The one I've been expecting for months now.

The one about how I've gotten the station away from Adult Contemporary tried-and-true hits.

The one about how I need to stop being a hitmaker and just reflect the Top 10.

The one that reveals his complete lack of understanding of how formats and charts work, even though he's been in radio for 40 years.

The one where I'm supposed to turn into a drone and not utilize my two decades of chart analysis skill and audience demographic awareness.

The one that says Michael Buble actually has a hit but John Legend doesn't.

I get into this bind every 5 years at stations I work at and end up leaving.

Last time it was all about Christian charts and the need to stay "inspirational" and not "worldy rock." This time is all about not taking chances on songs that may be "different."

I'm stubborn. But it's because I know what the hell I'm doing.

Looks like I've now got six weeks to overhaul a decent format I've been building over the past three years and turn it into a straight-laced across-the-board, god's-honest R & R Adult Contemporary-approved format.

Never mind the fact that half the Soft AC "hits" only get about 300 spins per week, when the Hot AC ones get 3,000+ nationally.

Looks like I'm looking for another job soon. Again.

Good luck w/the changeover...or the job search...

Whichever it ends up being...

[Barney voice]Yeah Homer, fight the power![/Barney voice]

Sucks that in your profession, one can't just start one's own business. I mean, internet radio, yes, but that's different. Most other professions at least have that failsafe... "if it gets really bad, for long enough, and you really know what you're doing, you can could just start your own [insert company type here]."

Hang in there- you have kindred spirits here in the NW.

http://www.lisawood.blogspot.com/

He and the GM were very respectful and handled themselves well and my job isn't in jeopardy, but, if I stay, I will have to turn the station into a soft-pop blob of ick and then ignore all the song-arc, national trend-tracking skills I've honed over the years and just use Billboard and Radio & Records Top 10 as my Bible.

I'm a music director, an actual one, not one who just spends five minutes a week adding four songs. I can't dedicate my career to a musical joke like this.

I've got my family to think about and the fact that I can't just up and leave without a gameplan. But I'm certainly going to make one now.

We should pool our resources and start our own radio station, with P'Shaw as PD.

That sucks but integrity is priceless. Feeding your children is also priceless. I wish the situation was better, but usually these things really do work out for the better b/c they force you do something you probably should have done.

since u been gone is a really good song.

i've had this same problem too. last year, i worked in public radio. my shows were sandwiched between "day to day" and "all things considered" with the news a few times during a set. i couldn't really blow the hinges off the doors with a lot that i actually listen to. did i throw in the arcade fire or the buzzcocks here and there? sure. was i told to reserve that for my late night shows? yes. and now i'm in this limbo where the public radio stations apparently feel that my personality and tastes are too obnoxious for them, but the regular commercial stations think i'm too calm to follow up the wacky morning show or whatever they do.

You played the Buzzcocks on public radio?

yes. is that good or bad?

finally something worth listening to on public radio.

They're having a Battle Of The Bands type thing on the rock station that plays Howard Stern here in the morning. It's modeled after the NCAA tourney with listeners calling in to vote, I guess. So I just happened to have that station on today after Stern and they were announcing the winner of The Clash vs. Sublime. Needless to say I put in a cd shortly after I heard who the winner was.

I'd love to be involved in radio again, but everything around here pretty much sucks. The formats are stale and most of them are either owned by the mega-corporations or may as well be. These are the main reasons I'm not working a radio job, as I would have liked to have been doing. I've been streaming stations from New York online when I want to hear something good. Where I live, I doubt there will ever be a station with a good format and reasonable managment, unless I start it myself.

its getting better...slowly.

I can tell, its my job.

Not bad, just something that would NEVER happen on our public radio station.

I've been thinking about setting up a pirate radio station from an antennae on my roof. I think I could get away with it no problem, since the town I live in is fairly remote and half the FM band is empty air. From what I've read, you're only breaking FCC laws if your signal interferes with other stations, and I doubt there would be much likelyhood of that happening. The equipment would only cost a couple hundred dollars, if I start really small...

Has anyone tried this, and would be willing to admit it on record?

I may have to have surgery on my jaw and tongue to correct breathing/sleeping problems. There's the possibility that could alter my voice anyway and affect my career. I may look into vocational retraining programs through the state labor department to see if I can go back to school and get a degree for some other trade.

Or maybe I'll weigh all the options and quit and become a house husband and write scathing novels or something.

I think you should write scathing novels regardless.

I've got a buddy who did this, & they shut his ass down.

You could go LPFM, but I dunno how much the laws about those have changed the last few years.

Did they just force him to pull the plug, or did they slap a ton of fines on him?

dude, you work in AC. the 'A' doesn't stand for adventurous.

Just made him pull the plug. Actually, I think they caught him more than once...the last time they said "pull the plug for good, or ELSE".

He got out for good then.

Yeah but there are Soft AC charts and then there are Hot AC, Modern AC, Triple A, Adult Top 40, Mainstream Top 40, etc.

I've been compositing, adding songs that are across-the-board-hits and cherry-picking a few Urban AC and CHR hits that aren't hard but haven't necessarily taken off at Soft AC. The Hot AC format has bands like the Killers. Soft AC hangs onto Phil Collins for 18 months at a stretch. I was trying to program an AC station that wasn't completely reliant on the Soft end but that didn't go all Nickleback-y either. But my boss wants only those that make Top 10 of Soft AC. Very bothersome to my professional format-building pride. And a very boring station.