WHEN TO LET THE P.D. RUN THE SHOW – AND WHEN YOU HAVE TO STEP IN
I well remember the first time I was accused by a program director of meddling with his air staff. This was at a station in a large market that was at a solid signal disadvantage and really struggling to assert itself in an overcrowded band. Because of this situation, I was constantly on the hunt for any competitive edge, however small.
One day, while returning to the station in my car, I noticed our staion's audio was distorted. One thing we had invested in was good signal processing gear so this had my hackles up right away. Before calling the chief engineer, I went straight to the control room, which had a window facing a hallway. Looking in, I immediately saw the problem: our midday air talent was pegging the VU meter needles way over on the right. I’m a former major market announcer, too, and I know my way around audio processing. I hustled into the control room, pointed out the error and the talent immediately cranked down the pot. I also asked her to please keep the monitors turned up so she could hear what she was putting out.
Of course, I received the old excuse of the non-technically blessed: “The processing gear will correct any level discrepancies. Right?”
Wrong. It’s garbage-in/garbage out. No processor can smooth out a really distorted signal. All any processor can do with junk like that is make it louder.
The upshot of this little incident was a fractious PD upbraiding me for meddling with his air talent. I held my tongue and did not inform him that, in fact, since I was the general manger, she was actually my air talent. What I said was that her show belonged to all our listeners. Thus she was actually their air talent. And as such, she was responsible for producing a clean, listenable stream of audio deliciousness. Not distorted (and highly processed) trash!
What I should have done, of course, was immediately call the P.D. from my car, explain the situation and ask him to step into the control room and apply verbal nudging (or thrashing) as required.
On another occasion, I did step in directly to deal with a developing on-air train wreck because it was potentially catastrophic for the whole organization. A talk show host was vilifying a local politico for some real or imagined villainy. He had gone on about this dastardly character for at least twenty minutes and was being not only entertaining but inventive.
Until...
He went overboard so suddenly and disturbingly that direct action was required. Raking politicians over the coals has a long and glorious history on talk radio. I have no problem with it. In fact, I often enjoy it. But this host suddenly veered away from the common weal and jumped on the politician’s personal life. He attacked the guy’s wife, who was not in politics, and even suggested other kids beat up the politician’s kids at school. Then he suggested a boycott of his business, which was a prominent local appliance store chain.
A swirling vortex of people and office supplies probably trailed in my wake as I flew from my office to the air corridor. I did have the presence of mind to enquire after the location of the program director. He had left for lunch. Alright then...
I walked into the control room, reached over the board op’s shoulder toward the pot for the talk host’s microphone and punched OFF. I then pointed to the computer screen containing the program log and said, “That stopset. Right now.” To the slack-jawed producer, I said “Backup show. You’ve got three minutes”. She went scrambling for the backup show we kept on file for each of our personalities, some evergreen programming with undated general content. At the end of the set, that’s what listeners heard. Of course it was jarring. But it dammed the flood in time, I hoped, to save our business.
It did. I suspended the talk host on the spot. The politician certainly did take offense at what had been said and I had to publicly apologize on behalf of the station. (Ever have to do that? It’s lots of fun.) The program director, who hadn’t been listening during a peaceful lunch, strolled back to work and into a maelstrom. He was a good guy who had worked hard to establish that particular host in our market and I felt bad for him.
Lessons For Radio Managers About Intervening In Programming
Here’s my take-away from these and similar incidents, which could happen to any radio station manager any day:
- Even in small markets, let your department heads run their departments for routine events
- Recognize the difference between fine-tuning your product and the headlight of an oncoming train
- Never – NEVER – hesitate to take the helm yourself and give it a good spin when the ship is seriously in danger of slamming into the rocks
In the end, they are your air talent, your department heads, your listeners – and your FCC license – and you are responsible for protecting all of them.
THURSDAY: Is Sports Talk A Throwaway Format At Your Station?
THURSDAY: Is Sports Talk A Throwaway Format At Your Station?
