[BC] Dealing with the Brain Challenged

[Craig Bowman]

Rich,

By "didn't get it" I mean everything from "If the automation is frozen 
do a weather or play a CD rather than just standing there watching the 
computer re-boot" to "Point the mast on the remote vehicle for the 
quietest signal rather than where you think the tower is", "when the 
transmitter is off don't leave voice mail, your job has changed and now 
you have nothing else to do but keep calling until you reach someone 
that will help", automation systems which have "auto filled" for hours 
where someone simply heard something on the air and assumed the correct 
program / content was running.  I could go on and on but you are correct 
when it comes to training.  There is no training ground these days but 
likewise many "newbies" don't seem to have the passion or deference for 
the end product to stray from their paradigms.  There is little thinking 
out of the box these days.

I hate to start a "I remember when..." thread but, imagine if you were 
to loose a turntable in a two TT facility.  How many (of us) managed to 
que a new record on the same TT (in our headphones if you were lucky 
enough to have a board which allowed this) while doing a weather or 
reading a live spot and nailing the post?  Anything less would be 
unacceptable!  Ever had someone set your news on fire?  Did anybody 
outside the studio know?  I don't really see anyone with that kind of 
passion for what comes out of the radio.

Now, I have also seen Engineers who did not get it.  Off the air because 
of STL failure while Marti's were sitting there unused.  Three phase 
facilities loosing the phase the studio was on and not pulling an 
extension cord from the studio to the neighboring office which had 
power.  One engineer I know left town on vacation (because it was paid 
for) two days after his 5K AM (7 tower directional) went off because of 
array problems.  Both sides have their brain dead members but since the 
jocks outnumber the engineers; the laws of probability are against the 
jocks.

Craig Bowman
Bowman Engineering
Local HDTV, Inc.
989-277-8835

On 4/4/2010 8:38 AM, Rich Wood wrote:
>
> I think you have to explain what the Jocks "didn't get." That's a
> little too broad. If they didn't get some technical issue, it's
> probably because they've never been trained, any more than an
> engineer has been trained to do a show. In many cases there's a
> complete disconnect between Jocks and Engineers. Each blames the other.
>
> How about engineers who "didn't get it" when designing a technical
> showplace of a studio that no one can comfortably work in? It takes
> the freedom to be creative away (however you define that). I know a
> few major league Broadway performers who absolutely refuse to work in
> a particular theatre. Rather than putting 100% into their performance
> they have to spend extra effort to outwit the stage.
>
> Rich
>
>