Traffic manager at a group of radio stations in Interior Alaska.

Someone asked me to elaborate a bit on that, so here is a paste from the Windows clipboard of what I told him:

Putting a program log together is fun...

I have over 100 different product conflict categories to keep seperated, I have to ensure horizontal and vertical rotation of the commercials (make sure a client's commercials don't always air in the 10am and 2pm (for example) hours every Tuesday) and I have to ensure that a client's commercials have more or less even distribution through the dayparts. I am responsible for four radio stations' program logs every day, 12 of them on Fridays. So today I'll deal with about 3,000 commercials (4 stations, three days worth).

Next, I have to make sure that the appropriate copy gets played for each of those spots. I might have copy rotations for a client involving a dozen different commercials, some of them allowed to air on certain days of the week, some of them not, some of them allowed in certain dayparts, some of them not, and some of them in differing percentages from the other spots in the rotation. Figure 60 or 70 different clients playing on average 4--5 commercials each on *each* of the four stations each day.

Then on Monday I'll have to make sure that all 3,000 of the commercials did indeed air on the days and times they were supposed to run, airing the copy they were supposed to air. At the end of the month, I'll have to verify that each client's billiing does indeed match up with his contract before the invoices are printed and mailed out.

Does this give any insight as to why I am an anal personality? :-)

Oh... I almost forgot the balancing act of sales vs inventory. There is a fixed amount of inventory (both time and units) available, and some of the stations are usually over-sold. So now I have to prioritize which commercials actually get on the air, based on how likely is it that the commercial can be moved to another day. Sometimes I can be over-sold on time and still have units available; other days I can be over-sold on units and still have time available. (A commercial break is defined as being full when it has either 5 commercials in it, or 3.5 minutes in it, *whichever occurs first*. So... :30 spots, :60 spots, expensive spots, cheap spots, spots from advertising agencies, spots from local sales, there are probably a dozen variables that determine whether I can or cannot place a commercial on the log.

A right-brain individual who is intuitive, creative, spontaneous, artistic -- absolutely *cannot* do radio traffic. I'll post a picture on the bbs later today in the "pictures of your office" thread and you'll see what kind of environment the person who can do traffic lives in.

tanstaafl.