AM station funny story

HAHAHA! Omg I think i just broke something laughing. I can't help but remember an old Looney Tuines - one of the *really* old ones from the 30's or 40's, I think with the Tasmanian Devil? I remember a typical black & white cow running away from something screaming, stopping at a puddle, getting up on her hind legs, lifting up her "skirt" so you could see her "bloomers", then tiptoeing across the puddle and continuing on... =-)

I'd crack up if I saw the station's website mention that they're off the air because a cow exploded at the transmitter site.

Sounds like what some non-comm would do. "we will be off the air for a couple days in (name the community) due to a cow knocking our power out... We will be working to restore service to (community name) soon. Thank you for your support. Send more love offerings.. Lol!

At WING, 1410 AM in Dayton, we had a groundhog get into the trench and chew through the line that went from the transmitter room in the main bulding out to the towers. We were off the air in afternoon drive. Yes the groundhog died. But the saddest part of the story was that our sales manager came down to yell at the engineers that we were losing money, get us back on the air now, etc. He got so upset that he had a heart attack and collapsed, and we had to call an ambulance and have him hauled off to the hospital. He survived.

TANKSBACK said:

At WING, 1410 AM in Dayton, we had a groundhog get into the trench and chew through the line that went from the transmitter room in the main bulding out to the towers. We were off the air in afternoon drive. Yes the groundhog died. But the saddest part of the story was that our sales manager came down to yell at the engineers that we were losing money, get us back on the air now, etc. He got so upset that he had a heart attack and collapsed, and we had to call an ambulance and have him hauled off to the hospital. He survived.

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Not too suprising. When one of the nine presses where I work stops, the floor managers are 50/50 likely to start yelling at the crew if it's
"their" fault for not getting production back up fast enough. If something has broken, electronically, or computer-wise,
it's considered to be "my" fault that 6 guys ( printing is still in the 50's sexual equality-wise, no women) are standing around.

When "yelling" mode is enabled, I work just a wee bit slower, to make sure I am careful to not make things worse, and
not bump into the 480v three-phase that's present just abut everywhere.
OK, all the teamster union guys who make more than I are standing around (union membeship not permitted for
anyone in Maintenance ) working to fix a problem beyond their comprehension, and management thinks yelling at an engineer
will make things happen faster? Haw!

Go ahead, have an aneurism, it won't fix a problem any faster, but if it makes you feel better.....

Such people would probably yell at their doctor for not finding a problem soon enough.

I classify such people in the "doesn't get it " and "unprofessional" category.

It would be funny if the manager of maitenance were to go up into the sales office and yell at salespeople about why we have one or more presses sittng empty. Yelling should be able to "motivate" more sales, right?

TANKSBACK said:

At WING, 1410 AM in Dayton, we had a groundhog get into the trench and chew through the line that went from the transmitter room in the main bulding out to the towers. We were off the air in afternoon drive. Yes the groundhog died. But the saddest part of the story was that our sales manager came down to yell at the engineers that we were losing money, get us back on the air now, etc. He got so upset that he had a heart attack and collapsed, and we had to call an ambulance and have him hauled off to the hospital. He survived.

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God be with me I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Then I saw he survived, and had the same epiphany.

If you live in Evansville drive the the strip mall on the WGBF AM 1280 tower grounding radials. Yes, ON the radials. The East tower is surrounded completely by asphalt.

The two self supporting towers were built WW2 era. One of the towers keeps loosing the top half. Wind, stress, plink into the field. The tower that keeps loosing the top half is the East tower. Out in the unasphalted area are two top halfs of the tower.

Happy Shopping.

If you work in the strip mall, wear a hardhat. And remember all that money for birth control is totally unneeded if you have worked there at least a year.

Google Maps says that the business located underneath the tower is named "WOW". Guess that's what they say every time it comes down

Tom Wells said:

...(union membeship not permitted for
anyone in Maintenance)...

