The HEA Cafe

So, who else works at a radio station besides the disc jockeys? Trust me, you can have a lot of fun here, too….

As you read this, you’ll be able to tell where some of my deepest empathies lie. My husband is a disc jockey (who did make a dreaded three-year foray into sales – brr!), and I worked for seven years as a copy writer, working closely with the traffic department. So I may write with a certain bias, but this is the way I see –

Sales reps: They sell the commercials that keep the radio station afloat and everyone’s salaries paid. They’ll remind you of that, too, when they come in with that commercial after the daily deadline that absolutely has to be on the air tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong – like the morning show host, these folks range from arrogant so-and-sos to glad-handing charmers … but it’s their commission that’s on the line, and they’ll do just about anything to get that spot on the air. Some of them really struggle, too – the newest rep is the low man on the totem pole, who’s inherited the accounts that don’t pay off, and they have to go scrabbling through the community for SOME business that the other reps haven’t already sold or tried to sell to a dozen times. Try to argue with a sales rep, and you’ll usually lose, because management doesn’t want to turn down those advertising dollars either. If you ever need more conflict in a radio story, just throw in a sales rep. They can be really nice – they just don’t always relate well to certain realities, like time, space, and, well, reality. And those last-minute spots? They very often have to be re-cut, because they’re missing some minor detail – like, say, the business’s correct name or phone number.

Traffic department: Not to be confused with the people (usually off-site) who call in the traffic reports for drivers, these people work within the station, scheduling those commercials the sales reps bring in. They often work long hours to make this happen.

Copy writer: This is generally regarded as a luxury item. Many stations don’t have one. If they don’t, sales reps usually write the commercials, or sometimes the jocks. A copy writer’s job is to turn a sales rep’s copy instructions into understandable English and try to persuade them that the client really shouldn’t try to throw in every piece of information but the kitchen sink, or the listener won’t remember ANY of it. Can often be found trying to track down the rep who just fled the building, in search of the correct pronunciation to the client’s name, or the missing digit of a 6-digit phone number. In my case, the copy writing position also included the duties of….

Production director: Again, a luxury item, usually combined with some other job. I found a LOT of my job was not just writing the commercials, but chasing after problems with the ones that were already on the air. The ones hawking a Christmas sale, still scheduled to run on December 26^th … the one where an agency sent several dubs, and we were running the wrong version … the one that some ambitious new jock chose to voice in a foreign accent for no reason except to show his versatility … I worked very closely with the traffic department, who would give me the heads-up on some of those expiring Christmas spots. Let me tell you, a radio station on the afternoon of December 24^th is a lonely place to be.

Engineer: Ever see Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy, on Saturday Night Live? Most engineers are like that. They know more than you would ever want to know about incomprehensible technical stuff, like what’s wrong with the studio’s sound board or the transmitter – and most of them won’t let you forget it. When you can reach them, anyway. A lot of them work on an “on-call” basis – that technical expertise is pretty expensive, after all – and they can be hard to get hold of in case of an equipment meltdown. Sometimes there’s an on-site engineer, but the personality type is USUALLY the same.

Owners/management: Even in the days before most radio stations were owned by big corporations, the owners were usually from somewhere out of town, and rarely seen. The same holds true of corporate CEOs. If you do see an owner, or someone from the corporation, chances are change is in the air: a new owner, a new music format, a station manager who’s about to disappear. The station manager is on site and oversees the daily operations of the station while reporting to those elusive owners. The station manager may not be very accessible – he or she usually deals primarily with the office staff, or maybe a program director or sales manager who’s in the hot seat for low ratings or sales. Not ALWAYS the case … but often.

Whew. I think that covers most of it, although more details keep creeping into my head. When you get down to it, I could probably write a book on radio. Come to think of it, I have.

Hope you’ve had fun this week. I know that not many of you are likely to run out and write a radio-based book, but if a character who’s involved with a radio station needs to make a cameo appearance, now you have some of the basics.

