Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sorry, We're CLOSED! Get it?


Go to Highwoods, where Curtis Media Group has multiple radio stations operating and you have to go up an elevator and into a secure area where codes are needed to enter there in. If you're a guest of a show, you're shown a different way.
When I worked there, I don't recall a single soul banging on the glass, demanding that someone answer the door. Not ONCE!
Until recently, there were two Curtis outlets in a house in Louisburg, North Carolina. Very scenic, with a couple of ponds and geese. (The ducks, that came up from Mexico, were murdered by a driver on highway 561) It's forty-nine miles from my driveway out there to the edge of the world.
When I first began working there, I was told I should lock the door after five. "Fine" I thought. Once, early on, a local yokel shouted, "Hey" outside the window during my call in trade or sell shoe, called the Country Exchange. Anything you hear in the headphones is unsettling.
Recently, the AM outlet was sold and that's being finalized. That's another whole story. These folks don't like the geese, so they spread moth balls outside to run them off. Personally, I'd rather wipe goose poo off my shoe and interact with the little creatures than to have to small moth balls! When I open the window to get fresh air, I get that same, unpleasant odor.
Often times, people who leave for the day fail to lock the door on the way out. There's nothing more unnerving than to have the headphones on and realize someone has climbed the stairs and come into what at any OTHER radio station is a sanctuary. The only similar experience, would be someone opening the stall door in a restroom!
There's a "employees only" sign on the door that leads to the AM studios, but there's no signage...not even an "on air" light to ward off hayseeds who strike a notion to come up. What's worse, is there is no sign outside that could simply explain our office hours to the masses. What would be wrong with that? But NO! We can't have that!
There's a thing called the "public file" that management is paranoid about being accused of blocking access to.
At five-thirty, I am, to be quite honest, busier than a one-armed paper hanger. So NOW, I have to remember to go lock the door, before the real nitty gritty begins.
At five-fifty, I'm doing a talk into news thing and twice this week, while doing this I've heard some hick banging on the door downstairs. The "logic" being, "They wuz a car in da drive-way, so how come sumwun didn't ainser the door?"
Look, Gomer, try doing that at a restaurant after hours, while they're in there trying to clean up and get home. THEY have regular hours, why won't you let US (in radio) have them? Why can you not respect that?
It's just more of the same mind set of the crowd who drives ten miles UNDER posted and yet will pull out in front of you on highways 96 and 401.
This is my only outlet for letting my feelings known. So I've done just that. Don't get me started on the lack of compensation for services rendered.

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