Whew. It's been a long day and I need a night's rest but it has been a successful day and I just have to make a few comments. I'm visiting a regional Romania Radio station in Clij, Transylvania. The people have been great. I've met with the management team and we've had good discussions. I'm impressed with the station's operation....they accomplish a lot given their circumstances--tight budgets and a typical post-Communist mix of employees, some you can't fire or otherwise get rid of and others who are pretty good to very good employees.

In most of the countries I've visited, former government enterprises are stuck with all of the former employees who worked at the business and there's no way to fire them--even if they show up for work and do nothing. There's also no way to give performance pay increases to employees either--not unlike my own work situation.

I've had interesting insights into the nature of people in Romania. It's said that one generation was sacraficed in the fighting of two world wars. Another generation was lost to Communism. Now the question is whether the next generation will thrive or be lost in years of transition as the country tries to get on the right path.

Romania Radio is a national radio service that covers almost all of the country--probably 98%. The service produces programming for listeners but doesn't actually own the broadcast transmitters that distribute their programs. Those are held by the national telephone service. It was all part of the paranoid former dictator's plan to decentralize control and avoid potential threats by groups who might try to take over the radio system. At one point in the late 1980s, Romania Television broadcast for only two hours per day--and that was mostly news about the president. A Romanian joke was that the first hour was a reminder to watch the second hour for news about the president.

I'm pleased to be here. It has been a good learning experience. I hope tomorrow to be able to talk with the station management about ad sales, employee performance reviews and job descriptions....plus a discussion about audience research.

Enough for now.