So, to wrap up the week, be sure to let me know if you have any questions about something I might have left out. And if you come up with a radio-related question later on down the road, you’re welcome to track me down!

Sierra Donovan
LOVE ON THE AIR, Avalon Books
www.sierradonovan.com

As I mentioned yesterday, most disc jockeys wear a couple of different hats. Here are some of the duties that can come in addition to a four- to six-hour air shift:

Production. This is the term for recording the commercials and promotional announcements that air on the station. Some commercials – or “spots” — come pre-recorded from an outside, professional agency. These pre-recorded spots are called “dubs,” and it’s a relatively small matter to record them into the station’s computer system. A small matter, but somebody’s gotta do it. The overnight guy (or gal) usually gets stuck with most of the dubs, because their skills may not be polished enough yet to deliver a spot that’s guaranteed to make the advertising client happy. Also, some dubs have a nasty habit of arriving late!

Agency dubs are those slick, professional-sounding spots you hear for the big department stores, fast food chains, etc. But at a medium-to-small-market station, a lot of the advertising revenue comes from local businesses, and that’s where the jocks really get busy. They’re given a script to produce. Sometimes they have to write it, too. More often, the scripts are written by the sales rep, or even worse, the client. THAT’S where you get those commercials with the truly awful dialogue: “Honey, I’m SO tired of sleeping on our lumpy old mattress!” “Well, then, let’s go to Sally’s Sleep Shop, where NOW THROUGH SATURDAY, they’re offering FIFTY PERCENT OFF …” Clients (and sales reps) will often have high expectations, such as multiple voices, sound effects, or someone who can do a dead-on Arnold Schwartzenegger impersonation. The rep may turn the script in at 4:00 (deadlines notwithstanding), and expect the commercial to start the next day. This is where the jock begins pulling his or her hair out. You can see where you could get a lot of story material out of this!!

The overnight jock may thirst for the day when he or she gets to record — or “voice” — his/her very own spot. Usually the enthusiasm is short-lived. Many jocks would happily live without doing production if they could. A few have a natural talent for it. They’ll be relied upon heavily – often more heavily than they would like – but this valuable skill may keep them employed in the event of staffing cutbacks, especially if the radio station changes hands.

Live broadcasts: Radio staffers refer to these as “remotes,” but for clarity, it’s easier just to call it a live broadcast. A disc jockey is sent to another location – a community event, or a local business – to talk it up and, ideally, bring people in. They’ll usually call in to the studio from a cell phone, where the jock who’s on the air will either talk to them live (this is chancy), or, usually, record the call-in for the next break. Live broadcasts usually last 2 to 3 hours, with about 3 call-ins an hour. The live broadcast is usually sold as an advertisement to promote the location, though at some community events or a big concert, the station may choose to be there.

Now, to bait listeners to drop by, the jock will usually have prizes: station T-shirts, bumper stickers, CDs, or goodies from the place of business they’re visiting. This will attract a certain number of “prize hogs” – people who follow the radio station obsessively, go to tons of remotes and relentlessly demand freebies. One prize often isn’t enough, even if they already picked up prizes at another remote earlier in the week. The worst thing about these folks is that the advertiser who’s paying for this exposure isn’t likely to see any business from them. And the station is supposed to be bringing in business!

Then again, some businesses who choose to use a live broadcast are pretty ill-advised. Not many listeners want to drive out for all the fun and excitement at a vacuum cleaner store or a uniform supply shop … but I promise you, I’ve seen remotes held at those places and worse. Sometimes the jock won’t even have prize hogs for company … in which case they have to work hard to make it sound like SOMETHING is going on, and try to avoid standing there looking lonely.

