Another great thing about part 15 stations is that we are the boss with no managers above us.
I was reminded of "managers" when I heard a recent program discussing why it is that when normal people get promoted to a management job they become jerks and start mis-treating people lower down in the chain of command. I'm going to dig whatever program that was out of the pile... I want to hear it again and maybe use part of it on a Low Power Hour.
It reminded me of some managers I knew... there was one guy who opened all of his memos with "From Now On..." This was always followed by a command telling me to stop doing what I had done up tell then and to start doing it some way he commanded it to be done. It was all petty stuff, nothing that increased the audience.
"Making Changes" is the mark of a new manager. It's actually expected that a new manager will "change the way things are done".
Another fellow who became "news director" at a little station told me "from now on you will take the news from the teletypewriter and re-write and re-type it in a better "radio style" and he made a "Style Book" available. I told him I'd do it if my pay-grade was raised, and it wasn't and I didn't. No one got fired.
I had a different management style, at least when it came to "announcer's schedules", which I was put in charge of. I met with the staff, of which I was one, and invited them to pick their favorite shift... they negotiated with each other over "morning" "afternoon" "nights" "weekends" holidays"... Once they each had the shift they wanted I took whatever was left over, which of course was weekends and holidays. I guess I liked radio better than they did.
I think the "manager problem" is related to the personality that someone has already, probably because of treatment in childhood or things they learned. They're probably pretty good followers of the rules, and "watch their step" a lot, and under the thumb of rule makers.
I notice some who change when getting to management are hyper aware of their social surroundings and their standing in the group, and where others stand too, these guys have it all indexed and figured out.
That's a clue to what happens when they go manager, they have the master plan for how things will all work out, they can't see how they could possibly be wrong, and with the importance of social standing, it's like life or death that they not be!
I like laid back management, the people who are happily obsessed with the radio station or something in their own mind rather than social standing, that's the best and most inspiring to me, just like a few of my teachers who were like that. That's the kind who see potential in the station and will try things, and that's the way they are for real, not just because a consultant says to be more casual.
Radio is full of strong, quirky, territorial personalities right off the bat, maybe not so much these days with radio's fortunes down now, but things used to get hot, and I think management in radio has got to be more intense than in other, more normal fields.
I'd rather have a pack of Blares than managers being cool in baseball hats and doing it for the dough, or all the riches in the world!
Money can't buy a good manager. Take that as you will, but from now on I want you to record into the cart 10 db higher, so we don't have noise buildup going out over the air, our clients are complaining [citation needed].
Thank you, the Management.