Re: Verizon coverage and sponsorships

[Chuckigo@aol.com]

In a message dated 08/18/2000 1:15:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tklaundry@juno.com writes:
<< (of Larry's post...) 
  The announcer/producer/anchor making decisions about commercials? 
 > That's the job of the traffic department, we in master control get 
 > our instructions from them.  If someone in news wants a commercial 
 > killed or moved, they have to go through traffic.
 > The airline commercials are usually killed by the airlines (through 
 > their ad agencies) themselves, the station would still be under 
 > contract to air them otherwise.
 > Larry Weil
 
 to which Dave added...
 <<    Larry's right, >>

With all due respect to both Larry and Dave, there are stations that demand a 
level of compentency of their staff.  in radio, in a vast majority of the 
situations, most of us work independently and do not always have the benefit 
of "time" on our sides when snap-decisions are made, nor do we have managers 
in the building 24/7.  the immediacy of live broadcasting requires 
flexibility, ingenuity, intuition and a general ability to think and act on 
the fly.  
   as the promos at WBZ like to remind us, news happens on the weekends.  
   additionally, news happens at night.  and during vacations.  and usually 
when the person to whom you'd need to direct your concern is the least 
available.
   as Roger pointed out, some radio stations have, or had, standing orders to 
cover potential conflicts, such as a major plane disaster and a coincidental 
airline commercial. (we had a written policy regarding such at WHDH as well)  
spots can always be made good (with logical, time-sensitive exceptions; ie: 
"tonight at 8 on NBC") and even if pulling a spot in light of the moment is 
in error, it's, IMO, better to be safe than sorry.  (and this comes from 
experience as both a manager and jock)
     as to my present employer, we would have to get "authorization" to blow 
off a spot.  

- -Chuck Igo