Radio stations, at least when I first started in this business, were always upbeat happy places. Even in the worst of times and conditions, there were enough characters around to keep things lite, even if it was sometimes gallows humor. Back then, radio was an entertainment business, and who better to practice on then each other. Working late at night on a crappy transmitter, there was usually plenty of company and pizza. Even though the pay was low, the perks normally made up for it; diner or a movie trade for overtime, etc. In short, it was a fun place.
That was then, this is now: There is no fun in radio anymore, anyone who attempts to have fun will be disciplined or fired. Here are fifteen ways to ruin your staff’s moral if you think they are having too much fun:
Give the general impression that you don’t care about them, or better yet, don’t care about them.
Slowly erode whatever benefits are left. Start with vacation time, reduce it by 1/3 or more. Force give backs on sick days and personal days.
Stop 401k matching contributions.
Make them pay a greater and greater share of health and dental “benefits.” Make sure the benefits have very high co-pays and yearly deductables.
Place the blame squarely on other shadowy exterior forces such as “The Banks.”
If the employees really have you up against the wall, fire the general manager then blame him/her for every bad thing that has happened in the last ten years.
Don’t give raises. Make an announcement at the Christmas Party that there will be no raises this year.
Micro-manage. Make sure that every decision to do anything, no matter how small or insignificant, is run by you first. No one is capable of independent thought or action. Delay everything for no purpose whatsoever, just to show them who is boss.
Fire all senior staff members because they are making too much money.
Don’t replace terminated employees, rather spread the work around to those left.
Continually ask the staff why it is taking so long to get their work done, hang around and offer meaningless suggestions on how to be more efficient.
To motivate sales people, attend sales meetings. Make each sales person stand up and state what their budget is, whether they are meeting it and what steps they plan to take if they are not. Have the spread sheet in front of you in case they lie.
Do not to any building maintenance: Roof leaks? Wear a rain coat. Furnace doesn’t work? Keep your coat on. Don’t have a coat? Here’s the address for the Salvation Army. Floor rotting out in the production room? Watch your step, else you may have to crawl through the spider webs under the building to get out.
Strongly “suggest” that all employees should work two Saturdays per month. If you think they are not meeting that “obligation” harass them every opportunity you get, e.g. the men’s room, staff meetings, the hall way, call them on Saturday at home and ask when they might be coming to work, etc.
If anyone complains, tell them the are lucky to have a job and if they don’t like it, they know where the door is.
Those are the best fifteen, there are many more. These are tried and true methods that have worked wonders for my former employer’s moral. Not so much, however, the staff. Those poor bastards.
You know, when your job interview seems a little off, perhaps it would be better to seek employment elsewhere:
Okay, a few weeks have past and I suppose a little blog posting may clear up things a little. A lot of this is going to be personal, including my observations about the company that I worked for for the last almost eleven years.
Here is what happened: Long about October or so, one of the big wigs was around the studio building. I’d always gotten along reasonably with the guy, we had our occasional differences of opinion, but nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary. So anyway, Mr. Big Wig was acting a little strangely. On a side note, I observe people, I can almost always tell when someone is lying or being less than truthful (except compulsive liars, they are harder to spot). At the time, I thought it a little strange.
Then, around three weeks later, I noticed a help wanted ad in Radio World. Something for Western Massachusetts, which again, I thought was odd because there are no radio groups in Western Massachusetts. My gut reaction was that is either my job, or the contractor in Albany.
Finally, around the middle of November, the general manager at my location began to act shifty as well, and the jig was up. I knew that I was on the way out, likely because I refused to do any more work without more pay.
I am fortunate for the following reasons:
1. The contracting company that took over my position immediately hired me to work for them. Truth be told, I have better benefits, better working conditions, and a better over all outlook now than before.
2. About three years ago, I started a side business installing solar systems. At that time, it was a way to make up for the money I was loosing by working at the radio stations. It has grown into something that is more than I expected, faster than I expected. The new work arrangement allows me to still pay the bills and grow my company.
The contractor in question is somebody I have known for twenty years. He is a good guy and I am happy to be working with him.
I am still, however, deeply deeply disappointed in the way it was handled.
