What's going on...
Nearly the end of December. Another whole year before I get to have a birthday again - unless I start celebrating the Summer Solstice as a half way mark, now there's a thought!It has been an odd month. The drive time announcer called in sick and when queried, a week later, about his medical certificate said he was taking a vacation.
I don't understand how people think sometimes. He is parttime, works one four hour shift per day with no preparation or production work. He arbitrarily takes -with no discussion - fifteen days off at our busiest time of the year and then calls the labour department to report us when we say politely there is no need to come back.
I am general and program manager of the station and I put in a request for time off in April a couple of weeks ago.
So I have been working the drive time shift straight through for the last two weeks and am finding it difficult to set up and record interviews, edit, come up with concepts and chart the calendar for 2008 as well as interview new potential announcers.
Plus, I cannot just leave the music selection to powergold. In the last two weeks we have played 100 percent Christmas/seasonal music and it was a personal challenge to try to make the segment I was working as non-repetitive as possible.
Which sometimes meant finding the most different versions of the same song and separating them in time. We owe it to our listeners to make the format and playlist as interesting as possible.
I have currently put two songs on the no-play list temporarily because the morning man is playing them every day at the same time. I suggested changing the time, rotating through the hours as we have had listeners call to complain but that has not been taken up so they will be suspended for a couple of days then put back into circulation.
I do not particularly like being a manager. I struggle to be kinder to other people than I am to myself because I am a perfectionist which makes me a pain to work for or with at times- the fact that I have been running two stations and am faced with the quandary of joining the BBC for the six o'clock news on one station while station two has a program that starts at six which requires human intervention makes me feel like a total failure because I cannot do the impossible.
And I am fully aware that it IS impossible to be in two places at the same time.
I have arranged that by next week everything will be in the automation system on station two - suggesting that deleting old stuff will leave room for new - so all that has to be done is a quick check to make sure the music timing is correct. And the illusion that I am in two places at one time will make for better radio.
I am a producer and on-air talent at heart and it carves that heart out of me when I see sloppy practices when there is a simple fix.
It is not that difficult to do things right. It is difficult to change the habits of 25 years and I have held my tongue between my teeth so that I do not try to overturn the status quo, just nudge it gently into new paths. I have an influx of new music and new programming creeping into the system. All the promos have been redone, the new print campaign is going well and my programming is bringing in sponsors so I am generating revenue.
The last two weeks have been discouraging though. I know I am not the right pick for a drive time show - I can announce in any time slot but I don't have the flavour that makes a drive time great.
Well neither did our ex-drive time guy so he did us a favour because I was wondering how to dislodge him in the new year. It is not going to be a simple job finding someone who will please the owner's sensibilities and do the job right.
The Universe always provides but right now I need it to provide fairly quickly. Do you hear me Universe?
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