[BC] Re: The Sate of Radio

[Xmitters@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/7/06 10:12:46 PM Central Standard Time, 
broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

<< One Guru Manager,  very successful financially,  gave me an  chewing one 
time 
 when we lost a shunt capacitor on our #1 rated station and he  had to run at 
 1 kW instead of his 5 kW until I found a .0015 mica   capacitor locally. We 
 didn't have any combination that would  work.   I got the station on the air 
and 
 back to full power after  about 4 hours and some fone calls to fellow 
 engineers who loaned me the exact  capacitor I needed for the ATU.  I 
ordered two 
 replacements totaling about  $800.00 bucks and the guy had the nerve to tell 
me 
 to return the original  capacitor to the engineer of the competition that 
 loaned it to me.  FAT  CHANCE,  I lied I told him I changed them out and 
returned 
 but the GOOD  NEIGHBOR got a brand new replacement for the courtesy of 
loaning 
 me a part that  we should have had in stock.  I found notes were that  shunt 
 had  failed before. >>

Hi:

Here is a story that's from the other side of the fence. The owner-Manger of 
WROK/WZOK in Rockford Illionois where I was later chief for a few years, had a 
rather creative position about the competition being off the air (This 
gentleman passed away before I actually started working there).

If the competition went off the air for any appreciable length of time, he 
would call in his full time, well paid and respected Chief Engineer and say 
something like "station XXXX across town has been off the air all morning (or 
whenever), why don't you go over there and see what's going on and give them a 
hand"

Rockford was rated once a year at that time and a lot rode on that once a 
year Arbitron book. He did not want his competition off the air for fear that it 
would skew the numbers even though they would be skewed in his favor. He 
insisted on an accurate measurement of how his station was doing so if it slipped a 
little, he would have a chance to fix it before it slipped a lot. With the 
competition off, programming shortcomings would be masked and therefore possibly 
worse the next year and thus more expensive to address. True, the ratings 
books have notes in them about station such and so had technical difficulties 
over this and so daypart, but that was not good enough for this GM. "What does 
that say about us if we can't be #1 unless the competition is off the air?" he 
would ask his reluctant staff.

Even though I did not have the pleasure of working for this man, I worked for 
his son, who had a very similar attitude to his dad's. I would go in and ask 
if it was OK with him if I went over to the other station to help "Sure and 
let them borrow whatever they need" or something similar, would be his usual 
response. Oh and BTW, as long as our own immediate problems for the day were 
either fixed or at least addressed in some way, I was not expected to work late to 
make up for the time I was helping the other station in trouble. The family 
that owned the stations during that time, sold them several years ago.

However, I have since worked part time for the new owners on several 
occasions while I was at NIU working on my EE degree. It continued to be a first class 
place to work.

That was a great station to work for when I was full time there from 89 to 92 
and many successful people in all areas of radio got their start there. And 
what's really interesting, all of the really cool, fair, successful acting, 
professional and easy going people who worked there before, during and after my 
time there, are still in the business, flourishing and they continue to be 
respected and successful. We had some turkeys there too, just like anyplace else. 
And without exception, all of those turkeys are either out of the business 
entirely or they are in insignificant positions.

Jeff Glass, BSEE CSRE
Chief Engineer 
WNIU WNIJ