DJ Bail Money

I have always felt that being a program director is a lot like babysitting.  Not all the time, but there are times when it does.  I was at home asleep when my phone rang around 4AM.  It was not unusual for my phone to ring at that hour by some emergency at the radio station.  This time was different.  As fate would have it, my midday jock, 2 of my part time jocks, and a van driver were all arrested.

Bailing out a radio DJ from jail is a situation that is common in the industry.  Things happen.    On any normal day the DJ would be bailed out and then would have to deal with the consequences.  In this case, it was complicated.  I had 2 of my part timers and a van driver in jail too.

As I had my midday guy on the phone, I demanded to know what they had done.  He did not give me a straight answer.  After speaking with the DJ, I called the police station and was told that they were all picked up on a drug related incident.  I called the bossman and explained what had happened.  He agreed to bail them all out.  Leaving my wife at 4AM to drive downtown in the snow did not make me a very happy person, but I did it.

When I arrived at the police station I had began going through the process of getting them out of jail.  As I was signing papers, I noticed one of the part time jocks had a bail of $20,000.  When you bail someone out, normally you only have to pay 10% of their bail.  Still, the radio station was unable to pay $2,000 to get him out of jail.  I had no choice but to leave him.

By the end of it all, I did not fire my midday guy.  He was the number 1 jock in the city.  I did have to play damage control and tried my best to keep the incident out of the news.  He was punished though.  The part timer who was also bailed out was let go and so was the van driver who was also arrested.  The jock who stayed in jail was charged with possession of a large portion of cocaine and had to serve time in jail.  It was clear he was let go too.