I read the post on job site smoking and it got me thinking of radios on the site. I am a g.c and build 4+ house a year. My crew frames with no radio but whenever I hire a new carpenter they whine about not having music. The subs that work on these houses also complain. I tell them before they take the job that there are no radios allowed. Are there any other sites out there that are quite?
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Replies
I like the no radio rule. There are too many different tastes and styles to please everyone.
I just call a super the other day andf told him if he did'nt do something about the plumbers music I would pull my guys off the job the were working on together. It was like a death rock type of music. I could see it was not having a good effect on my guys. On the other hand if they want to listen to music as they work I'll let them, but I do put a limit on what the listen to if it gets to blaphemous or raunchy I tell them to turn it or put the radio back in their trucks. I have customers to think about too !
I'm a one-man show and would go absolutely nuts without a radio. However back when I was working for a crew we occasionally had a radio on. The problem was not the type of music but the volume. I think it's ok to have some background noise but when it's too loud to communicate over, that's when I have a problem with the radio.
Ditto Scott.....All depends on the amount of people working on the job and the customer. I work a very small crew and I have on WFUV...a Fordom Universty radio station not for profit channel (streaming on the web by the way) with NPR news. Irritates no one as long as the volumns low enough for everyone to communicate.
Gotta have my music.....By the way.....Thursday is Jerry Garcia day there...He'd be 60!
Be well
Namaste'
andyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Speaking about NPR news, When working in Dad's woodshop on the weekends, Garrison Kealer is a must on Sunday at Noon. Good for a laugh now and then.
NPR news--
Id fall asleep listening to NPR.
Bill Bill Bill..you dont listen to it all day son....just tween tunes my brother. Thing about NPR is I "believe" they give better news then the commercial stations. OK OK..maybe a little left wing but none the less theyre ABOUT NEWS.......not ratings as much as the commercial idiot heads such as .....uhhh..what was Jane Fonda's husbands name again? LOL
BE well
Namaste'
andyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Mr Fonda?
Jeff She's exotic ,but not foreign, like an old Cadillac......she's a knockout!
I hate jobsite music for the reasons already mentioned: Can't please everyone, and you can't hear each other over it.
Same goes for in the office.
"A miser is hard to live with, but makes a fine ancestor."
here mexican music is the most popular Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
sometimes I put on a little bluegrass, I mean FOOT STOMPIN banjo pickin,mandolinfiddlegeetar flattenened scrugged bluegrass, some people hate it.no turn left unstoned
I hate to work without a radio. Sometimes it's hardcore punk......when no one else is around...and the chance of a surprise visitor is zero......sometimes it's classical.
Sometime's I get tired of all the same old stuff and fight with talk radio callers.
It's not the radio....or the music...it's the guys that are playing death metal in an old age home.....or cranking up the volume till the neighbors complain.
I'd be not so inclined to find much work on a no-radio site.....at the very least...ya wouldn't get my best rates! It's all about making the day as comfortable as possible. I understand your rules....and it is your job site....but I disagree with the policy.
Hire men instead of boys and the radio isn't a problem. Radio's don't kill people...people kill people.
I can say all this because it's usually my job and my radio! Lately...on the few jobs I've been on where other subs were involved......I've been the first to show each morning...so by default.....my radio wins! But I do offer to let whoever has a preference put on what ever they please.....unless it's rap ! Jeff She's exotic ,but not foreign, like an old Cadillac......she's a knockout!
Hi, Jeff-
I totally agree with you about acting like a man and being responsible with the music. I have to admit that periodically I prefer to turn the radio off and just enjoy the quiet or the sound of work getting done. I usually request to my coworkers that we turn it off at least for lunch and breaks. Jeez, you don't need a full-tilt boogie for the entire 8-10 hours!
Ken Hill
The new Springsteen album appears in the stores tomorrow so after a late start so that I can watch him on the Today show in the morning I'll pick up the CD on my way down county and we'll have new tunes on the jobsite tomorrow!!!
"Architecture is the
handwriting of Man." - Bernard
Maybeck.
Right there with ya Jer..and don't forget that Thursday woulda been Jerry Garcias 60th
BE well
Namaste
AndyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
" Radio's don't kill people...people kill people. "...I have to agree with Jeff here. We have done what we do soooo long that we don't have to talk about what to do too much. When we do...there is a button called on/off. Besides, the music blocks out the voices...
