlier. Just horrible and didn't really understand the media. An out of work actor, was told.
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