[BC] Negativity

[Bob Tarsio]

Dana:


These are great comments. Engineers today have to constantly ask themselves,
what is my time worth? Often the answer is: not much. And we do it to
ourselves. Whether it is low self respect of conditioning by management or a
combination of both it is a serious situation. I can't tell you how often I
hear this phrase: my manager will never pay for that. This is usually a
retort after a sales pitch for a product that will in fact save time and
money. 

A radio or television station has ownership. Along with that ownership there
is the responsibility of maintaining the owner's investment. Often, the
ownership is too short sided to see that investing in people first, and then
good systems will allow them to actually have a better bottom line. 

Dana, you hit the nail on the head with the idea of choices. Ownership has
two choices really. The first is to do nothing. Not a very good choice but a
very popular one. The second is to invest in the people and systems
necessary to do the job. Engineers need to get the burden off of them and
onto ownership. That generator that hasn't been maintained for nearly a
decade that failed and left the station off the air isn't the fault of the
new chief engineer who just signed on six months ago but the fault of
management and/or ownership for not recognizing that plant and equipment are
as important as having enough sales people. They made the conscious decision
to cut the budget eliminate the service contract on the generator. The same
goes for that air conditioner that's been leaking condensation all over the
floor or the transmitter that should have been retired when Reagan was
president. You get the idea. Everything has a useful life cycle. Thinking
that you can go indefinitely with old equipment is frankly a childish
notion. 

Dana you offer good advice to anyone reading this. The next time you find
yourself in a situation where you are expected to fix the problem and not
spend any money doing it make sure that in a diplomatic way you tell the
manager or owner that it is his or her choice and decision. Unless your name
is on the license, it isn't your choice but responsibility to inform those
names that do appear on the license what their choices are. 

Regards, 

Bob Tarsio


www.Broadcast-Devices.com
 


-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Dana Puopolo
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 20:42
To: Broadcasters' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [BC] Negativity

(I) Don't blame Clear Channel or any company for the situation broadcast
engineers are in. To their credit, CC actually pays well and runs clean
engineering shops.

WE are ther ones to blame for our situation. Like I posyed earlier, the guy
who offered $3.35 an hour (then couldn't find anyone) has two choices.
Either
pay more or leave the tower unclimbed.

Same with us. If we as a group refused to work for low paying or poorly
managed stations, those owners would have the same two choices.
Unfortunately,
there's always someonbe willing to whore themselves out, and they drag the
rest of us down with them. As a result, all of us lose.

If my toilet is leaking and I call a plumber, he quotes me a price and I
have
two choices: either pay his price or keep mopping up the floor. Same thing
with a car mechanic. Yet, in broadcast engineering there alwsys seems to be
someone who will work for a few dollars cheaper...THAT's the reason that
contract engineering rates really haven't gone up in Boston in over a
decade.
We don't cheat the owners, WE CHEAT OURSELVES when we  allow things like
this
to happen. With regards to Paul's comment, that's fine whenh you're single
without a family to feed and house, but it doesn't cut it for the majority
of
us.

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:55:33 PM EDT
From: RichardBJohnson at comcast.net
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: Re: [BC] Negativity


Paul,
I never claimed that there might still be some radio station 
somewhere that still has engineering discipline and might actually be 
a good place to work.

In response to:
 > Think before you speak
I did do my homework and I do know what I am saying. Do you see the 
tree growing at the base of a tower at Clear Channel's WKOX? 
http://gallery.bostonradio.org/miscellany/100-01124-med.html I wonder 
it this was included in their pattern calculations. Here is another 
view of the all too typical Clear Channel transmitter site. 
http://gallery.bostonradio.org/miscellany/100-01122-med.html Just 
like I said, just satellite dishes and weeds. Note that tree is 
between the towers!

This is just one of the Clear Channel stations that was bought so 
that they could have a tow-hold in the Boston market, actually in 
Framingham to get around some of those pesky FCC rules.

For your additional entertainment:

http://www.clearchannelsucks.net/
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A265001
http://www.salon.com/ent/clear_channel/
http://archive.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/05/30/clear_channel_employees/inde
x.html
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/clearchannel.asp

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson


  -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Paul B. Walker, Jr." <walkerbroadcasting at gmail.com>
 > I happen to know a Clear Channel engineer who now works for anhother
company
 > in the South... and by golly, their stations were ALOT more then a sat
dish
 > and overgrown weeds.
 >
 > As for WRCA-AM(Ex WCRB), Yeah, it's lost it's heritage... but I've seen
 > their tower site and their owned by a decent company.
 >
 > Think before you speak.
 >
 > Paul Walker
 >



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