So, my advice to anybody reading is to watch out for yourself. Keep your eyes and ears open and have a plan B or even C.
As for me, I plan to transition my way out of radio, because as I have opined here, and others have stated as well, there is no future in it.
Sign No. 1: Conspicuously posted vision or value statements are filled with vague but important-sounding words like “excellence” and “quality”
These words are seldom defined and the concepts they allude to are never measured.
Sign No. 2: Bringing up a problem is considered more as evidence of a personality defect rather than as an actual observation of reality
In a dysfunctional company, what it looks like is not only more important than what it is, it is what it is. If you don’t believe that, you are the problem. A surprising amount of information is classified. Dysfunctional companies have more state secrets than the CIA. Anything that might embarrass the boss turns out to be a national security issue.
Sign No. 3: If by chance there are problems, the usual solution is a motivational seminar
Attitude is everything, especially in places where facts are embarrassing or inconvenient. In a dysfunctional family, there’s an elephant — usually a drunken abusive parent — in the parlor, but no one ever mentions him. To appear sane, you have to pretend that the elephant is invisible, and that drives you crazy. Businesses are full of invisible elephants, too. Usually they are things that might cause difficulties for people with enough clout to prevent their discussion. The emperor may be naked, but if you have a good attitude, you won’t mention it.
Sign No. 4: Double messages are delivered with a straight face
Quality and quantity are both job one. You can do it both cheaper and better, just don’t ask how. If you’re motivated enough you should know already.
Sign No. 5: History is regularly edited to make executive decisions more correct, and correct decisions more executive than they actually were
Those huge salaries require some justification.
Sign No. 6: People are discouraged from putting things in writing
What is written, especially financial records, is purposely confusing. You can never tell when you might need a little deniability.
Sign No. 7: Directions are ambiguous and often vaguely threatening
Before you respond to a vague threat, remember this: Virtually every corporate scandal begins with someone saying, “Do it; I don’t care how.” That person is seldom the one who gets indicted.
Sign No. 8: Internal competition is encouraged and rewarded
The word “teamwork” may be batted around like a softball at a company picnic, but in a dysfunctional company the star players are the only ones who get recognition and big bucks.
Sign No. 9: Decisions are made at the highest level possible
Regardless of what it is, you have to check with your boss before doing it. She also has to check with her boss.
Sign No. 10: Delegating means telling somebody to do something, not giving them the power to do it
According to Webster’s Dictionary, you delegate authority, not tasks. In dysfunctional companies you may have responsibility, but the authority lives in the office upstairs.
Sign No. 11: Management approaches from the latest bestseller are regularly misunderstood to mean what we’re doing already is right on the mark
“Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” “Good to Great” and “Who Moved My Cheese?” all seem to boil down to, “quit griping and do more with less.”
Sign No. 12: Resources are tightly controlled
Your department may need upgraded software, but there’s been a spending freeze since 2006. Cost control is entry-level management, but in a dysfunctional company anything more sophisticated is considered too touchy-feely. Whatever you propose, the first question you will be asked is if it can be done cheaper.
Sign No. 13: You are expected to feel lucky to have a job and know you could lose it if you don’t toe the line
Dysfunctional companies maintain control using the threat of punishment. Most will maintain that they also use positive rewards … like your paycheck. A few people are actually fired, but most of those who go are driven to quit.
Sign No. 14: Rules are enforced based on who you are rather than what you do
In a dysfunctional company, there are clearly insiders and outsiders and everyone knows who belongs in each group. Accountability has different meanings depending on which group you’re in.
Sign No. 15: The company fails the Dilbert Test
Dysfunctional organizations have no sense of humor. People who post unflattering cartoons risk joining the ranks of the disappeared. When an organization loses the ability to laugh at itself, it is headed for big trouble. If you’d get in trouble for printing this article and posting it on the bulletin board at work, maybe it’s time to look for another job before this one drives you crazy.
The other day, the NTR (Non-Traditional Revenue) person came to me and said “Great news! We hired a new web guy, he knows all about engineering too!”
Really?
So I spoke to the Web Master/Broadcast Engineer for a bit. As it turns out, he knows how to do things like reboot the XDS satellite receiver, and he has been to the transmitter site a few times to take meter readings. I suppose these days, that is what counts as broadcast engineering experience. I suppose that someone like this could get by for a bit until something really bad happened.
