[BC] Stupid Board Op Tricks

[Gary Peterson" <kzerocx@rapidcity.net]

" As a means of ensuring that stations have technically competent people
operating
in a technically competent manner, I'm all for it.  I've seen too many
people pass
through our doors who can't find their tushie with both hands..
ak "

I remember an operator (DJ) that, upon realizing that there was dead air,
completely followed the procedure to switch to the backup transmitter.  The
fact that the meter readings on the main TX were normal or that the VU
meters on the board were not moving didn't register as important.  The
program buss assign switch for the fader in use had somehow become
deselected.  When the operator was shown the cause of the problem, the reply
was (paraphrasing) "Oh, I don't touch those because I don't know what
they're for."  A couple of weeks earlier, I determined that taking/logging
meter readings was a totally foreign concept to this person.

I take partial responsibility for this operator's lack of training, as I
incorrectly *assumed* that someone with a four-year degree in broadcasting
would know some of this stuff.  Apparently, the undergraduate college
curriculum does not include logging readings or what a VU meter or program
or audition buss is for.  Maybe logging and the basic block diagram of an
audio console or radio station is part of the master's or Ph.D. program.

Gary, K?CX