Program director: Usually one of the most experienced jocks doubles as the program director, supervising the on-air staff. They get paid a little more to do this, but I’m not sure it could possibly be enough! If the morning show host says something bad on the air, the “P.D.” gets to yell at him/her. If someone doesn’t show up for an air shift with ten minutes’ notice, the P.D. usually ends up filling in. If the computer crashes and there’s dead air, the P.D. will be down there at 4 AM in his or her socks. If the ratings are down and management starts getting twitchy, the P.D. feels the pressure. (Are those jocks talking too much again? Do they sound too young? Too old? Too mild? Too “in-your’face”?) The program director is also usually involved in developing promotions for the station such as on-air contests. They often schedule the jocks for their remotes and talk to the consultants about which songs are to be scheduled. Sometimes a P.D. will delegate some of these responsibilities … but it’s a gig that really brings out the workaholic in a person.

Music director: Another hat for an on-air staffer. The music director implements the consultant’s instructions on which songs to play, usually filtered down from the program director. Depending on the station, they may have some latitude here, but it’s limited. The music director generates the daily computer log listing the songs by each hour.

So, disc jockeys can be a busy lot. But a radio station isn’t run by jocks alone. I’ll talk about some of those other staffers tomorrow. Then, on Friday, I’m declaring it a free-for-all. Be on the watch for any questions I may have left unanswered … then pop in and ask away!

Sierra Donovan
LOVE ON THE AIR, Avalon Books
www.sierradonovan.com

If you’re writing about radio, it’s hard to skip these folks.  And why would you want to?  They’re the face of the radio station.  Listeners may refer to them as DJs, but in my experience, within the station they’re always referred to as “jocks.”

Here are the typical air shifts, and some of my (subjective) personal observations about the types of people who inhabit them:

The morning jock:  This is the high-profile air shift, the one that people are listening to when they drive to work (usually 5 to 9 or 6 to 10 AM).  Likely to be funny; also likely to have the biggest ego at the station.  And don’t get me wrong, the jocks ALL have egos, and some wear theirs more nicely than others.  The morning show person may be an arrogant so-and-so or a glad-handing charmer.  Either way, he/she probably gets paid the most, often has lighter off-air duties, and may be resented by the other staffers who wish they were in his/her shoes.  BUT – the morning shift is also the hot seat.  Management looks to the morning show to bring in the listeners and keep ‘em listening … so this person is under a lot of pressure to perform.  Unless they’ve been doing it for years and years, in which case they’re so well entrenched in the listeners’ minds that they’re well-nigh indestructible.  Oh, and if there’s a morning show team, chances are, they squabble — how happy would you be to see ANYONE at 5 AM?!  Plus, there’s the duel of egos … usually one of them is the dominant on-air personality, while the other is the “straight man.”

The midday jock:  On the air from about 10 AM to 2 PM.  This is generally treated as the listen-at-work shift, if the station’s music format is office-friendly at all.  The midday person is often female, and in my experience, usually pretty easygoing.  (Not that you can’t turn her into a scheming, clawing ambitious witch if you have a mind to….)

Afternoon drive:  From 2 or 3 PM to 6 or 7 PM.  Listeners are getting back in their cars, so more personality is called for again – this person often offers a lot of entertaining or newsy tidbits on the air, often bantering with the person who calls in with the traffic reports.  This is a hoppin’ shift, and usually calls for an energetic personality.

The night jock:  On the air from about 7 PM to midnight (notice how the air shift just got an hour longer?), this person often handles requests and dedications.  A lot of their callers are going to be teens or pre-teens.  If the jock is young enough, they may thrive on this audience, but most of them would probably prefer one of the previous shifts.

The overnight jock:  VERY few people thrive in this spot, from midnight to 5 or 6 AM.  (That’s right, some overnight jocks have a 6-hour shift, while most daytime shifts are 4 hours.)  It’s usually the starting rung on the ladder, so you can learn from your mistakes while fewer people are listening.  The overnight jock may be rarely seen by the rest of the staffers … or, like my heroine Christie in LOVE ON THE AIR, they may be working very hard to be as involved as they can and learn how to advance to the next level.

