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Commercials Pay Your Bills ... Make Sure They Air
October 25, 2016
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Within a radio station there is no such thing as too much communication to ensure scheduled music and commercials are aired. Despite all the computers, scheduling systems, and fail-safe technology, the most important devices are phones, intercoms and your legs. As an OM/ PD, I only got upset with personalities if they did not make the effort to alert the Production Director, Traffic, or me if something was about to be missed; My rule included notifying me 24/7 as to the status of all those who were alerted. Staying ahead or on top of things can prevent additional meetings in the work day. Check out this e-mail I received:
Jock: The OM is all over me about spots that I missed on my show the other day.
Coach: What shift do you do?
Jock: Afternoons, 2 till 6
Coach: Tell me what happened.
Jock: The same car spot missed in my 3 and 4p hrs. I descrept it both times, so I don't understand why he is so upset!
Coach: What kind of automation system does your station use?
Jock: NexGen. The spot was listed in the break, but I guess there was no audio and NexGen skipped right to the next spot in the sequence. So how is that my fault? We do make-goods all the time.
Coach: Did this happen on a weekday or weekend?
Jock: It was last Wednesday.
Coach: You can do the right thing and still be wrong. In your case, the OM is wondering why you did not immediately contact someone in advance of the commercial break that it missed the first time. And he is even more confused you allowed it to happen again without alerting traffic, the production director, or him. With NexGen, when there is no audio in a commercial, it shows up in orange on the merged commercial/music log. It happened during business hours and your OM probably thinks this is inexcusable. Is this the first time this has happened during your show?
Jock: I assumed traffic already knew about it and yes, it has happened before. The OM is always passing the buck and it is his job to handle these problems.
Coach: When it comes to missing commercials, never assume anything; it is a team effort to keep a station running efficiently. Scheduled commercials that are not airing can set off a chain of events leading to grief for a host of people -- traffic, production, programming, salespersons, billing, the GM, and anyone else in the line of fire. Many issues could be at stake -- it's a difficult client, the commercial was already a make-good, it's time for the client to renew for the upcoming year, the missing commercials never got to billing before invoices were sent out, no room for make-goods, maybe management has been on the OM about these situations, or the commercial can only air within a certain window.
Jock: There are a lot of things I must take care of during my show. I'm dealing with on-air, Facebook Live, Snapchat, in-studio live cam, answering texts, and the phones.
Coach: My friend, you are making excuses. You forget that commercials pay your bills. Make checking for potential missed spots a part of your routine and I mean an hour in advance of a commercial break. Just by doing the simple thing of verbally alerting folks, all sorts of issues can be avoided. The upside would be to find out that traffic and production were already aware of the missing spot. It is important to increase the likelihood for all scheduled spots to be aired. Remember, you are the last one in the chain to prevent anything from missing.
Conclusion:
The RCS NexGen Digital Automation system, along with others, has the capability of sending automatic e-mails to traffic if there is missing audio for a spot. It is also customary for many OMs/PDs/MDs to merge daily scheduled music with the commercial logs that the Traffic Department sends to file. Anything without audio in NexGen would be obvious to the person merging the logs if reviewed page by page.
All personalities should be proactive and know the procedures for missing commercials on holidays and weekends, too. Filling out a discrepancy sheet or e-mailing just prior to a commercial break is never enough: go the extra mile and literally tell somebody way in advance.
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