Engineering Radio

My former employer thinks he knows better than anyone what to do in every given situation.  ”Mister,” as he is “affectionately” known, has a legendary cheap streak.  When I worked for the company, every year there would be a debate on whether we should plow and maintain the road to a certain transmitter site.  Mind you, this is not just any transmitter site, but the transmitter site of the number one billing station of the entire group of 35 stations.  It is located in the wealthy suburban setting of market Number One and bills more than most of their other markets combined.

Naturally, when I was there, I put up a stiff fight to make sure the road got patched and plowed.  Oh they would scream and nash their teeth about how unfair it was, and can’t we do this or do that, etc.  This went on every year for the entire ten years I worked for the company.  For my part, I just ignored it.  Back in October of last year, when I was first starting to see the handwriting on the wall, there was this clandestine meeting with the other residents on the road which I was not invited to.  You see, the lower half of the road has houses on it.  Mister thought that the residents of the road should chip in for the road plowing.  When they refused (because they were already plowing the lower part of the road themselves) he said we would absolutely, positively ,100% not be plowing the road this winter.

I departed the company in January.  Since then, the upper part of the road was not touched.  Then came last week’s blizzard.  Prior to the blizzard, the generator fuel tank was 9/10 full.  The power went out on Wednesday during the first storm.  I called the General Manager for the radio station on Friday and told him that the generator would need fuel soon and asked if the road had been plowed.  He said they were working on it and it should be done on Saturday.  I told him that we needed a fuel truck up there ASAP otherwise they would be going off the air.  He said he was on it.

Sunday morning at 6:30 am, the generator ran out of fuel.  Naturally, my phone rings.  I begin calling around all the fuel oil companies in the area to see if I can get a Sunday delivery.  I finally arrange something and we also get a 4WD pickup with a 100 gallon day tank to meet us there.  When I arrive at the site at 9:30 am, a backhoe was just starting to clear the upper part of the road.  The snow is knee deep and there is a layer of ice under it.  It took until about 1:30pm to get the road cleared enough to get the 4WD pickup, with tire chains near the generator to transfer fuel.  Then, because the fuel pump sucked air, we had to bleed the injectors, reset the faults, etc.  We finally got the generator started around 2:00pm.

So, let us compare costs:

Plowing the road cost about $800.00-$900.00 per storm.  This year, there were five to six storms where the road needed to be plowed. Total $4,500.00

Last Sunday, the station was down for about 7 hours.  I’d say that station likely bills $150.00 per unit on a Sunday morning, 10 units an hour so they lost $10,500.00 by being off the air.  Then there is the backhoe needed to clear the road.  A backhoe was needed because there was so much snow on the road that a regular snow plow could not move it, especially plowing up hill.  That cost $1,500.00.  Then there is my overtime and the guy with the 4WD pickup, another $1,440.00.  Total cost to plow the road and get the station back on the air, somewhere in the neighborhood of $13,440.00.

So, yeah, Mister is really saving money.  How’s that working out for you, a$$hat?