Hit me with your BS stick

This is the third of three installments on the crazy things I am hearing from talent and programmers applying for work. One of my good friends has been talking to a programmer about an opening. I hooked them up. It took a few weeks to get the email and some phone dialog going. He was told to plan on a fly-in for a face to face. The interview weekend kept changing without much information from the programmer. Then they have it set in stone and he hears nothing all week. It was this past weekend he was suppose to come in. Gets an email saying this wouldn't be a good weekend. What the hell, well it was really WTF from my friend. 

How about another friend of mine who talks to an OM about a PD opening. They talk and he seems up-beat about it. They as for a station evaluation. While this is going on, another station in the market switches format to their same format. The OM never tells the PD applicant, my boy this. He wants the material fast. Well, he has a direct format competitor. This is why I'm urging folks not to do reviews of stations other than a generic one. These people will steal this stuff. I've had it happen so many times. 

These are guys I know with excellent track records and zero skeletons in the closet. This is happening to a lot of people. Here's a few companies that seem to excel at the new generation employment game:

Clear Channel - They boost from within and transfer from station to station.
Cumulus - Other than a few recent hires, they promote from withing or transfer too.
Entercom - Hire from outside the company and rarely promote from within.
Cox - Rarely have openings.
Emmis - Rarely have openings.
CBS - Promote from within or transfer.
Citadel - Promote from within and hire from outside of the company.
Lincoln Financial - Hire from outside of the company.
Beasley - Outside hires, limited promotion from within.

Gold stars to: LFM, Beasley, Emmis, Citadel and Entercom for actually filling openings from ads, outside the company. Promoting someone from inside doesn't help the unemployed professionals who need jobs.