Jeff- that would make a great bumper sticker!
PeaceNewf Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Carpenter, woodworker, gardener, Can't sew or cook
http://www.quittintime.com/
Radios are fine on a job site. Like someone said earlier, hire men not boys and there'll be no problem.
The music should be "background" volume level. Shouldn't have to shout above it.
On one job, the plumbers (sorry guys) came in and set their radio on the first floor , set the volume loud enough so they could hear it where they were working (in the basement). That lasted all of about 3 minutes. We tend to police ourselves in that respect.
On another job , one guy got his power cord cut, no cord - no radio. I don't advocate that, but it was effective.
And it helps to be open minded about other people's preference in music. Even crap, ehhh cccrraaap, oh! I mean ra...p! Oh that stuff is bad.
Rod
I almost need to have a radio on. During normal working hours I'll tune in talk radio and cnn headline news is on simulcast on one of the stations here. I was working on a site that normally doesn't allow radios (doin' 'lecric work too by the way). The super loved the cnn thing and would come and just listen to it for awhile everyday. When I am working alone, after hours, I'll play classical, new age, or metal, depending on my mood or what I'm working on (detailed inlay wood floors, Puccini, tying in feeders with branch circuits or doing panel work, new age or cnn, framing, digging, or pouring concrete, metal,rush,metallica etc))
what's really amusing is when someone walks in on me on different days and listens to the different moods. They almost always are amazed that someone can tolerate the extremes (the name of anther band by the way)
scares me, and I'm fearless
Glad to hear that you like many differnt types of music, as I do. New Age, Folk, Rock, Classic Rock, Blues, Scottish Rock and even some old Maritime Nova Scotia stuff.
Garnet Rogers, anyone?
I got a kick out of my then 18 year old son, who was perusing my cd collection. He told me I was too open minded about music. Nobody could possibly like all this different stuff. Ha!
Of course, he really only likes one type. ccccccccccccccrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap rap
How about Andreas Vollenweider?
Or some New Grass Revival! What a great band they were. Bela Fleck of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones used to be the banjo player for NGR.
Sam Bush played mandolin, he's played for Emmy Lou Harris, and I beleive he has now started his own band.
John Cowan and Pat Flynn, where are you?
Pat Flynn could play that acoustical guitar like his hands were lightning. Wow!
Gotta go, gonna put some cd's in and enjoy.
Rod
What ever happened to Doug Kershaw???? Aint into Gaelic stuff but have to say that the Saw Doctors rock. Is Van The Man Gaelic too?
Nora Jones's new (debute) CD is fantastic.
Dont leave out JJ Cale, Tom Waitts, John Hammond and Dylan.
Oh yeh...ever "sit" to Krishna Dass's new CD? Totally mellows me out and dat aint easy....lol
BE well
Namaste'
AndyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Actually, I am listening to "Book of Roses " right now.
I'll probably be listening to Guns 'n Roses this weekend when I help a friend replace his A/C system this weekend.
scares me, and I'm fearless
Cowan's got his own band - he's playing in town tonight on the same bill with Ralph Stanley and Tony Rice is what I think I heard on the radio earlier. He's got a couple of cd's out on his own - the most recent one is great - the previous one, he thought he was Percy Sledge. He wasn't. I'm also curious about what happened to Pat Flynn. Anybody got a clue?
gl
Only the mediocre are always at their best. Jean Giraudoux
I took my wife and mom to see New Grass Revival years ago. My mom absolutely fell in love with John Cowan. The more drinks she had, the more she fell in love. The show was held at a small intimate venue in CT, and we were sitting right in front of the band. Ma was licking her lips! Um, Um, good, she was saying. At the end of the show, she stumbled up to John, and told him that he could park his shoes under her bed anytime. Ha! My ma, never a dull moment. She's a hot ####.
Thanks for the heads up on John. I'll look for his cd tomorrow. If I find out about Pat Flynn, I'll return the favor.
Rod
When framing(and screaming) we don't have radios much. When trimming, laying block and brick, and generally when we are under roof, we have some tunes. I like Howard Stern in the AM. Turn off when customer is around...definitely. He's funny.
Ok, now a question we will all have an answer for. What job were you doing on Sept. 11.
