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 Jay: I was working at a station in Washington DC. One afternoon I noticed that the PD was acting as nervous as a cat. I decided to do a little reconnaisance after he went home, in his office, and was shocked at what I found. There were new scripts for traffic reports mentioning a syndicated show. Our morning guy had been at the station for almost 10 years, so I figured he must know what's up. I call and thank him for telling me he'd gotten a new job and he says to me "What the hell are you talking about? I haven't quit!". At this point, it's become clear that he hasn't quit, but he will be soon, if you get me, so I start to wonder when the format change takes effect, when we're all fired, etc. Later that evening, the owner calls and tells me he wants to meet at 10 AM the next morning, a Friday. Sure enough, I get the "you've been great...but we're gonna' have to part ways at this point" speech. I see the PD down the hall still nervous as hell, almost shaking. The owner asks him what's wrong with him and he whispers something in the owner's ear, to which the owner yells "You didn't tell him!?!" Turns out the PD was scared stiff of the morning guy, someone who had vastly more experience and talent than he, and the way the poor morning guy found out he was fired was by turning on his car radio, listening to the station and hearing a promo that said "Coming Monday...a new morning show..." |
Kizmetbaby: I have only been fired once.
Having been at the same station for seven years and the number
one host for four years in morning drive I was truly surprised
when I told my GM that I was pregnant and he WENT OFF! He asked
me what I was trying to do to his station and then went on to
speculate what my hormone imbalances would do to his other employees.
He told me that I shouldn't even MENTION that I was pregnant
until it was time for me to take my leave. | |
Tim: This is not so much a story of getting fired, but leaving shortly before the grim reaper arrived. This was at the same WISQ that Chris was at. I held various positions at the place (a bit of a madhouse), my last being overnights (babysitting automation and doing some traffic duties). This seemed to be the safest position--no one around at those hours. I started looking for another job, and informed the GM about it. He told me that if I continued looking that "you will never work in radio again." Well, alrighty then! I found my better job. At the end of my last shift a new guy showed up. I was to "train" him before I left. I showed him where everything was, and the pot positions. He was lost. This last part is absolutely true (I would swear to it in court). I showed him the pot for the microphone. He asked, "What's a microphone?" Not where, WHAT is a microphone! I showed him, and left, and I started laughing. I have been laughing for over two decades! (More stories below. Go ahead - scroll!) |
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| Linda: My first shift ever was a disaster. All I had to do was babysit the board while we ran a countdown. I inserted the local commercials. Sounds easy enough, right? I could have blamed it on the jock that trained me, but here's what happened... when I turned down the pot to play the local spot break, I clicked it into cue. At the end of the cluster, I restarted the program with a tight segue then sat back and admired my work. After ten minutes of dancing to my favorite songs, the hotline rang with my PD at the other end asking what was wrong. I said "What do you mean, it sounds great to me!" At that point I realized that the VU meters were still. I had run the countdown in cue for ten minutes. Suprisingly enough, I was not fired until four years later when I failed to dust one morning during that same countdown! |
Gus: I was working mid-days at
a country AM station. The general manager, engineer and two guys
in suits came into the studio while I was in a commercial break.
They told me to make an announcement that the station would be
leaving the air for a short time, so I did. The engineer then
told me to turn the transmitter off and log it. |
Chris: I was working as the morning sidekick on WISQ. I asked for vacation time because I was getting married. When I got back from my honeymoon, the station manager took me aside and gave me a $75 gift certificate for a jewelry store (trade). Later that day... they fired me for taking vacation during a ratings period! That was never mentioned to me the whole time I was planning my wedding and arranging for vacation! It was my first job in commercial radio after being trained at an NPR affiliate, and I'd never even heard of ratings. | ||
| Bill: I was the Morning Mouth at
KABL AM/FM in San Francisco for 33 years. I had just returned
from the 20th Cruise I had taken with listeners through the Panama
Canal. Upon my return I was called into the conference room and
told that they were going "in a different direction"
than me and that my contract would be bought out and that I was
free to leave immediately! I said "I know which direction I'M going in. . .south! But which direction are YOU going in?" They said that they were not free to release that information. It turns out, as I suspected, that they went hard rock on what previously had been the Cash-Cow of Easy-listening radio. The denoument? In one year the format flopped, the stations dropped out of the top 20, EVERYBODY got fired ( a series of Morning Men included!) The Manager, the Program Director, etc etc. Disney sold the stations and, then, after three years, the format went back to Easy-Listening! |
Carl: I once worked for a station
that finally did the right thing -- they went out of business.
But in the nine years I was there, we went through nine Program
Directors -- some lasted a couple of years, one just a couple
of months. The Owners and Management there were a class act. |
Paul:
I was fired after working at an AM-FM combo for 11 years, eventually
ascending to station manager. The stations became part of a bitter
ownership struggle, which was lost by the owner that had hired
me. The lady that took over came in with the credentials that
she was married to a man (deceased) that had been a broadcaster
and that she learned a lot from that. After being assured that I would continue as manager of the station with hiring and firing powers, she informed me that she had hired her son, the daughter of her friend and a former employee at the station and that I was to train them on our equipment. The next day, she informed me that she was cutting fringe benefits, putting me in a position of losing six weeks vacation. I told her I would only continue on if given written assurance that my vacation would be honored. Otherwise, I would opt to go on vacation in 48 hours. Of course, I went on "vacation," and I was relieved of my duties. My boss? The stations lingered for a little over two years before they went dark and were acquired at an attractive price by the competition...which then hired me to come back and run them with new studios and equipment! |
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| Red: We knew we were going to be
sold. First, all the plans we had for the future improvement
of the station were put on hold. Then the promotional budget
was gone. "Just hang in there, we'll get things on the right
track again soon", we were told. Some sales people were
fired and they didn't hire any new ones. Since some of us were
industry veterans, we knew we were toast. The PD was in the dark
about all the plans they had made for the upcoming arbitron.
Then came a station audit were all the department heads had to
hand in an inventory. Since I was the morning guy and someone who had gone through at least five sales before, I was working on the old resume and tapes at a fever pitch. I was at the station on a Sunday, and the owner, GM and PD all met in the conference room. They acknowledged me, but kept to their business. I came to work at 4:00 am the following Monday and as I'm on the computer pulling down my show prep, in comes the same trio. I felt a quiver of fear. Sure enough, at 4:15 am, they called me in to the GM's office and I was told I was not going on the air today since the station had been sold. Since I was one of the highest paid people on staff, I was being let go. I was shocked, but couldn't believe they didn't fire me on Sunday. Why did they wait an extra day? They were all there and even the PD confessed to me later that they should have fired me then. The sorry bastards dragged their asses out of bed just to can me at 4:15am on Monday. |
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