Coaches Corner
He Forgot To Turn Off The Mic …
Let me tell you a story about a talented air personality who never lived up to his potential. I will refer to this person as Ralph. Thanks to a General Manager’s gossipy secretary, I was able to follow up and verify the facts of situation. While you read this, I bet some of you have worked with someone just like him.
A Natural…
The station’s air personalities got to know Ralph when he was working at Burger King. The midday talent told the other station employees about this funny kid. In the next group air talent critique session, the air personalities told the Program Director (PD) about him. He went over to check Ralph out and he instantly hired him on the spot.
Only In America…
Ralph started working at the station in the promotions department. He did well despite a tendency to bring his many personal problems into the workplace. Over time he sucked up to the General Manager (GM). That led to a part-time on-air position and way ahead of the PD’s plans for him.
However, the PD thought nothing of the GM’s gentle nudge. Ralph had become everyone’s protege and everyone helped the PD get him ready for some late weekend hours on the air work.
Not Trustworthy…
You would think working overnight would keep someone out of trouble, wrong. He was always creating chaos. From all accounts, he found time to come in during the day and instigate office drama. His ulterior motive was to deflect attention from his shortcomings. He wasn’t doing all his assigned production, and he would tape breaks in advance of his paid remote appearances. The breaks would air with him not showing until after the first break had aired. He did that a lot and got away with it.
No Longer His Problem…
The Program Director had grown tired of Ralph. However, that PD found a new job elsewhere and Ralph was soon to become someone else’s burden to bear. A new PD was hired. And as is often the case with new management hires, there was a honeymoon stage. It’s a time period when some requests ordinarily turned down, are granted.
High on the new PD’s ‘wish list’ was a perceptual research study to identify the station’s strengths and weaknesses. According to the results, Ralph was the best-known air talent. Despite all the problems he had caused under the tutelage of the former PD, he was promoted from overnight to The Morning Show team.
The Fall From Grace…
Then it finally happened. A situation came up that Ralph could not deflect away. Part of his deal when he joined The Morning Show was to do the 9am hour by himself. It was music intensive, and he only had a couple of commercial breaks where he was required to talk. Well one morning, he made the mistake of not turning the microphone off.
It was one of those consoles with the slide up and down module. The engineer had repeatedly warned the air staff to never leave the pod module at any voice level and just push it on or off. The instructions were to slide the volume pod down to zero and push the module off.
Whoops…
It was in the 9am hour that Ralph took a call from an underage female teenager and a portion of their X-rated conversation was heard over the airwaves. Only about 30 seconds went out over the air before the engineer went in and rescued him. Apparently from what aired, everyone could tell that Ralph, and the young lady knew each other.
You’re Out Of Here…
The PD pulled him off the air and hustled him into the GM’s office. The midday person had to go on earlier and finish his shift, and then do her shift. From what I was told, while the emergency meeting was going on, the underage teenager’s mother had called the business line and left a message with the receptionist. The PD had the engineer pull the logger tape and played it back in the meeting, and Ralph was fired immediately afterwards.
Lesson To Be Learned…
No amount of talent can overcome a lack of accountability or respect for the rules. And remember to turn off your mic when you are not live on the air.
And if you need some friendly advice, drop me an email; samweaver@samweavermedia.com or text me, (972) 672-4812.