Spieker vacates PD position at KVMI-FM

9/27/2010
Friends & Broadcasters,

It has come to my attention that someone has been posting my name and some really derogatory things that really are not my thoughts meanwhile giving the impression that I reside and post on the broadcast gossip site
Red and Nater.com. 


It can't be any farther from the truth that those are my postings. I will not post there let alone buy into the feces that is posted there. I have been accused by many employers of posting there, when asking for proof they were at a loss and couldn't provide any evidence.

Now that I am leaving (on my own terms) a radio station that is owned by an owner who isn't hardly even present but to collect the accounts receivables and pass out paychecks. Meaning the station is attended by 4 people at the most, and is operated on air by 2 people and an awesome sales team of 2.

Needless to go on about this, I will say this team mentioned above did what I would term the "Impossible".
We turned a profit within 4 months of my hiring. Meaning we had a month that receivables collected that had exceeded expenses. It was something that took a lot of long hours donated to the company and effort beyond the call of duty to bring those results.

This owner has gone as far as mentioning to me many times without a solid piece of evidence that I was posting company secrets on the above mentioned web shithole. Not so.

Today, I was called by a broadcaster in Minneapolis who wanted to confirm my departure from KVMI-FM,
I verified it, and then was told of all the accusations and things people claimed I had said. The person has offered me the poster's IP addresses from the posts in question. I am considering accepting that option on the advice of an attorney.

I am not leaving broadcasting, and have no intention to do so. I am doing what I need to do.

My advice to those who dare continue this behavior is to stop. I do know who you are and so do you.
If you have told anyone any non-truths about my career please man up and correct them.

As God is my witness.

Brian Spieker

Psalm 139 -
You have searched me and you know me
You're familiar with all my ways
You have placed your hand upon me 
With such a knowledge I can't attain
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I make my bed in the depths
If I go up to the heavens
You are there

If I rise on the wings of the dawn 
If I settle on the far side of the sea
Even there your hand will hold me fast
Even there your hand will guide me
You are there


You are there

Radio Producer/Personality fills time “Storm Chasing” between gigs

Radio Producer/Personality fills time 

“Storm Chasing” between gigs

   If you asked Brian (Douglas) Spieker what was his one passion in life was; he would tell you “Radio”. Spieker who has 21 years in radio & television broadcasting was last employed a year ago in Fargo, ND, with Great Plains Integrated Marketing, the parent company of WZFG-AM which was the very 50kw AM station at 1100 who used FCC rule 47 CFR 73.1250 during the 2009 Flood across the Red River Valley that borders North Dakota & Minnesota. The station was heard from Alabama to Saskatchewan to Colorado to the east coast. Brian’s assignment was to keep the station on the air at all costs, or until he had to evacuate the site due to the rising flood waters inundating the transmitter. That did not happen the station survived the flooding, but the budget of the cluster didn’t. Several areas were cut back within the group, and Spieker was no exception, even though he was the station's "Utility Player". He was cut back to 6 hours a pay period from an average of 96 hours every 2 weeks.


    Facing homelessness Spieker exited WZFG and moved to Tucson, Arizona where he continued his search for another position nationally only to get a few sporadic interviews. Brian decided to take on the highly competitive world of voice over and produce streaming talk from his New Mexico studio only to find it wasn't paying all the bills. “One of my studio partners asked me if I had been out on a storm chase lately” said Spieker. That was when Brian got the idea to continue his hobby of storm chasing and photographing severe storms and tornadoes. Spieker noted, “This spring has been the wildest I have seen in my 12 years of being a certified chaser, I see the reaction of the citizens in the communities, and it makes me want to contribute more to the science of meteorology through radio.”


   Spieker had learned his meteorology from notable storm photographer, Warren Faidley, and staff members from his local weather service offices. While Brian is eagerly looking to return to a position in radio at some level he currently is studying to become a FEMA certified emergency manager, as part of his additional storm chasing knowledge, and hopes someday to use that training to contribute his experience to improving the EAS system or other public warning systems, including increasing warning times to the public in emergencies.


   Brian (Douglas) Spieker can be reached by e-mailing brian@audiotracks.info or winatradio2@gmail.com he can be reached by telephone at: (575) 571-1680.    

Plan B: For those who have grown discouraged in Radio’s Job Market

   So you have a great package, e-mailed, or sent out some one hundred thousand of these “Works of Art”, waited months and months, posted “Situation Wanted” ads on every Broadcaster’s Association career page, and even scour places like CBS Careers, Clear Careers and painstakingly have gone to hundreds of individual station & network websites uploaded your CV & demo so many times it would get you admitted to UCLA’s Psychiatric unit faster than Brittney Spears for A Terminal Depressive disorder.


   No offers yet? OK let’s break this down a little bit. Great CV, Headshot, (preferably by Kevyn Major Howard- although it don’t have to be) Great Audio Demo (usually an Mp3  less than 2 min and 3mb in size) Stellar cover letter you paid a collage English Professor beau-coup bucks to write for you. (I still write my own, thanks) Included in that package, any other materials that is asked for. 

  

You still have no offers? 

   It’s time to manufacture a secondary plan of action, a “Plan B” if you will.

This is me, and I’m not the bitter type as I have been “on the beach” for over a year now from my former position as an air-talent, talks producer, and utility player from WZFG-AM in Fargo, ND. 

  I played a role in the launch of that 50kw state of the art facility, with the technical skill set that was needed in Programming, to help everyone including myself, through the extremely steep learning curve of a brand new station that nobody really had time to do “dry runs” or really learn how the equipment operated. I was really the only one who had a chance to work with the automation, Learn the delay system, IP console, Transmitter operations, that even the PD had to be brought up to speed on. 

   Anyway, the payback for this was I was able to identify numerous issues that needed to be repaired for the engineers, and was able to pick up on malfunctions that easily could have taken the stations off of the air during the day instead of overnight when we had fewer listeners.

   In 2009 the economic situation had reached a point where some cuts needed to be made. Every group in the market cut a few. The group I was with cut 8 initially back to part time from full time later the total became 16. I decided to give it a whirl, although I knew I would need full time to prevent from becoming homeless without a “Plan B”.

  I lived for a while off of my savings and a few pick up positions until the insanity had hit a breaking point.
I made a call to a former employer and bought some equipment that I needed to get my home studio running again, this time I’m in New Mexico and the economy is even more messed up than North Dakota’s.

The Plan:

   I had a few flashes of brilliance as I sat reading the trades, while doing what I described above. I had come to the conclusion on how a bitter broadcaster (not meaning myself) or a very discouraged one (we’ve all been there) could get revenge on an employer without them really knowing it unless they were told. 

First: Do not work, find a cheap apartment or place to live with little expenses. (Subsidized housing, Housing Assistance, HUD programs & Section 8 Housing)

Second:  Apply for benefits food stamps, state benefits. If you are working with a disabling issue, and are good at hiding I from bosses.. SSD/SSI Psychiatric doctors are dying to diagnose anxiety, PTSD from firings, bad employers… etc.          

Third:  Alcoholism, not a great thing, but it sure helps.

Fourth: Send those employers that you last worked for a “Thank You” card for allowing you to live on the taxes they pay to the US Government. In a way they are giving you a free living. I’m sure that will go over well with companies like Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, and CBS. Many “Mom & Pop” LLC’s may fume for a while also, but they made their bed… and the former employees now sleep in it. 

Brian Douglas Spieker

Delicate Thunder Studios

Owner/Producer/Audio Engineer/VO Talent