I Am Conan
Wednesday, 01.13.10 @ 10:17AM 
I'm sure you've heard about the shakeup at NBC. Conan O'Brien doesn't want to compromise The Tonight Show by moving it to 12:05 AM. If NBC wants to push him, he will leave. This is a scenario that plays out more often than you'd think, just not usually in public. I know -it's happened to me twice.
A long time ago I moved to Tennessee to work at a radio station. I worked the 2-6 AM shift, but it was better money and a better place to live than my previous job. The station's ratings were slipping, and you know that's always the disc jockeys' fault, even though all we did was play strictly formatted music. To change things around, the boss hired a new guy, who didn't want to start on a night shift (after they told me that everyone started on a night shift). So they moved five of the six shifts around to accommodate the new guy. As I was the low man on the totem pole, I was transferred to the tiny AM sister station. Since I was fairly new and all alone in town, I went along with the plan. The AM station had no listeners, but I worked the afternoon shift and began to live a normal life. Also, the AM staff (both of us) had the freedom to experiment and have fun, since no one was listening.
A few months later, someone left the FM staff and they told me I was moving back to my old slot. What they didn't know was that one of their competitors had contacted me only the day before about doing an afternoon FM show (apparently someone had been listening after all). So I said no thanks, and hung the phone up with the most satisfying grin I remember to that point in my life.
Fast forward twenty years or so to a different town. I had been working the afternoon shift at the biggest station around for six years. A disc jockey who had quit and returned several times wanted to return again, and this time wanted a prime shift. So suddenly the shifts were rearranged to accommodate him, and I was to go to the AM station and work mornings. This time I didn't have another offer to fall back on -there is no competition in the radio business these days. But I was older and braver, and had kids to think of. As a recent widow, I had no one to watch them at 5AM and get them to school. So that's when I left radio for good.
Not knowing what to do next, I threw myself into my blogging hobby, which gradually turned into my livelihood. The two jobs are remarkably similar. I pick and choose things to entertain an audience, while occasionally throwing in some original material. The difference is that I control my success, my schedule, and to some extent, my pay. The audience is smaller, but it's my audience.
All that aside, Conan should tell NBC where to go. He can always say that he's done The Tonight Show (which hasn't been all that since Carson retired). He can get a job anywhere, which will only drive his salary up. Letterman doesn't regret jumping ship. I don't regret jumping ship when the time was right. There may even be others who jump ship over this flap. Even Google is considering picking up its toys and going home. If every employee who wasn't treated right had the freedom to vote with their feet, workplaces in general would have to sit up and notice, and maybe start treating people the way they should be treated.
Image by Spike Mitchell.
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Reader Comments (7)
Thank you, sandburr, I know exactly how many people come here every day. The number is growing slowly but steadily. A number of factors killed radio. From an employee's standpoint, it started with deregulation and automation decades ago. The rise of corporate ownership killed competition and originality. Then the internet changed how people got their music, because that's where you could find the variety that radio lost. Record companies helped radio go downhill every step of the way. If all that doesn't kill someone's connection with local broadcasters, the economy will. When I started in radio, I was responsible for 25 hours of programming every week, which I poured my heart into. Just before I left, I was responsible for 140 hours of programming every week (multiple stations, different formats), which will suck the life out of you.