Jocks on a Hard Drive

[Dib9 <Dib9@aol.com>]

Hard drive systems do certainly allow stations to eliminate jobs and use more
part-time people, but in many cases this happens at stations that would have
instead used a satellite format or another automation system.  In general, I
think hard drive systems help keep local programming and in general retain
jobs that would have been otherwise lost.

In Maine, WCLZ is on the hard drive all day except morning drive.  They still
have four full time people, but they did eliminate one full time position and
several part time positions after they bought the machine.  WCYY is also all
on the hard drive and they use mainly part time people and people who also do
work for WBLM.

I did evenings on the hard drive for a couple of months at WCLZ.  I was not
good at it.  Doing one break after another without hearing the music is hard
to get used to.  I also would do a couple of days shows at a time so that made
it worse.  I also did not listen to the station when I was not at work so when
new music was added I was not familiar with it.  The whole process while
convient was not for me and was not why I got into radio.  I will say that I
have heard lots of other people do their show on the hard drive and they sound
very natural and in some cases do a better job than when they did it live so
it depends on the person.

Dan Billings
Bowdoinham, Maine

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