The Applicant

"To thrive, you need to identify those with the highest potential, get them in your corner and on your team, and help them grow."  -- Claudio Fernandez-Araoz

The songwriter who created Ronnie Dunn's hit "The Cost Of Living" originally had titled it "The Application," due to the stress of trying to land a gig you want.

This is about the opposite side of that situation, which can be equally difficult.

Great radio stations - looking from the outside in - seem to be a magnet for the very best people, but when you talk to the programmers of them you learn that the same “average” people apply at those places as do as every other one.

The difference between the best and the rest:  programming management takes time to thoroughly interview every possible candidate for each opening and is much more selective in hiring.

They start by having each person they interview sign a confidentiality agreement and even assure the applicant that they’ll do the same if they desire, making it clear that keeping secrets is important.

They want to know..

• Exact detail of experiences from each radio station they have worked. 
• How they got into radio.
• What interests them most about listeners.
• What they see as their strengths as well as their own weaknesses.
• Name of individuals you can contact that are NOT on their resume.
• What would five of their closest friends say about them?
• Where do they hope/plan to be in five years?  Ten years?  Next year?
• What are their philosophies - whether they have ever programmed a radio station before and even though they are not applying for a PD position - on music, info, personality and promotion.
• Contest some of their assertions just to see how diplomatically they can defend their position and also how sell they handle criticism of their opinions.

Grade on a scale of 1-10:  their appearance, bedside manner, knowledge, on air work, willingness to do more than requested of them, team spirit, availability.

Don’t permit yourself to take shortcuts in this process if your goal is to hire and hold onto the very best people.

Take This Job And Shove It

Gerry House, Mike Bohan, Richard Falklen, Katie Bright and Karla Lawson played the Johnny Paycheck/David Allan Coe tune on WSIX/Nashville at 7:35 yesterday morning in the midst of a hilarious phone topic, “Finger Songs,” as listeners and the House team made suggestions for today’s perfect song to tell someone how you feel.

No doubt, it was pure coincidence that the bit came after the shocker Monday from KGO/San Francisco GM Michael Luckoff resigned.

Bohan reminded House of bad career decisions he had made in the past, going to Florida for awhile and California but always coming back to Music City to greater success.

House admitted that he left for those jobs more because he was getting away from someone than going to anything attractive.

And, of course, hanging in the air is the fact that Gerry leaves WSIX in several months, leaving a vacuum in Music City mornings that no one can possibly fill in even close to the same way.

How did he find a job that was so perfect for him, which lasted so long?

Lots of people are looking for jobs, lots more changes are rumored, so that's more than just an interesting question.

A quick word of advice: whether you’re hiring or being interviewed, do the legal background checks, conduct the drug testing, take the Myers-Briggs. But, also, don’t neglect to check personal references, not particularly searching for skeletons in the closet but just looking for things the person excelled at and also talk directly about what the job requires and experience in doing those things.

Too often a wonderful person possessing certain skills is put into a job which requires a completely different skill set simply because the interviewer and the interviewee failed to tell one another exactly and honestly what they wanted in an employee and what they love doing well in working for someone.

Take the extra time to find your next job/hire and LOVE it.

A Firm Grasp On The Obvious

Considering a job in radio?

* Many broadcast employees have erratic work schedules, sometimes having to work early in the morning or late at night.

* Entry-level jobs in news or program production increasingly are requiring a college degree and some broadcast experience.

* Employment in broadcasting is expected to increase by just 7 percent over the 2008–18 period,

* Keen competition is expected for many jobs, particularly in large metropolitan areas, because of the large number of jobseekers attracted by the glamour of this industry.

Check out the Federal Bureau Of Labor Statistics' facts on their website and you might decide that car sales is more promising, yet the upside to our great business for those of us who know it well still far outweighs the risks and demands.

It gets into your blood. That's obvious too.

Cat Country Pensacola Joins SWA Jobs Campaign

Cat Country 98.7's TV spots for the Gulf Coast's Pledge Luv campaign, Tweeted by @brentlanecat @danacervantes and Pensacola LUV's @Southwestair, which is where I got wind of it! (click to watch the video)

It's A Good Time To Hone Your Skills

As news of layoffs and firings come daily amidst this tough economy, one good aspect is that we all are finding our who are friends really are, who's been thinking about the future and who's not.

