Re: What's JJ up to?

[Jeremy Mixer <mixer@zoso.net>]

Hi Dan and list readers-

I thought your post was excellent, well written and well thought out, it
(in my opinion) was one of the most interesting posts I have read on this
list since I subscribed a year or two ago. A couple of things in
response....

On Mon, 19 Nov 2001, Dan Billings wrote:

> I also think radio management today, while heartless in some cases, is more
> professional.   In my early years in the business, I saw lots of illegal
> employment practices (discrimination, sexual harassment, etc.) and lots of
> managers who were arbitrary and dictatorial.  With the possible exception of
> one large corporate operator, I think those kind of things happen a lot less
> today.

Freom what I have heard talking to a lot of veterans this is so very true!
And from what I have heard from people I kow, this one large operator
still is up to it's practices....

there is a girl I know who interned this summer at WRED. She started out
by doing non-broadcast remotes, giving out bumper stickers and the such,
and by the end of the summer they were allowing her to voicetrack some
shifts.

She is someone from my area in southern Maine who is a good friend of mine
that started school when I did and instead of doing the two year program
like I did, she opted for the four year program at NESCom, because she
thought it would be better for her.

She had an interview with one of the bigger people at one of the corperate
companies in the area......sicne you mentioned "with the exception of one"
I will bet that we are talking about the same one, and I will not give
further detail on what organization.

She is very talented, entertaining, and if she sticks with it, I can
guarentee you that she has a lot of potential to be a successful radio
announcer.

At this interview she mentioned her internship at WRED and was laughed
at....literally. She was pretty insulted about that, and rightly so. I
have heard many things, boith good and bad, about the person who
interviewed her, and on the whole, the bad outweighs the good. I have
never met this person in management for this company, but I know a lot of
people who either do or have worked for him. For all I know he could be on
this list.

At this point in time she decided that she would never work for this large
corperation, and like me, is disgusted by them. I too will never even
attempt to put in a tape for this company because I would consider it an
insult to my living. I have seen them completely screw over a few friends
of mine, and often this involves the same person who laughed at the
girl...... and frankly, it disgusts me.

There was a company that also disgusted me when I first learned about
corperate radio- that was Cumulus. Cumulus also ended up being the first
company I worked for commercially and got a paycheck. (tiny AM stations in
northern maine don't count, especially when there is no income for the
station). I was worried about working for them, but thedesire to get paid
to do what I love outweighed my disgust of the company and things I had
heard. And in the brief four months I worked for them I realizzed that
while this company has a bad reputation, they are making a good effort to
make things better. I worked with good people there and if somewhere down
the road I had a good oppertunity there, I would go with it. For now I am
happy working at WKIT doing three weekend overnights live every week. I
have not had a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night off since I first got
this job in January....like anyone, I always keep my eyes open for a
better oppertunity. But I decided that as long as I stay in Bangor,
Maine......WKIT is the place to be. It is local, it's always live, and the
ENTIRE staff are nothing but good people in my mind. That and we have an
owner who truly seems to love owning a radio station that is local and
live. Thank you Mr. King.

Honestly- I could not stay in Bangor my whole life. My original goal was
to work at WBLM in Portland, that is the station that got me interested in
this biz in the first place. But going to school taught me not to be
picky- a job in the biz is a job. I'll still never forget the phone call
home to my dad..... "Hi dad two things.... concerning my car, I figured
out why it keeps stalling and not moving on that part of Husson Avenue (I
had to miss a shift on Z107 because of this once (thanks for filling in
chuck foster!)) and it is just a little air vent and i found out that if i
put a clothespin in there it keeps it open and the car runs fine. And the
second thing- this is gonna shock you dad...."

(my dad is a classic rock nut much like myself- hell he got me into it)

"Dad, I put my two weeks notice into Z-107 today..."

"Jeremy...why? I thought you liked working there...?"

"Well, I do! But I got hired at WKIT..."

"You....what???!?!?! How the f*ck did you do that???!?!?!?!"

I don't hear him talk like that often.....he was amazed.....and honestly,
so was I. I told him 22.5 hours a week versus 6-10 hours a week was the
big reason.....but the music was another thing- classic rock was what i
wanted to do! That and it is a really cool thought knowing that when I am
on the air doing my weekend overnight shifts, that out of the many
stations on the radio dial here in Bangor that are commercial, I am the
only guy that is live when I am on.....and the benefits of this are things
like- this weekend with the meteor showers (which I kepot accidentally
calling media showers! how frustrating!), listeners calling in, requesting
songs that went along with what was going on (i.e., "Shooting Star" by Bad
Company, "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds," Golden Earring's "Twilight
Zone" etc...) those are precious moments that can only be had with live
radio..... voicetracking can't do that. And those two hours were the
busiest that I have ever seen in 2 hours.....especially that late in my
shift (4 AM- 6AM). well the busiest until Sunday night when the internet
feed went down and I got calls from every corner of the world wondering
why their dr demento show wasn't on.....

> We will never go back to small owner/operators controlling most radio
> stations.  What would be an improvement would be corporations with a more
> long-term view that looked at employees as an asset, not a cost.  There are
> large corporations in other industries that take such an approach, maybe
> we'll see it in radio at some point.  I don't think it is the ownership form
> that is the problem.  It's the people in control of those corporations.

I personally don't think comanies should be able to get as large as they
have, some of them anyway. There will always be dirty companies, and there
will always be good ones. But more often tehn not, it is the dirty ones
that win. nice guys finish last.......

Jeremy