Radio Blog - by Tony W. Katavich, Senior Radio Technician - Mulcher Broadcasting

Sunday 5 February 2012 - Had a student in the studio today doing some work experience for their radio course, the first thing he did when he walked in was point at the transmitter and say, whats that thing for?, bah I thought, this is going to be a long day, so I explained in fine detail what it was and all the specifications of it and he replied, oh, so why isnt it on the roof ?. I had some advertisements I wanted to get done as well as a few pre-recorded messages for a school fair that was coming up so I got him to sit nice and quietly in the corner to watch, listen and learn. About 30 seconds into recording I hear his cellphone go off, so I point to one of the many "no cellphones" signs hanging in the studio but it still goes off a couple of more times, so I quickly grabbed his phone off him (aswell as sneakily pocketing an old CD player remote that had been lying around for weeks with no home) and marched him to the balcony, I explained the reasons behind the no cellphone signs all over the studio and that in the unwritten book of radio etiquette, when a cell phone goes off during a broadcast it is punishable by death and threw the old remote as high as I could off the 2nd floor and watched it smash into pieces on the parking lot. I let him take it in for about an hour in which he just sat in the corner arms crossed not saying a word or making eye contact, so after feeling a bit bad for him and flicked his cellphone to him and said "you like magic kid?" and his eyes lit up and we ended up having quite a good day.

Friday 3 February 2012 - Kids and live broadcasting is a bad mix, we had a group of kids and teachers in here doing some promo work for an upcoming bike safety week, these kids were full of beans, running up and down the studio, laughing, giggling and shouting but as soon as you get them behind a microphone they freeze up and give one word answers only. It ended up being me and one of the teachers doing the talking even though the kids had a full skit written up and had been practicing it all week. But the worst came when we went to take some photos and upon leaving the studio one of the kids hit the switch and we broadcast a full 12 minutes of an empty studio, which doesnt sound to bad but its when you try and squeeze the ads that were in that 12 minutes back into the rest of the day is when the trouble starts.

Wednesday 1 February 2012 - Almost had an advertiser pull their contract today, it seems by chance him and his wife he were driving home from the cinemas when one of his advertisements for garage doors came on followed by the night DJs own choice of song (which he is not supposed to do) which had more F-bombs in it than that rental car scene off Planes Trains and Automobiles. I had to make several apologies to him but it wasnt until I promised Ill play a Neil Diamond song every lunchtime for the whole week that hed keep the contract, bah. Im going over ideas on what to do with the night DJ gets in, Im tossing up between getting him tar and feathered and driving him through town on the back of my truck for a bit of promo or getting him to attend a womans rights evening asking for the woman to give the vote back to men while doing a live broadcast. Hmm I might just go with tar and feathering as I fear for my own safety when I get home to my wife.