I was setting up a dinky 1500 sq/ft ranch up for trusses the next day. Me and my best lead, had no tunes on, were straightening walls, doing truss layout, sheathing gables, on the last lot in an established neighborhood(30 yrs) on a lot in my sisters back yard. The next door neighbor came and told us first, then my sister, then my wife drove to the site, then my leads wife called him. The plane that dropped in PA. flew over us at some point( as I came to learn). I heard the name Bin Laden for the first time from the neighbor.
We live by an airport( this house was in my neighborhood also), and the next week was the most silent week I have ever experienced. Sheathing that house was a dream, as was roofing and siding it. The one day I will never forget. We left by noon to go sit by the TV.
Walkman's anyone? Theres a number of small personal listening devices that you can use a simple earphone in one ear and still communicate with others without disturbing anyone else.
As far as music selection if it becomes a real grief... try Lawerence Welk for a week and see if that doesn't settle some opinions. Or if nothing else it will drive guys from the site in no time.
Use some common sense - lol!
- Brent
I cut it twice and its still too short
Jeff, you forgot one other thing...People kill radios, too! I once ran a job in the islands where we played the calypso/rap station all morning (for the laborers), then REAL 60's classic rock, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, etc... all afternoon for the cranky carpenter working with me. Neither of these types my first choice, and STILL the bickering continued! Finally, one week I brought in a batch of Yanni-style new age music that an ex had left behind (no wonder she's an ex!) and played that for a solid week! It was my radio, my job, but not my preference. My preference was for everyone to quit crying over the inconsequential and get back to work! It worked like magic! At the end of my new age week, I never heard another complaint, they worked it out amongst themselves, out of my earshot!
I do not allow radios and ask any other subs to please turn theirs down. My right to communicate easily and clearly with others and to be able to think things through trumps their right to a loud radio.
But on the way home.... Boogie on buddy!
When I work alone I listen to music or news. When I work with others I ask what they want to hear and we agree or no radio, even though it's always my job site. It's more important to get work done than to argue about musical taste or lack of taste.
I find neil young and dylan keep a pleasent atmosphere in the workplace.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
My contractor has a no radio policy. The radio noise of other subs often interferes with our ability to communicate when making short and medium length wire pulls.
NO RADIOS !!
What a buch of kill-joys electricians are. Whine about the radios. Whine about the roof not bein' on yet. Whine about doin' a little digging. Give me a plumber in a beat up truck any day. Those guys know how to have fun at work. Fartin' and belchin', tellin' jokes, playin' the radio too loud. My kind of guys.
Electricians always wear those shirts with buttons. And they're usually clean shaven, neatly groomed. Heaven forbid they should get a little mustard on their shirt at lunch time. 'Course, they make the big bucks, so they all have jeans without holes and new pick ups. And they all wear watches, you ever notice that? Stroke of 4:30, there they go, down the driveway. Makes me feel uptight just seein' them pull up on the job.
Brinkmann for president in '04
I dont mind radios as long as the volume doesnt make yer ears bleed and the music is the sort I can actually listen too.
On my own I dont have one, I prefer to be able to think in peace.
I worked with a couple of guys once who played heavy metal, head banger type stuff at full noise all day. One day I asked if we could have it on a different station. Much to my surprise they agreed. For the rest of the day they sang along with the radio and seemed to enjoy it. When they went back to the head banger stuff, no singing along, no apparent enjoyment. So why do it??
Wood Hoon
whoaaaaa
somebody likes us plumbers!!??
whoaaaaa
I like to listen to lite rock and oldies..but only in my shop. I never bring a radio onsite as there is always one blaring wide open.
I was onsite installing a stairway last week.. and I was so sick of listening to that pig pumping music that the tile setters were playing..but then to be outdone by the painters "baby killing" rock music. I am so glad that I am only out of my shop a few days a month.
What kill joys some of you are..Thank god I have my own business and my DeWalt radio/battery charger.....covered in spackle, paint, caulk, tar etc tec but it can play those tunes and even has an outlet so I can play my CD walkman on it. Like Blodgett says....been doing building for almost thirty years and theres not much the radio interferes with in the thinking department and right.....theres an on/ off switch when I need to concentrate or a customer walks in and needs to jaw with me.
