[BC] Do We Still Like Our Jobs?

[Keith Hammond]

Scott Todd wrote:

> Holy cow! <:O

  Folks, I do not (for a minute) think that the entire company operates
in that manner. I seem to have just accepted an offer at a specific
cluster that seemed to be severely prone to much "back-biting" and
"competition amongst themselves" at any and all costs.

  The stations even had monthly competitions on which one had the
highest billing and would (at that time, at least) even go after each
other in a most extreme "cut-throat" manner that would've made anyone
swear that they were all owned by different people despite the fact that
they were all commonly owned and in the same building! (Remember the FM
PD's comments about how "that's not MY f...ing AM station and I don't
care what happens to it so MY air staff isn't switching antenna patterns
on the f...ing thing!" despite the fact that management had determined
that is WAS his air staff's responsibility. (Since his station was
usually the highest billing station, management would not ever back-up
that mandate so, the only person left "holding the bag" was the engineer
who was constantly having to explain why the remote switching was
"faulty" when it was in fact the FM air staff who simply couldn't be
bothered with selecting the correct remote channel and pressing "Raise"
or "Lower" at a predetermined time...

  This is also a station that had an old (unused for years)
audimax/volumax pair mounted in the rack where the Flashcomm (later to
be called "Terion" and later to be called "out of business") gear HAD to
be mounted and the PD swore that his "secret processing weapon" had been
STOLEN because I removed the older gear (including some old subcarrier
based paging equipment and stored it at the AM transmitter site in order
to make room for the Flashcomm installation. (I'd like to have seen him
use that "secret processing weapon" without an external stereo generator
and it certainly couldn't be called "pre-processing" because it would've
introduced a whole new level of pre-emphasis to his station...)

  The page that you've seen on the website came about due to the OM's
insistence that I keep an accurate accounting of EVERYTHING I did (due
to his insistence that I was doing NOTHING for *his* station) and, after
looking at it one particular day, I decided to publish the list of
accomplishments for that day for him to see. (Of course, this was after
the firing.)

  Seriously, the biggest "problem" they seemed to have was the fact that
a visit to any of the transmitter sites would take at least three hours
(at least one to one and a half hours to get there and the same amount
of time to get back) even if you DON'T DO ANYTHING when you get there
and the transmitters had all been pretty well neglected for MONTHS
before my arrival. (One even had a serious diesel fuel leak from the
generator that I was never allowed to address. And, in California, heads
will roll for that. Probably, MY head, though...)

  Take it for what it's worth but, also remember that this was a small
and select group that was (at the time) allowed to run rampant over
anyone and everyone due to the fact that (they claimed) they were "the
highest billing cluster owned by the company" and management's attitude
was that "the chemistry seems to be fairly profitable" so the individual
PD's were given free reign over anyone and everyone. But, I will also be
the first in line to tell you that two of those PD's were wonderful
people who fully understood the ego battles of the two slave drivers.
The two "good guys" never griped, never complained and always asked
(very politely) that "our equipment needs looking at after you get
through with Dave and Bubba's stations this week if you can find the
time".  Those two were truly a class act performing under a set of (for
me) almost impossible circumstances.

  These were the only stations I've ever seen where the PD's would
actually demand that the CE be in the building to personally "sign-off"
on a note verifying that a (nightly) satellite feed went off "as always"
when the same air staff was on-hand that had done the shift for more
than a year simply because management allowed them to demand your
presence 24/7.

  This was also the only place I've ever been that an OM could possibly
come in 10 minutes before a scheduled remote broadcast and ask a
question such as "I had an ISDN line installed and now the telephone
company tells me out POTS equipment won't work with it! That's YOUR
fault!!!" when you've attended no fewer than FOUR meeting the previous
week explaining that the stations have no ISDN equipment and that
management will NOT approve the purchase of any such equipment. (The
OM's suggestion? "YOU, as our engineer, should've bought some and
charged the company for it!" Yep! This was late 1998 and that was an
expensive proposition for an engineer. Especially, when considering the
fact that management had just REFUSED to authorize such a purchase.)

  No... In that particular instance, I spell relief in this way:
"F-I-R-E-D'! And, sweet relief it was!!!

  But, I do NOT think that all stations associated with that particular
company are operated in that manner. I also hope that there have been
some major changes at those stations somewhere along the way.


Keith Hammond

KBKH-FM (Shamrock, Texas)

(806) 256-1221