Dilbert today

Back in the 90s, I worked for a group of local radio stations. My job was “Continuity Director”, working in the traffic department. No, it had nothing to do with cars. In radio and TV, the traffic people are the ones who schedule what commercials run when, and make sure the correct ones run at the correct times.

One year, the company did incredibly well. The ratings were HUGE, and the income was equally huge. And our department was a big part of that — if commercials didn’t run as the clients wanted them to, they didn’t have to pay. That year I personally had a 99.995% accuracy rate, and was personally responsible for the station losing only around $60 through scheduling errors.

The company decided to celebrate. One weekend, they took the entire on-air staff for a weekend to Las Vegas. Two weeks later, they took the entire sales staff for a weekend to Las Vegas.

The following week, they treated the business department (which included traffic) to lunch at Tony Roma’s.