I've seen several articles on radioinsight about companies parting ways with pds. However, dont parent companies have the final say and can steer the ship in the "right" direction with that pd instead of getting a new one? Oftentimes, it looks like they are on air talent as well. Thoughts?
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Firing a program director...reasons?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
A PD is a department head in the business of radio, and my be judged as much for their administrative skills as for the art of programming. So there can be a lot of reasons for PDs leaving, ranging from lack of ratings success to their ability to administer the budget, supervise and train staff, create on-air and web content and the like.
Obviously the most common reasons are bad rating and a decision to change format. Another significant reason in a world of declining revenue is having too high a salary.
Being fired is almost always about performance or salary. Quitting is almost always about better opportunities.
Your boss tells you what to do, and probably offers some general guidance on how to do it. They don't do the job for you: if they did, the position would be eliminated. And many program director jobs have been eliminated in recent years!
In these regards, radio isn't any different than any other job.
Your boss tells you what to do, and probably offers some general guidance on how to do it. They don't do the job for you: if they did, the position would be eliminated. And many program director jobs have been eliminated in recent years!
In these regards, radio isn't any different than any other job.
I've seen one station where the pd leaves and the "sound" of the station changes...though Im not sure why they had to fire the pd to do that.
No. The PD works for the GM or Market Manager, not corporate. If corporate has a view on the subject, they can express it to the GM or Market Manager. But unless corporate wants to offer the departed a new job, they don't have a lot of say. You can bet there has been discussions between the market and corporate that led to the ultimate dismissal. The reason typically is more about meeting numbers than "the sound" of the station.
Today in the large and medium sized radio groups, PD hire/fire decisions are made by the national PD or the national PD and the national head of a specific format. If they believe a PD is not working out, they will deal with the local GM and, depending on the importance of the station, the corporate COO and/or CEO.
If a local PD is having internal issues at the station, such as not doing paperwork, mishandling EEO and hiring practices, etc., the GM may ask the national PD to either fix it or find a new PD.
At many stations today, the local GM is essentially there for sales. Programming is handled by in-house corporate leaders. Traffic and accounting are centralized for the company. The chief engineer is approved by the corporate chief and reports to them.
And now there is a growing trend to have one manager oversee multiple markets. Again, it's because the main... and sometimes only... function of the GM is supervising sales and doing a few community involvement tasks.
Every PD has their own vision of how a station should sound.
A friend, at one time a national PD of a large group, said half the new PD hires failed... of those, an equal part failed because they wanted to put too much of their own signature on the station and thus they broke it... and the other ones failed because they were so frightened by moving to a bigger market that they did nothing to keep the station fresh.
If they wasted time obsessing about certain artists or titles, they wouldn't be doing their job.
I was a PD for 15 years, and an APD for another 10. Bottom line, this radio position can have many meanings and responsibilities depending on how management is set up. At a couple of my stations I had a lot of authority, some not so much. Such is broadcasting. It really depends on how the station (s) are managed.
I don't think it's as simple as that.
A PD is the "product manager" for a station or group. Such people do not fly solo.
If you're a manager hiring someone who you don't think will be a "yes-man", you're making your life unnecessarily hard.
There can be a place for a "team of rivals" to steal a phrase from Doris Kearns Goodwin, but that place is not usually where middle managers work.
It really isn’t that difficult. If you come in with authority you will be fine. However, if there are layers of authority already in place you will likely be pushed back. This is quite typical. You just need to stand up. Of course that move can get you fired. Welcome to radio management culture
At one corporate meeting years ago, the two top executives gave me a set of business cards where my position was shown as "Agent of Change". Part of my responsibility was to look for the downside and "make its case" so that any decision took into account the thorns as well as the roses.
But you can't have everyone company going in different directions. Consensus based decisions or even single leader-based decisions must be followed by everyone else or you have anarchy.
Indeed. The new PD must group together a concenses. A smart PD will listen to the employees, but act in what he or she was hired for. To improve ratings. If it pisses off employees, so be it. This is the system..
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