My blog used to be called “Adventures in Management” because I felt like I spent most of my time moving from one crisis to the next.
For me personally, working at a home is such a luxury. To think I can hop on a call with a friend, meet another for lunch, go to the gym or teach a yoga class in the middle of the day, is like a dream. But finding folks who are scrappy enough to make their own home-based business work is a crap shoot.
Over 8 years of this Remote news casting business, I’ve had a handful of solid folks who show up, work, get paid and help at other times, when they can. Dreamboat employees for sure. I’ve written in the past about how finding the golden workers is a challenge, so not to beat a dead horse, because that would be gross, but here I am, beating a dead horse.
I think it’s important to an audience to hear that same voice reporting news or traffic or when they flip the channel on in the morning, while having breakfast, or driving their kids to school, they hear that familiar morning show/voice. Am I wrong?
As a radio station manager or owner, jumping from employee to employee (especially in smaller markets) is time consuming at best (and ridiculously stressful). So what we sell is stable, experienced talent who will not jump ship at the first opportunity. So we ask for a commitment. So if you’re a stay at home parent or semi-retired professional, taking one PT gig would be perfect. And if you’re looking for more, awesome! But be prepared to wait for enough work to call it FT! And be serious (about this career), for god sakes, be SERIOUS! I ran an ad last week to find a traffic person. I had to run it 3 times so I could specifically spell out, word, for, stringent word, exactly what I needed. Still, I had music sent to me, talk show hosts who couldn’t get other work (hmm, I wonder why), deejays (“I’ve been in radio 30 years, I can do this!”), and the best one so far, a comedy traffic bit. Right, I’m going to run Hee Haw-esque traffic for a client looking for an actual live voice! What? Doesn’t anybody read? “if you have no related experience, your submission will be deleted”. So basically not only are they wasting my time (insert eye roll), but really, it’s more important to note, they have wasted their own.
And finally, and of most importance, really? Typos, misspelled words AND sending a forward of an email you already sent to the station across town, will not get my attention, CAPICHE?
