No experience needed to teach Broadcasting?

[J Kendrick]

So BCIT has a new posting for the job of Associate Dean of the Broadcast Communications department...

... and the list of qualifications that are now posted for the job (competition number 11M332) says nothing at all about the winning candidate being required to have any Broadcast experience.

See: http://www.bcit.ca/hr/careers/11m332.shtml

Hmmmm....

[freqfreak2]

... says nothing at all about the winning candidate being required to have any Broadcast experience.

Isn't that how broadcasting is being run these days?

[Howaboutthat]

... says nothing at all about the winning candidate being required to have any Broadcast experience.

Isn't that how broadcasting is being run these days?

As Meatloaf once sang - "you took the words right out of my mouth"

[Tape Splicer]

After reading the job posting notice, I went to Vancouver Broadcasters and read Brian Antonson's brief bio. His is a wealth of creative radio experience along with management experience.
I would hope that B A had a hand in creating the posting and I'd like to think that not requiring creative radio experience was an oversight. But then again, the suits and bean counters have always had the upper hand in management.

[Karen]

Why would Brian have anything to do with a BCIT job posting? They retired him about a year and a half ago. This posting is likely the search for a replqacement for John Oliver who is retiring in December.

[Tape Splicer]

I knew Brian was close to retirement age, but I didn't realize that he had already retired, thanks for the update. I guess I'm out of touch, i haven't spoken to him recently,

[Mike Cleaver]

Brian WAS retired, not his choice.
Some have even asked him to re-apply for the Associate Dean's position, which was his old job.
His replacement, who also had no broadcast experience, didn't last very long.
With the corpse being run by former soup company executives and meat packers, why should broadcast experience be a pre requisite?

[Tape Splicer]

Mike, i notice your choice of "corpse" instead of "course" - This makes me think that the course may be slowly dying. Hopefully it will be to be resurrected with someone with radio experience at the helm....too bad about Brian i learned a great deal from him while at BCIT.

[J Kendrick]

Brian WAS retired, not his choice.
Some have even asked him to re-apply for the Associate Dean's position, which was his old job.
His replacement, who also had no broadcast experience, didn't last very long.
With the corpse being run by former soup company executives and meat packers, why should broadcast experience be a pre requisite?

Well... If the next Associate Dean of BCIT's Broadcast department won't be required to have any Broadcast experience...

... then what are they now teaching the students who went there to study Broadcasting?

... actual Broadcasting... or Business Management?

[J Kendrick]

Mike, i notice your choice of "corpse" instead of "course" - This makes me think that the course may be slowly dying.

I think by "corpse" he may be referring to the CBC .. the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (Corpse)

[Mike Cleaver]

The "corpse" are the big five companies which now hold just about every broadcast license in the country.
The BCIT program, which comprises radio, TV and journalism, still has some very qualified instructors but the institution has had very little money put into it.
The TV equipment is totally outdated, radio has fared a bit better.
An attempt to upgrade those programs, both course and equipment-wise, a couple of years ago was pretty much thrown out the window by the administration, mainly because of a lack of funding.
I'm not sure how much longer they can continue the television course without all new digital equipment.
You still can teach students the techniques with analog but almost no station uses it anymore.
The corpse now expect students to come out of school ready to hit the ground running.

[Paul P]

I'd like to know where all these grads they're cranking out are getting jobs, when we hear nothing about layoffs coming from the industry as a whole. Not newspapers, not radio (oh, sorry... cheap labour)... TV? I don't know, maybe in 'middle-of-nowhere' Saskatchewan?
I'd also be interested to know what a 2 year program costs these days.

[Tape Splicer]

Paul - BCIT's fee schedules are located on the institution's web site.
The link below will take you there.
http://www.bcit.ca/admission/fees/fulltime.shtml

This link should open a dialog box for a PDF file. either open or save the file.
http://www.bcit.ca/files/pdf/admission/ ... uition.pdf

there are other fee schedules there as well.

[Mike Cleaver]

As to where some of the graduates are going, they're getting the jobs of those who've been fired by the corpse because they cost too much.
True, there aren't as many of those jobs any more.
Consider this.
BCIT alone turns out 40 graduates a year in the Radio Program and the same, if I remember correctly, in TV and Journalism.
This is based on my experience there several years ago.
I have no idea where they all end up.
The talented ones, the three or four in each class with personality and a broader outlook on life with some background in all subjects, usually end up in their intended field.
The rest, well, you figure it out.
There are dozens of similar programs across the country, churning out people who hope to find a place in these "glamorous" industries.
Sorry, except for a tiny minority, the days of making a living wage in the business are long gone.
As the old joke goes: "How do you make a small fortune in radio and TV? Start with a large one."

[Tape Splicer]

When I enrolled in the two year radio program in 83 the class size was 40 students - divided into two blocks of 20 students - by the time I graduated in 85 the class was down to 20. If I recall correctly one had to maintain a fairly high grade average in order to continue on to the next term. There were a few that didn't make it beyond the first term, the highest drop off was at the end of year one. The 20 who started year two were the ones who made it through to the end. Some would head out to "Arm-Pit BC" to work at the local station by the end of the third term. They would graduate at the end of the fourth term with the rest of the class. The hiring rate for students at that time was very high in the 90 - 95% range I think. I seam to recall that TV and NEWS had the same attrition rate as Radio.