Sadly, I think the upper management and ownership believes that this guy could do my job. To them, I am an employee number, with a salary and benefits package worth X. If they can replace me with someone that makes <X, that would represent savings. Plug that guy into this spot, everything will go on as it did before.
I don’t think they understand exactly what a Broadcast Engineer does. On any given day, I may:
Program an automation computer
Change the battery on a backup generator
Change the battery bank in our 18 KVA UPS
Clean a transmitter
Aim a satellite dish
Trouble shoot a DS-1 Circuit
Repair a microwave transmitter or receiver
Take a set of monitor points
Repair a tower light flasher circuit
Install a console
Repair a CD player
Trouble shoot an RF module
PM a generator
Work with a tower crew to place an antenna on a tower
Install an RF connector on 3 inch transmission line
Wire an Air conditioning unit at a transmitter site
Repair lightning damaged ATU
Trouble shoot an AC unit
Aim an STL antenna
Repair an RPU transmitter
Wire a new rack room
Order a new HICAP TELCO circuit
Coordinate a complex format change
Program and wire a new satellite reciever
Trouble shoot an audio hum
Pass an FCC inspection
Program an EAS unit
Wire a new studio
Design a tower light monitor circuit
Fix a studio phone system
Install an audio router
Match an AM transmitter to a new tower
Wire an ethernet patch panel
Manage a new tower project
Install a new transmitter
Make NRSC measurements on an AM transmitter
Reboot a server
Fix a reel to reel machine
Install a computer program
Clean a console
Pass an inspection by the fire marshal
To name a few. In other words, there are a lot of complex systems at a multi station radio facility. Some of this can be learned at various schools and colleges. A lot of it is experience. There is no substitute for an experienced veteran broadcaster who has seen almost everything and can think on his or her feet.
I have had this discussion with the market manager, and he gets it. I know that he understands who knows more about the ins and outs of all of our studio and transmitter sites. Things like, where is the water shutoff, the handle is broken off of the toilet on the second floor. Of course, I know it is down stairs in the furnace room next to the fire sprinkler system.
I know where the skeletons are buried. I have the inside numbers for the utility companies and the phone company. I know the code enforcement officer for most of the municipalities where we own buildings and property.
This was and still is a very common theme. Either by purchasing more radio stations and combining them, firing all of the overnight DJ’s and automating, or “combining market forces to create a better synergy,” the radio engineer gets more work dumped on him. Naturally, they also have given out a hefty raise to boot, right?
No?
Has this happened to you? Why is it that the engineers always get shit upon? I’ll tell you, look in the mirror. Engineers (and IT guys) do it to themselves because they accept it. Here is a news flash:
Radio stations cannot run without engineers
Think about it. Is the market manager going to be on call in case the Audiovault crashes? Will he answer the phone when the automated station’s silence sensor goes off at 2 am? Will he be able to fix it? How about the transmitter or the internet web stream, or the e-mail, the broadband internet, the phone system, STL, the traffic computer, etc.
The more technology driven a radio station becomes, the more technology people will be needed. It is also a little peculiar, at least to me anyway, that there are fewer and fewer radio engineers.
It is about time that radio station owners in particular come to realize a basic tenant of supply and demand. As a commodity (our collective skill and knowledge about broadcasting) becomes rarer, the price goes up. After all, the radio owner’s certainly are making money, Lew Dicky got his bonus this year in spite of the collapse of Cumulus stock prices. I am sure that Lowery Mays is doing quite well in spite of the rumors of the looming Clear Channel bankruptcy.
What I am talking about is not stabbing your fellow engineer in the back. If the above scenario plays out for you, don’t accept the additional work without a raise. If you do, you diminish your value and the value of every other broadcast engineer. When it comes to corporate management, these people are not human. They are very well trained bean counters who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.
Axiom
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
~1st amendment to the United States Constitution
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
~Benjamin Franklin
...radio was discovered, and not invented, and that these frequencies and principles were always in existence long before man was aware of them. Therefore, no one owns them. They are there as free as sunlight, which is a higher frequency form of the same energy.
~Alan Weiner
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
~Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Article 19
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