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Perhaps you should change that... *coughstrikecough* =-)

"he survived"...
What amazes me is that the same tool that usually does the yelling like that will, when he gets a GM job, be so tight he will refuse to have even spare parts on the shelf to get stuff back on the air. I guess since guys like him are paying for slaves, the slaves are supposed to crap parts and solutions at command. I bet this tool is the guy that also yells at the local utility after a massive storm rolls through knocking out power too. Guys like him can only do two things... Yell and sell. Most of the jerk types like him probably aren't even that great at the sales part of that combo.

Btw... Has this idiot heard of the phrase off-air-insurance? It's much cheaper in many cases than totally redundant facilities that he appearently thinks the station should have to achive instant restoration of service. Lol!

spinjector said:

Tom Wells said:

...(union membership not permitted for
anyone in Maintenance)...

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Perhaps you should change that... *coughstrikecough* =-)

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Confused here...why would I want to strike that out?
Electricans who have been in the union had to drop union membership to be hired where I work. Is there a problem with that?

How 'bout these?

No work schedule - There IS no such thing as a scheduled day off. We're open, you're alive, get to work.
(The union guys CAN look at a schedule and see that they'll be off on such and such for a day or two.)

Work on stuff with 480 3-phase all over inside the cabinet, while live, alone, in the middle of the night?
Change out HID lighting ballasts at ceiling level on 277 volt circuits live, while alone on the night shift?

No 1 day off in 14, unless you want to be seen as some kind of "troublemaker".
No "protected" time for lunch or breaks. You'll eat while you work, beacause the union guys agreed to do so....

One electrician ONLY on evening and night shift for 9 presses plus building facilties.
Someone calls in sick, the other two back shift guys must work 12s.
Want to take a vacation? Try to get two other two guys to work 12's to cover your chosen days off. It's not "our" problem.
If they sign your request sheet, you can take your vacation.

Then to top it off, with each pay stub I get a little scratch-off card called "Safety Bingo".. spell out some word or another and WIN!
I'm not really superstitious, but with work conditions like this I refuse to play, I need the luck staying alive in this place.

Is there something wrong with these conditions? Not if I want be remain employed in this economy.

I think it was about 25 years ago I was asst Chief at KIMN Denver when the two tower array suddenly went wacko. Turned out the Prairie dogs had eaten through one of the transmission lines. Since they were underground, we did not see if the 5 KW caused an explosion. The antenna field was surrounded by good chain link fence that kept the neighborhood dogs out and the Prairie dogs flourished. The state Agriculture agent showed us how to cut down on the problem. Cut dry ice into pieces about golf ball size, drop one in each hole you can find and cover the hole. Go back the next day and any holes that have been re-opened were ones where you only found one end. Repeat. The Dry ice is carbon dioxide that suffocated the prairie dogs and left them buried in their holes. It worked for a while but they came back. The same AG agent suggested small holes in the fence to allow the neighborhood dogs in to hunt. I left that station before we tried that so don't know if it worked or not.

bilco said:

I think it was about 25 years ago I was asst Chief at KIMN Denver when the two tower array suddenly went wacko. Turned out the Prairie dogs had eaten through one of the transmission lines. Since they were underground, we did not see if the 5 KW caused an explosion.

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Prairie dogs are pests but they certainly are cute li'l critters. Did KIMN ever think of using pictures of prairie dogs in its PR? The slogan "Music to die for--for America's cutest listeners" comes to mind. (OK, the prairie dogs didn't have radios and so could not really listen. Just call that poetic license.)

DanStrassberg said:

bilco said:

I think it was about 25 years ago I was asst Chief at KIMN Denver when the two tower array suddenly went wacko. Turned out the Prairie dogs had eaten through one of the transmission lines. Since they were underground, we did not see if the 5 KW caused an explosion.

Click to expand...

Prairie dogs are pests but they certainly are cute li'l critters. Did KIMN ever think of using pictures of prairie dogs in its PR? The slogan "Music to die for--for America's cutest listeners" comes to mind. (OK, the prairie dogs didn't have radios and so could not really listen. Just call that poetic license.)

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I bet they hear something just before "the end".

I hated to kill the little critters, but they were doing damage to our system. The AG agent told me that in a closed environment like that they were limiting their own growth and many were probably dying from starvation. They sure were cute though.
Bill