REMOTE BEHAVIOR QUESTION FOR DAN O’DAY: I need some outside "professional" opinions here. How much is too much for a jock to do at a club remote? Reason being... Myself and another jock both do bar remotes. Unlike other bars, the ones we’re at like us to MC the night and announce the contests and give-a-ways and the like. However it causes the occasional "missed break." From the programming side we get ripped for missing a break, from the sales side we are getting ripped for not being active enough. What’s the best way to bridge the gap? My take has always been "get ’em in the door, then let the club entertain them." On the usual night when I leave the club there’s at least 1000 people in the place. When I’m out mingling the crowd between breaks the new people (not all, but some) say they came because it sounded like a really fun place to be. I feel as if I’m doing my job by getting them in the place. I also feel like hosting the "nightly" contests are enough. Am I getting lazy? Why should I have to MC the night when they already have 2 dj’s spinning their music? DAN REPLIES: If I understand your situation correctly, there needs to be a meeting among you, your PD, and your sales manager to agree upon performance ground rules for bar remotes. Together, draw up a list of all of the station’s goals for a bar remote. They might include (but should not be limited to) the following: * Creating bar traffic * Making the bar sound like a popular place * Representing the radio station in the community * Making the station sound good within the breaks themselves (i.e., an exciting event) * Protecting the overall sound of the station * Creating goodwill toward the station from the client * Making friends for the station with the customers * Handling MC duties * Giving away prizes * Conducting on-site contests * Being available to chat with on-site customers * Having time to prepare sufficiently for each upcoming break * Adding to the station’s cume by recruiting new listeners * Making money for the station * Making money for the jock When compiling the list, don’t argue about which is more important. Just make sure each side includes everything that they wish to have accomplished at the remote. Then, as a group, prioritize them. List them in descending order of importance. This part of the exercise might well take some time and produce some disagreement; work through it until the group has finalized the list, in order of importance. Now that you have your priorities listed, it should be easier to determine which of them takes precedence over another. Let’s take some examples from the above list and see what we can surmise if each of these is determined to be a Top Priority. * Creating bar traffic If your primary goal is to deliver bodies but then it’s up to the bar to entertain them, then your energies go to on-air promotion (both before and during the remote). * Making the bar sound like a popular place The on-air breaks are supreme. * Making the station (and yourself) sound good within the breaks themselves (i.e., an exciting event) You need time to prepare for the breaks. That time has to come from some other on-site activity. * Creating goodwill toward the station from the client You’ll want to do anything you can on-site, as long as it’s part of your agreement. * Making friends for the station with the customers You'll need time to mingle. * Making money for the jock If that’s your primary goal and you feel the clients are expecting you to do too much, maybe you should raise your talent fee to the point where you DON'T resent doing those "extras." Once the people in your station are in agreement as to what should and should not be expected from you, the salespeople need to make those facts crystal clear to the client...going so far as to spell it out in the written agreement. All of the above, of course, will take some time & effort to put into place. But I think it would help.