Friday, January 09, 2009

My Eyes are Bleeding

I'm sure that anyone who keeps track of anything has to deal with that special hell that is called
QUARTERLY REPORTS.

Due to the digital conversion that is supposed to occur on February 17th (and now, dammit after all this mess there's rumors of the deadline being backed up - please... NOOOOOOO), I have to keep track of all efforts the TV station makes to educate the public about the conversion. Every single spot that runs. Every public speaking engagement. Every event that includes handing out FLYERS. Every interview. Every program that talks about it. And I must condense this into a 6-page form approved by the FCC. It sounded simple on the surface, but after the first one I realized that I would probably spend at least one day chasing down people and at least one day counting spots from little tiny-type reports, and at least one day making it all make sense.

Then there's the regularly scheduled Quarterly Topic Report, which is done for the national programming by our programmers, but the local stuff all comes from me. And there's A LOT of local stuff. Again, I must chase down people and program descriptions, check schedules to note program changes and pre-emptions. I also have to do this with the children's programming - and our station runs A LOT of children's programming.

At least I can be thankful that it's not Nielsen time and the Sprout report isn't due right now. Because sometimes, ALL of those things are due at the same time.

I am so there.

6 comments:

karisma said...

Ahhh! But you love it!

Anonymous said...

Pat Keating-Quincy Rotary-1/6/09


see, I help.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to 2009, sounds like your off and running. Hope it slows down soon. Funny you mentioned Nielsen, we particapted in the Nielsen ratings for two years. Sayre, I would like to add you to my blog list, is that ok with u? I enjoy visiting your blog.

Sayre said...

Karisma - Yes, I do!

Dad - Yes, YOU do! Pat told me about it, I think he had fun.

Janis - Sure! Add me on if you like. I enjoy visitors - especially FMers!

Anonymous said...

Haha - can I put that poster on my office wall? I feel your pain...I'm not in TV but we have similar reports that are crammed with minutiae and every single thing must be recorded. Yikes.

And ditto Janis - would it be OK if I add you to my blogroll too? I find that a list helps me to not forget to visit :-)

Unknown said...

This sounds like misery! I can't imagine having to keep track of all of it. And I'm so tired of hearing about it that I am screaming NO! at the delay as well! :)