So, if these jocks are working 4 to 6 hour air shifts, sounds like a pretty cushy gig, doesn’t it?  But a lot of energy gets expended talking to people, and by that fifth hour, fatigue really sets in.  (Plus, by that time, some of the songs you played the first hour are probably starting to repeat….)  And, in most cases, a disc jockey’s work isn’t over when they get off the air, unless they did their other duties before they went on the air.  We’ll talk about those tomorrow!

Sierra Donovan
LOVE ON THE AIR, Avalon Books
www.sierradonovan.com

Hi all, and welcome to the exciting world of radio!  When I set out to write my first romance, I decided to stick with the old advice, “Write what you know.”  The most interesting setting I could think of was a radio station.  I worked at one for seven years, and my husband has been a disc jockey for (gulp!) over twenty years, so I was in familiar territory.  The result was LOVE ON THE AIR, which became my first sale to Avalon Books.

One disclaimer:  Neither my husband nor I have ever worked for a major-market radio station on the scale of, say, Los Angeles or New York.  By the time a disc jockey gets there, they may actually live in a world where they make a ton of money, work (or pre-record) their four-hour air shifts and go home, and have plenty of minions at their elbow to press the buttons and make their coffee.  I say, what fun is that?!

In the world I know, of medium-to-small-market radio stations, SO many more story ideas present themselves!  And that’s because most of the preconceptions we have about radio stations don’t hold true.  Maybe they do in those big major markets, but I wouldn’t guarantee it.  So I’ll start off by laying some of the common misconceptions to rest:

MISCONCEPTION #1:  Disc jockeys make big bucks.  Not usually, unless they break into one of the aforementioned big markets.  So, a lot of disc jockeys spend their careers moving to various parts of the country in search of better opportunities.  It’s also a very unstable business, in that radio stations are bought and sold, and formats change – today’s rock station could turn into tomorrow’s easy listening station, and management may feel that the guy who’s playing Metallica now won’t sound right back-announcing Neil Diamond.

MISCONCEPTION #2:  Disc jockeys choose the songs they play.  Oh, no.  The days of Alan Freed, boldly introducing the new music called rock ‘n’ roll by playing whatever he saw fit, are long over.  Radio stations use consultants to tell them which songs are likely to do well, and when to stop playing them if they don’t do well or have run their course.  The day’s songs are printed out each day on a computer-generated log, broken down by the hour and listed in order.  There may be a noon hour request show or evening requests and dedications, but even here, the jock must stay within the station’s music library.  And if there’s something lying around in there from 1963 that doesn’t sound right with the station’s format today, a jock who got caught playing it would get yelled at.  At the very least.

MISCONCEPTION #3:  If a band slips a tape to a DJ, it might get played on the air and lead to fame and fortune.  This would be rarer than hen’s teeth!  (See above.)  Plus, that jock would be in more trouble than one who played “Sunshine and Lollipops” on a death metal station.

MISCONCEPTION #4:  Disc jockeys do their air shifts and go home.  Even at a medium-market radio station, on-air staffers usually wear more than one hat.  The midday person might double as the music director – hey, someone has to follow that consultant’s instructions and enter those songs into the computer for tomorrow’s log.  Then there are those commercials to record.  And oh, those live appearances!

So, radio probably isn’t quite the way you’ve imagined it to be … but it IS an exciting world, easy to populate with great characters and conflicts.  Tomorrow we’ll talk about those fascinating folks who are probably the first people you think of when you picture a radio station:  the disc jockeys.

Any questions so far?  If there’s anything about radio you’ve always wondered about — “Is it true that…” — post your questions here and I’ll give them a shot!

Sierra Donovan
LOVE ON THE AIR, Avalon Books
http://www.sierradonovan.com

Ever think a radio station would be a great setting for a story?

Well, it IS … and I’ll tell you why.  It may not be for all the same reasons you think!

Starting Monday, September 17, it’s ON (AND OFF) THE AIR: AN INSIDE LOOK AT RADIO, by Sierra Donovan.

Join me as I slip a few of the inside secrets of working at a medium-to-small-market radio station.  I know … ’cause I’ve been there!