Sunday, November 13, 2005

 

I was Wyle E. Coyote,
Jon Wilson was The Roadrunner

My first job in TV was at KDLT in Sioux Falls, SD. I was in a bar in Vermillion when a college friend told me they were looking for someone to operate master control. I didn't know anyone who worked at KDLT, no one I knew from college had any connection with the station. I was completely on my own when I interviewed for that job. I didn't have any "in," I got the job because I somehow impressed them with who I was and even though I had never done that type of work (though I had a degree in Mass Communications for the University of South Dakota), they offered me a job.

I like to think I did a good job. Management told me I did a good job and they were happy to have me there. They always somehow managed to overlook me for any type of promotion or job related perks though.

In a master control environment, mistakes will be made. No operator can go through a week without doing something wrong. Unlike most jobs, though, we were required to write up errors (our own and those of others) on a discrpency report. I wrote up anything that I did wrong, while others tended to only write up things that someone else might have seen or something that could have resulted in a loss of revenue for the station, like a missed commercial break. I tended to be as honest as possible about my errors, whether they involved the loss of money for the fine folks at Heritage Broadcasting or not.

Jon Wilson, another operator, bragged that he hadn't had a 'DR' in over a month. He was a good operator, but I knew he didn't write up everything that he did wrong. I would see things when I was at home that hadn't run smoothly, but when I checked the 'DR' the next day they would never appear. He wasn't writing things up as required. Worse, I would see things that I knew involved paid spots, that I would see get screwed up, and he still wouldn't write them up.

For a while, Jon and I covered the day part, weekday afternoons. I worked Mondays and Tuesdays, Jon worked Wednesday through Friday. The station had dropped the tabloid TV show A Current Affair, but we were still obligated to run the build in commercial breaks in that show until our contract with the producers of A Current Affair expired. To do this, we would record that break of A Current Affair on tape and then replay it in the next show.

The first day I did that, I took a tape off of the top of the rack and recorded the break. When I previewed it, I noted that it had a bad drop-out in it, the video actually disappeared for a couple of seconds. I grabbed another tape, caught another airing of A Current Affair off of the satellite and everything ran as planned. I made a mistake and left the bad tape on top of the deck that we would record that break in.

Jon Wilson didn't catch the error when he came into work. I happened to be watching from home as the video from the A Current Affair commercial break hit air. The video dropped out just as it had for me. I felt bad that I had cause Jon a problem on his shift. On the other hand, it was his responsibility to preview something like that before he put it on the air. I checked the 'DR' the next day I was in and didn't see any mention of the problem. When I looked in the control room, the bad tape was still sitting on top of the deck.

The next week I watched that break and noticed the video dropped out in the middle of it. It did it every day that Jon worked. Again, I checked the 'DR' and there was no mention of the error. It started to become apparent how Jon Wilson was able to go weeks without reporting a discrepency. Namely, he didn't write himself up.

So I told our supervisor about it. Nothing happened. The next week the same thing happened on Jon's shift, the bad tape was still on top of the deck. So I told the department head. Finally the problem was fixed, the bad tape was thrown away. As far as I know, Jon Wilson was never disciplined for not reporting and error that went on for a couple of weeks. In fact, Jon Wilson was soon after given a different shift. He did have to work mornings, but he had every weekend off.

The mornings apparently didn't agree with Jon Wilson, though. He tended to have trouble getting into work for sign on. Sign on was at 6am, but that was part of the job. During that time, KDLT ran some sort of Ag report show at 6am, NBC News at Sunrise at 6:30 and The Today Show from 7 to 9. The Ag show was on tape, recorded overnight. A number of times, the Ag show didn't run because Jon didn't get into the station until well after 6. Again, there were paid spots during that show that didn't air, costing the station money. Sometimes Jon would write the discrepency up, sometimes he wouldn't.

During that time, I lived about 2 minutes walking distance from KDLT. If Jon didnt show up, the engineer on duty would call me at home. I would throw on some clothes and work the morning until Jon came in. Since the station was paying me for my time, they had to have known that Jon wasn't making it into work. Jon continued to get a pay check, though.

Eventually I got a job directing at KDLT, something that Jon seemingly took great offense at. My old master control position was filled by one of the part-time high school age camera operators who lived at home with his parents. My job was to direct the weekend newscasts, that is until KDLT dropped their weekend newscasts 3 months later.

Through no fault of my own, I was out of a job. A high school kid who was living at home had my old job, the station was unwilling to let him go to keep me. The station also opted to keep Jon Wilson, who falsefied documents and didn't show up to work on time or at all instead of me.

Jon Wilson, who didn't do his job well, who didn't even care enough to fucking show up to work stayed on at KDLT for a few years before moving on to KELO where he now works co-hosts their morning show. He doesn't even list his years at KDLT in his bio on KELO's website.

Jon Wilson and I theoretically operated under the same set of rules while working at KDLT. I did my job well, he did his poorly. He continued to be employed there, I didn't.

I try to be an honest person. I try to be hard working and dependable. When I'm employed by a company, it's my opinion that the very least I can do is be there and ready to work at the appointed time, I have always done my best to do this.

As near as I can tell, I'm a fucking idiot for ever even trying. It as never proven to be to my benefit. All it has ever done is proven to be a frustration as I watch others with no values, no dedication pass me by.

You'd think that I'd have learned in 1991, when Jon Wilson was pulling all of his crap. I still tried, though. I tried and I was the one who got beaten down while others put out half-assed effort and were rewarded.

Wyle E. Coyote

Comments:
Been there. My opinion (you'd better care) is hey, I'm gonna do the best I can, screw what the rest of the people are doing. When I can't stand it any more, there ARE other things to do. I know that you are familiar (perhaps too familiar) with THE PETER PRINCIPAL. It ain't gonna go away soon. Sorry. Really, I am sorry. Those PETER PEOPLE mess a lot of stuff up. How's your aim?
 
This is a quote from the play Our Town. Yes, I was in it in high school. Even then I thought this line was profound in its simplicity, and I still do.

"I guess we're all huntin' like everybody else for a way the diligent and sensible can rise to the top and the lazy and quarrelsome sink to the bottom. But it ain't easy to find."
 
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