[BC] forget the brain dead engineers what about the DJ's?

[Jeff Glass]

In a message dated 4/5/2010 8:00:33 AM Central Daylight Time, broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

>what really urged me was i had asked some simple yes or no questions
>and keeped getting explanations.. i continually had to stop him and say
>these are yes or no questions i need no explanations.
>i asked the questions again,, silence for about 30 seconds,,, "are you
>still there"? i asked and here comes the explanations again..
>well i still don't know if it works right or wrong, and one last thing
>i told the board op is i could teach a monkey to run it and do what i
>had asked..

>TALK ABOUT REALLY BRAIN DEAD BOARD OPERATORS.

>ok rant is over...  any one have simular problems with board
>operators???

Bill,

I have had these kinds of problems in the past. The best solution is in the proper framing of the questions. This is where building a rapport with people at the station pays off big time; it gives them a chance to know you beyond dealing with technical problems.

Do you honestly believe that telling a jock that you can train a monkey to operate the transmitter is going to help anything? Is that going to crate a positive impression? Is it motivational? Humiliation never works. What if they said that they could train a monkey to fix a transmitter? I'm sure you would have a good come back, but what problem does this kind of conversation fix? It helps nothing. The jock will simply retain the notion that, from his perspective, he does not know how to get through to you.

I make it a top priority to be the best human being that I can be with regard to my behavior and how I talk to people. Engineering is what I do, it is not who I am. I make every effort to convey that to the people with whom I work. It has made a huge positive difference in my interactions with my staff, compared to when I was hard core engineer where my only concern about life was the transmitter/equipment.

Jeff Glass
WNIU WNIJ
Northern Illinois University