So... who still has a job?

You working?


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I live in NYC. I last worked on March 13, when we struck out the light plot and cancelled the last two weeks of a 5 week dance festival. Luckily, I was on a contract and they honored the contract by paying me off in full. I didn't apply for UI until April 8. Since all of my employers paid taxes and withheld $$, my online application seemed to sail through. I am getting my $ from both NYS and from the Feds. It's not a lot, but it's not a little.
Everybody be well, and WASH YOUR HANDS!!
 
Nothing on the IATSE/AEA side is happening, but AV installs is still going strong. Doing prep work for the big arena job that will ramp up late summer/fall, finishing a couple of big houses of worship, moved a bunch of school things that had been scheduled for the summer into the spring, and corporate installs (board rooms/training facilities/employee gathering spaces) are plentiful.

I'm working from home when I'm not required on site and enjoying all the webinars and online training I can fit in. Kudos to Chicago Fly House and to The Entertainment Technical Training Center for great webinars!

A full slate of tradeshow presentations/lectures I was scheduled to give are cancelled or postponed, but working on a few proposals for next year. Hope to see many of you in person when this is all over.
 
Working for a school, my job is pretty safe. If the economy drop effects the state budget and the school district has to cut budgets, I may have a problem, but for now I'm in good shape. As a result, I'm starting to feel "survivor's guilt". So many of my friends are really struggling and I'm not sure how I got to be the lucky one. My best to all of you who are struggling to make ends meet.
 
Thankfully, my academic job is safe (for the moment) and I'm able to continue working from home, mostly planning for next academic year and the fall semester. A lot of it still feels like it's build on sand, though, as we've no idea what PA will be doing through the rest of the spring, into the summer, and beyond. My wife's job has been reduced by over 75% (she teaches for a painting studio) and most of my other theatre friends aren't working at all...
 
I work for a university conference center, and was one of the five staff in our department who stayed on to work at home. We're keeping busy will all of the side projects that we usually never have time for. We're usually SLAMMED with events this time of year as everyone wraps things up before classes end, so it's bizarre feeling that I have time to work on what I can.
 
Radio stations, are essential, so we're toiling away. I'm busier now, and I wish it would settle down a bit. I can do a fair amount of work at home, but still have to go in occasionally. Most of the news, music, and office staff are working from home, with only the news show hosts using studios, so there isn't much potential exposure. I might see one person from afar.
 
Radio stations, are essential, so we're toiling away. I'm busier now, and I wish it would settle down a bit. I can do a fair amount of work at home, but still have to go in occasionally. Most of the news, music, and office staff are working from home, with only the news show hosts using studios, so there isn't much potential exposure. I might see one person from afar.
@FMEng Do you have out of town transmitter site maintenance to do?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
@FMEng Do you have out of town transmitter site maintenance to do?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
Yes, but it's actually easier now. There are no restrictions on essential travel, and traffic is light in places where I would normally encounter heavy congestion. Freeways are moving at 60 MPH during rush hours, which I haven't seen in decades. I just avoid stopping at public places along the way.

In some cities, transmitter sites are on the top floors of tall buildings. Around the west coast, they are mostly on hills and mountains in rural areas, so I rarely encounter other people working at them.
 
Yes, but it's actually easier now. There are no restrictions on essential travel, and traffic is light in places where I would normally encounter heavy congestion. Freeways are moving at 60 MPH during rush hours, which I haven't seen in decades. I just avoid stopping at public places along the way.

In some cities, transmitter sites are on the top floors of tall buildings. Around the west coast, they are mostly on hills and mountains in rural areas, so I rarely encounter other people working at them.
We used to have close encounters with interested cows visiting us amid our 6 tower array; they were particularly "interesting" when they quietly walked up behind us in the middle of a moonless night hoping we had food. Cowbell: Need MORE Cowbell!
HOW MANY TX SITES ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I am the TD for an academy. We are supposed to be opening our new theatre building in August, but I can't see that happening. I am really not sure that I foresee being able to do shows with an audience until after the new year at least. Maybe not until later. Fortunately, my school is committed to the arts so I have job security in the interim. Thinking of all of you who are laid off or in uncertain waters. Hang in there.
 
