Re: Entercom imposes contract on AFTRA

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 09:57 AM 1/24/2003 -0500, Ron Bello wrote:


>>>At WBZ 1228 made concessions that at the time were staggering. Some 
>>>genius at IBEW agreed that talent could operate anything without a VU 
>>>meter. Suddenly VU less combo boards arrived.
>>
>>Remember seeing Arnie Ginsberg broadcasting from BZ's sundeck studio 
>>sometime in the late 70s.  Board had no VU meters...one of the guys I was 
>>with asked him and that's the reason he gave.  As I recall, WBZ's jocks 
>>ran their own boards even in the 60s.  Remember there being an article in 
>>the Globe around 1966 that featured a picture of one of the jocks (back 
>>of his head...couldn't tell who it was) in front of an obviously 
>>home-made board with no VU meters.


I can't say whether this was as true back then as it is today...but at so 
many stations I've visited or worked for, the board op is paying little to 
no attention to their VU meters and frequently they're pinning the damn 
things in the red with the music, and then the needles are barely twitching 
while they talk on-air.  Yet the audio on the air monitor sounds 
fine.  Because any engineer worth their salt knows to set up their audio 
processor to account for DJ's not watching the needles...and the processor 
will yank the loud stuff down, and the quiet stuff up.

So which is worse?  To have no VU meters and not need them, or to have VU 
meters and ignore them because you don't need them?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA