[SBE] I'm retired, what Hoiday, every day is a holiday!!!!

[A9xw at cs.com]

Thanks.  I had long term plans, its just 19 months early. No Medicare till 
then. We bought the kennel biz in 94 as our retirement income.  And when the 
dogs give me a load of *** I know it is not some screaming failure blaming 
everyone else. I still have 8 dogs and 11 cats of my own.  feed, scoop, pet, 
feed scoop pet.  Not a bad bone in their bodies. 

One "tell" of bad times is when the boss walls himself in his office, cuts 
his direct reports, and has his main kiss up make an Intranet for employees 
to log in, out, and post news.  The station was one large room with a few 
office walls. You don't make the staff less personal and communications more 
difficult. [you must post your whereabouts at all times] when you could in a 
slightly raised voice, talk to anyone, or just walk 50 feet to another 
office, while saying "our staff is our most important resource and we're doing 
this to help moral and make us like family.  A dysfunctional family.  So I 
would post friendly comments, "Going to lunch, not sure where I'll I get my 
take out, but if you need me, I'll be in my car eating and listening to the 
radio."  The other employees would crack up and the boss would fume.  Last 
holiday season the boss did nothing but trade out a crummy banquet dinner its 
only value, it was close to the boss' house, and 25 miles from the station in 
the wrong direction for most employees. On duty people got nothing. So I 
didn't go, and took a holiday meal to the station for those that had to work. 
No raises for over 2 years, and each December, they cut benefits, 403b match 
eliminated, life insurance coverage cut in half, health care premium changes 
passed on + 10% to employees, and on June 29, announced employees would 
have to pay 30% of premiums and lower services, but "proudly no pay cuts."  
Wonder what he thinks a $150 a month average cost increase is if not a cut in 
pay?  "And its pre tax, so it will reduce your gross and you likely won't see 
any change in take home."  Really?  70% of the staff didn't make enough to 
pay any income taxes, so who was kidding who?  I have reason to believe this 
is becoming the norm and not the exception. 

Well, its a well built network standard quality plant and fully AutoCAD 
documented. As long as they don't erase the computer files, or screw it up it 
should last a long time.  Last year I visited a station I rebuilt in 1978 and 
it was intact and working fine. I built its competitor in 1980 and it was 
still intact and working fine, only the Go-carts had been replaced with Audio 
Vault. Both were still using the SP10D MK II turntables! 

Good stuff lasts a long time. I'm still using a GVG 900 series sync/proc 
built in 1965 and although it is not H/sc phase locked, it has stayed within 
90 degrees on Sch its entire life without repairs vs the 5 years and dead 
stuff with a million bad capacitors and chips you can't buy.  A SPG 3, it may 
have been older, the old RCA works in a drawer sync gen with 2 UHF outlets, 
at NBC 30 Rock had never been touched since install. In 1983 one of my 
projects involved adjusting its non H phase locked SCH to meet standard. Blow of 
the dust, a quick few tweaks to move the dust and 70 degrees later, perfect. 
About 8 seconds of B&W on the entire network while the phase pot dirt got in 
the way. The entire NBC TV network facility running on geranium 
transistors.  

In 1987 at WMAQ NBC Chicago we replaced the 1938 vintage T-Bar relay 
switchers with GVG 400's.  The coax connectors were so old the UHF connectors fell 
apart to dust when we just touched them and the 8281 coax was green.  

They just don't make them like they used to!

Henry
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