[BC] Give me bargain...

[Mike McCarthy]

An unnamed major group operator tried doing that long term and they 
found out the managers of the donating station/market wasn't happy 
since their respective budgets wasn't structured for sharing labor 
and the host station was falling behind in it's work. The recipent 
station OTOH made out like a bandit since the engineering costs were 
never passed on in many cases.

When enough managers started complaining to the regional people about 
both the shortfall in revenues caused by extended downtimes and loss 
of productivity, they finally relented and hired more people for the stations.

I think this trend will again stabilize out. But the smallest or most 
isolated rural stations will be hardest hit since there is simply not 
enough work to keep anyone around close-by with automation and solid 
state TX's being so reliable now. Stations which have co-located 
transmitters eliminate one more level of risk by not needing a STL path.

MM


 > Part of the problem today is that with all the
 > consolidation, is if a local engineer leaves, they will use
 > engineers from other clusters 1 to 3 hours away for the fire
 > calls. This negates any need for fill in contract. In West
 > Michigan, there is precious little contract work anymore.
 > What there is, only pays $ 25-30/hr, not worth my time.