Stagecraft Industries is still open and doing business. there have been a lot of impacts to our operations and schedules but we're maintaining. All of us Project Managers have transitioned to working from home. We are not flying installers anywhere, but we have elected to keep our installers working on Constructions sites that are still open and which we can reach, reasonably, by car.
 
We used to have close encounters with interested cows visiting us amid our 6 tower array; they were particularly "interesting" when they quietly walked up behind us in the middle of a moonless night hoping we had food. Cowbell: Need MORE Cowbell!
HOW MANY TX SITES ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
I tend to be FM centric. AM stations are kept in the lowlands, usually in places with wet soil. High soil ground conductivity improves coverage. I even know of one in the middle of a swamp. Co-locating AM towers with pasture land is common.

I take care of 12 transmitter/translator sites and studios in two cities. The furthest site is about a 2.5 hour drive. I will be visiting one today that's on the roof of an office building. Its remote control called me up at 5 am to announce a minor problem. I will get my exercise because I have to go up seven stories of stairs.
 
Retired, so no muss, no fuss for me. I feel sorry for the folks whose bread and butter are affected by this.

I work with a community theater group which cancelled it's production of Guys and Dolls in the middle of rehearsals. Haven't heard an update from the director yet on any rescheduling.

My other side job took a hit as the fireworks company I work for let me know that the show I was scheduled to shoot on July 4th was cancelled by the city which booked it. But I do it for fun, not income, so I'll miss the show itself more than what I would have made from it. The attached photo is from last year at the same site.

IMG_20180704_195220860.jpg
 
Absolutely nothing, walked out of the Theater at 2pm on March 12th and that was it.
Almost all the summer staging gigs are gone and entertainment trucking is dead.
 
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My secrets have been revealed..
The time machine is well hidden though.
And you chose to change a word and not the course of the pandemic. How selfish.
 
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My secrets have been revealed..
The time machine is well hidden though.
Is it that steampunk one from Warehouse 13?
 
While I'm one of the group of currently sitting with no active projects or predictable income stream, and as much as I'd love to get back behind a desk at a live event and wow the socks off an appreciative audience I'm left pondering a couple of sticking points with our industry. Take as a base the thought that our industry relies on density. The basic thought behind a producer picking up the tab on a show is, "can I get enough butts in the seats". How will that thought be handled in a post-COVID society where many venues may see occupancy placards cut by 1/3 and/or getting rid of the GA center floor sections in music venues - in short, how much seating capacity can be removed from a venue (in order to engineer social distancing) before producers just say, "Na, not gonna make back the nut"? Also consider concessions - if our audiences are being responsible and masking, how do they do beverages or snacks? And if only 300 people can be in a traditionally 1000 seat venue, with no beverage service, at a ticket price 3x higher than last year - who will be in the seats?

I know here in Chicago, with a lot of off-loop storefront (i.e. found spaces) theaters that were already cramped at 75-100 patrons, the thought of maxing out at 30 patrons per performance may really affect the shows chosen, or even if shows go on. How much harder hit will some of this city's music venues be without the over packed GA pits? The latest I've heard is that for summer 2020 don't plan on any large scale music events to occur, including Lolla and the traditional Ravinia park concerts.

So, I guess, my thoughts at this time are not so much "when can we open" but more about what will the industry look like for the next year until a vaccine is available or the larger society has demonstrated that we've achieved a level of herd immunity where gatherings of 500+ people don't spike a local infected count?

Perhaps this is all just a sign that I've had too much time sitting around thinking.

Ok - next line of questions - even as I'm pondering our audiences, it occurs to me that I've ignored our casts. Will they need monthly health screenings? Everyone walking around backstage in masks to hand off to an ASM "Mask Minder" while they're on stage? Will we need to partition off dressing rooms into cubicles? Just really hitting me that our industry was never much for social distancing.
 
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