By the way y'all....Don't forget that THURSDAY would have been Jerry Garcia's 60th B'day so my radio station here in NY WFUV (Fordum University people sponsered radio)will be doing Dead music for a good part of the day and I'm gonna crank it. My customers love me and I have written in my contracts that I get to play my tunes as loud as I want.....lol. Havent lost a job yet!! Actually my last job in a really wealthy hood..the customer..a retired school teacher.she told me to turn it up..Shes about 65 years old too,,,,,
BE well
Namaste'
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Bought Lars the new Milwalkee Job site radio. He came in a few weeks ago saying how Milwalkee had a new one out. Gave me the WHOLE spill etc. It even charges his cellphone (which he usually has to leave in his van in the morning, cuz he forgot to charge the night before) Went out the next day and bought it for him. He had given me the "the crew and I just aren't as productive without our tunes". WELLLLLLLL you know me I SURE don't want to slow them down:-) They got the radio! Oh by the way the only problem Lars has ever had with not being able to communicate with his crew was too loud of a "creek"/"river" running by a clients house. Let me tell you it was a beautiful place. The water was so loud you could not hear each other if you were 15 feet from each other. Made putting on a roof fun for them.
Tamara
View Image
Just got back from the Dead show in East Troy less J.G., hence The Other Ones, and nothin' left to do but smile' smile, smile!
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right
Dan...Did you pick me up a t-shirt?
...<G>...
PeaceNewf Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Carpenter, woodworker, gardener, Can't sew or cook
http://www.quittintime.com/
Dan.....what did the air smell like there? : )It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
It was absolutely BREATH TAKING!
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right
occasionally I have an opportunity to lay my mosaic work outside and quite enjoy the the symphony of nature with out a radio the whisper of leaves the songs of birds the laughter of children down the block all interact with the work i do to help put me in a creative mood that's what construction is as far as I'm concerned a creative art when it becomes a tedious job that just foots the bills perhaps I'll return to the corporate world whith musac where the health benifits are paid for as well as a two week vacations i never found time to take besides neighbors and clients alike prefer the absence of some strangers music preferance i guess the rolling stones arent for everyone
"I'm an old rock n roller but I'm too old too roll" -Mickey Jump. Some of you have heard of him I hope. If you haven't, I'm writing to the wrong crowd.
Personally, no radio on my projects. Communication and safety concerns especially if the volume is too loud.
A key word here is professionalism. How do your clients feel about radios? How do you appear to the public in general with the things blasting through the atmosphere? Don't get me wrong, I love my rock loud but there is a place for it. And whether you choose to accept or not, we are judged by how we appear, in all aspects. Lets keep our business as professional as possible. If that means no radio than no radio. If it means no swearing than no swearing. If it means keeping the dog at home, than keep the dog at home, and so on.
I'm leaving the biz if someone....anyone ..says I cant play my tunes.....up yers!!!!!!!!
Andy
Be well
Namaste.......
and by the way....I just bought tix today for me and my wife and 12 year old daughter to see Chuck Berry and Little Richard tomorrow night............I could care less if my customers dont like my tunes......eat me!!!!!!!!
Be well
Namaste'
AndyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Check out Andy Clifford's message (#38) There's some real professionalism for you. If that's how he feels about his customers, good luck to him, he'll need it.
Andy, I hope you have a good time at the concert. Where would rock be without Chuck and Little R?
TK.....The concert was awesome.....Chuck Berry was good but Little Richard brought the house down ....he had a big band with him..What a showman...he even passed out bibles.....lol....But check this one out...I just was invited to the MTV awards at Radio City Music Hall...right up front with a Limo to and from a hotel...Cant wait.Aug 29...look for me.I'll be up front with jeans and a tux with long tails and my tool belt..ahhh forget the tool belt...a night of rest ....PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.
PS...I dont need luck with my customers.......I have more work then I can handle....hence....gonna play my tunes or do a different job...lifes too short to be unhappy.
Be well
Namaste'
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 8/6/2002 7:02:43 AM ET by Andy Clifford(Andybuildz)
I cannot imagine good finish work without Mozart!!
I cannot imagine good framing without Beethoven!
I cannot imagine good plumbing without 'The Dead'
I cannot imagine good electrical work without Pink Floyd!
And I sure can't imagine good roofing without Phillip Glass!!