Oldies guy who quit on the air?

There was a guy at Oldies 103 that quit on the air and left dead-air and walked out (so the story goes).

Who was that guy? Jason somebody?

Wimmmex said:

There was a guy at Oldies 103 that quit on the air and left dead-air and walked out (so the story goes).

Who was that guy? Jason somebody?

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Jason Wright. He was known to have allegedly done that around 3 AM during a live weekend overnight shift.

I recall that he was on WEIM (now WPKZ) Fitchburg after that, have lost track of him since.

Eli Polonsky said:

Jason Wright. He was known to have allegedly done that around 3 AM during a live weekend overnight shift. I recall that he was on WEIM (now WPKZ) Fitchburg after that, have lost track of him since.

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This story came up...and I remembering hearing about it..but few details.

I looked up on his LinkedIn page, and it highlights his time at Oldies 103 as the highlight of his career.

Does anyone know why it happened? Panic attack? Feeling ill? Nasty 3AM memo from the boss?

???

Eli Polonsky said:

Jason Wright. He was known to have allegedly done that around 3 AM during a live weekend overnight shift.

I recall that he was on WEIM (now WPKZ) Fitchburg after that, have lost track of him since.

Click to expand...

Love it or hate it. Another reason we like our automated playout system nights and weekends. Not having to put up with that crap.

I was listening when this happened:

From WBLX FM Mobile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=500deEeCOcA

I once quit a station BECAUSE (after a new GM took over) I got word that he was about to reduce my shifts to just weekend overnights. I believed that I had already had enough experience by then that I deserved to be treated better than that. But I did NOT quit on air. No real loss here. Within months of my leaving, he was hit with a sexual harassment charge and was soon gone himself. The station changed formats soon after that, and my former remaining shifts would have been eliminated, anyway.

I left stations twice because management decided to go in a different direction. I left and encouraged staff to move forward and accept the changes. They operate the station and that was their choice. I moved on. I got some great opportunities, but never felt that I deserved anything. The last GM that made my life miserable ended working (I heard) for a daytime a AM in the mid west (that was 10 years ago). He did me a favor (he wanted me to resign), it forced me to change direction and end up in a better place than if I would of stayed there. Oh, he did send me a resume after I purchased my first station In any business such a radio there has (or never will) be job security.

I didn't really go into detail about what subsequently happened. The operations manager (who ultimately hired me) at my next station knew about the situation at my previous station, probably because he had once worked for a competing station (that my former station had once had an option on buying (back while I was there)). Since I did not know who was in charge at my previous station, I put "no longer there" beside the "supervisor" name at my previous station (on the job application). I went on to work over 11 years at that (next) station, while my former boss at that previous station basically went into exile in Texas. I don't think he ever managed a station again, although he was GSM at at least one of his Texas stations. He returned to his roots in rural Kentucky for the last few years of his life, working for a small station there (back to his very first station, I think), and died there a little over three years ago. (I still suspect that he wanted me out of that station where I had formerly worked for him because he wanted to get rid of me, but did not want to pay me unemployment.)

I didn't have any objection to working overnight, and did overnights for about 10 of those 11 years that I was there.

I bet the guy who walked out was making minimum wage. Must be pretty hard living in Boston on minimum wage.
I heard this happening in TV (WATL) once. The on air operator typed up a message on the vidifont and put it on the air and walked out in the middle of the night. It was only on air for an hour and a half. A client called a salesman who called the GM who called the CE. Not sure what the message said and managers at other stations refused to talk about it. Guess they didn't want to admit that a manager could have a disgruntled employee.
Then there is the case of Meredith's WGCL. They had a CE and an news anchor walked out. The call letters are said to stand for "We've Got Clueless Leaders" after that.

kf4rca said:

I bet the guy who walked out was making minimum wage. Must be pretty hard living in Boston on minimum wage.

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Why would you bet that?

You would lose...because it was a union shop and he was full-time, union scale is much higher than minimum wage, with lots of benefits. (health, pension, etc.)

The woman in the youtube clip from the Mobile station claimed to be making only $6.00 an hour. Almost impossible, unless that clip is about 20 years old or more, because the minimum wage has been higher than that for about the last decade or so. Otherwise, she was likely exaggerating about how little she was making.

Back in 1971 NH Public Television had a transmitter supervisor at the Keene UHF outlet (WEKW-TV 52) walk out during an overnight shift.....he called in to the main site via STL talkback, saying he'd "had it with the B.S." and he was shutting down and leaving...
He put the transmitter in "LOCAL" so it couldn't be restarted remotely.....but was "kind" enough to lock the door behind him...
Being mid-winter -- and on a mountaintop -- it was several hours before things were back to "normal"....!

Didn't think about that. There are no unions down here. That's why they created the minimum wage. But lately employers are hiring these Mexican workers as independent contractors at below minimum. That pushes out American workers even at the minimum wage. There was an ICE raid on a Federal gov't project downtown and some of the illegal workers there were at $2.00 an hour. Unbelievable.