Two resources worth using whether you still have a gig or not:

1. This month, the Conclave launches an essential two-part webinar series aimed at assisting those who have either lost a job in the industry, or who would like to learn how to explore new opportunities inside and outside of radio.

2. A-Ware Software, Inc. providers of MusicMaster for Windows music scheduling software wants to assist displaced Program Directors and Music Directors who are looking to broaden their skill set as they seek new employment. A-Ware will be conducting a series of free webinars each Wednesday covering not only an introduction to MusicMaster, but basic and advanced topics as well.

If you know of others, please share them!

Wheat And Chaff

2009 looks to be a pretty difficult year for the increasing numbers of unemployed in our business, but especially for the managers who will be hiring, knowing that they need nothing but the very best, most-productive workers more than ever right now.

People I have worked with in the past year they will encounter:

• The woman who was hired for one shift but even after two years in that shift kept trying to find ways to work different hours than the ones the shift requires.
• The person who still had an axe to grind for his termination from a previous employer and yet kept telling everyone in the halls of his current employer how much better it was on his old job.
• The major market talent who hired me as his coach and when I pointed out to him that he didn’t need a coach. He was plenty good enough exactly as is. He just needed to write original content every day rather than walking into the control room with nothing prepared, making it up as he went along. He fired me as his coach, hired another coach and now can’t understand why he was let go.
• The seller whose contract was not renewed because she hadn’t hit her goal for two years, and yet she now tells prospective employers “I can’t understand it, I was making ten calls every day.”
• The music director who didn’t like the direction the current music her format’s hits were going in, so she changed the current/gold balance of the station without telling her PD, who discovered the change in Mediabase and BDS after the bad ratings came out.
• That programmer is looking for a new job too.

Inside Radio’s “Keep Your Seats” (click to read it) memo to us all at the New Year from Paul Harvey makes it all sound deceptively-simple after more than half a century of showing up at a radio studio in the wee small hours and working for at least three hours to write and create a five minute news and commentary, then staying around for another four to five hours to distill a 15 minute broadcast.

Eight hours of prep for 20 minutes on the air.

There’s a lesson in that.

As you interview applicants in ’09, may you find a Paul Harvey - who knows what it takes to hold onto a chair - and avoid the many, many others, who don’t appear to.

"The Overnights Delivered In Song" Got Me

I have a job, I don't need a job, in spite of this tough economy, thankfully. So, why do I religiously read Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet Jobs email every week?? .. because it includes postings like this one:

Promotion Writer/Producer
WHIO – Dayton, OH

Top 10 Reasons You’ll Love Working at WHIO-TV

10. Every morning Director of Research delivers the overnights “in song”
9. That ENG truck featured on last season’s Pimp My Ride? Ours.
8. Envious looks when you tell people you live in Dayton
7. Two Words: Pajama Thursdays
6. Last team-building exercise was finding the answer to how many people can fit in Master Control (88)
5. We’re finally ending overnight topicals!
4. Win in November, get Creative Services Director’s awesome El Camino for the weekend
3. All image promos begin with the words “In a world”
2. Getting treated like a rock star in news
1. POPs always more fun when they demonstrate your “Proof of Pants!”

At WHIO-TV we take our jobs seriously, but we also believe work is better when people are having fun. If you believe hard work and having fun aren’t mutually exclusive, come see what you’re missing in a city with a high quality of life and low cost of living. At the risk of burying the lead, we are one of the most dominant news stations in the country, owned by one of the best-regarded groups in the country. If you are the kind of producer who strives to outdo yourself with every script and every spot, we want to talk to you. To apply, please have a minimum of two years experience and a reel that demonstrates your understanding of contemporary production techniques (i.e., no cheese).

Send resume, cover letter, and DVD to:
Creative Services Director
WHIO-TV
1414 Wilmington Avenue
Dayton Ohio 45429
WHIO-TV is an Equal Opportunity Employer

.. makes me want to work there (it looks like the TV station where Phil Donohue got his start is still thinking creatively)!