In the blink of an eye, a month rolled by quickly.
Liam stood in the conference room of the MusixZ office and looked at his loyal workforce. This past month had not been very friendly to his employees. Liam had driven them hard and made them work diligently.
Any poorly prepared proposal or improperly executed work would earn them a scathing verbal teardown from Liam. His barbed words and pointed questions made these people who worked in comfort before this feel exhausted.
Liam didn't give respect to their age or seniority in the company. If anyone made a mistake, he directly started blasting them without any mercy. This earned him the nickname of Little Devil behind the back amongst his employees.
At this moment, having been forced to enter the conference room and attend the monthly meeting under Liam's hawk-like gaze made them all feel discomfort.
"Well, this is our monthly ratings report. Care to guess how we did last month?" Liam asked, patting a file that was present before him.
No one dared to venture a guess. They didn't want to be the first person to face the muzzle tonight. Liam expected such a reaction from these people. Looking at them acting like ostriches burying their heads, he felt a little disappointed in them.
"I won't be going into the details. But, our ratings have collectively increased by 50%," Liam said calmly and allowed the weight of the news to sink in.
For a moment, no one spoke. Then, excited chatter exploded among the employees as they realized what Liam's words meant. The demeanor of everyone changed from ostriches to monkeys chittering nonstop.
"Our overall PERTI ratings for the month before I took charge was 2.5 out of 10. None of our programs reached 4 in the ratings scale. After the revamp the channel had gone through, our current overall ratings for this month is 3.75 out of 10.Six of our regular programs have broken the 4 ratings scale."
"The Rock Night that airs between 9 PM to 11 PM has reached 5.1 in the ratings scale. It is our best performing program. That means, we are barely meeting the minimum necessary requirements for our channel now," Liam spoke calmly. "And this is just a start. We still have a long way to go. Now that we have tasted success, we will aim higher."
The Periodic Evaluvative Ratings for Television Industry or PERTI ratings scale is the standard by which the television industry operated. They had several real time and comprehensive reports based on viewership among the audience. They usually evaluated ratings out of a scale of 10.
A program reaching 4 in the ratings scale was considered good for a new channel like MusixZ. A program reaching 5 meant it had great potential. Typically, the average overall rating level of a new channel was around 4. Apart from the first month since the MusixZ channel was launched, this was the closest they were to that level.
Once a channel reaches an average of 5 in their ratings, the improvement will drastically slow down. But, that wasn't something that Liam cared about for now. MusixZ still had a long way to go before reaching that level.
With a bit of fine tuning the program schedule, Liam had the confidence to make the channel cross the 4 ratings mark within the next three months. He already had several plans in preparation for that.
"Now that we have reached 3.75 in the ratings scale, it is time for us to re-visit our strategy. Make a list of all the programs that are below 3 in ratings scale. We will slowly replace them with other new programs we will be launching."
"Next, I will be detailing the new programs we will be launching. At the 4 PM timeslot, we will be launching a new program called Artist Destination. It will be a 1 hour program. For this program, we will focus on a particular artist and play songs sung by them back to back. I need a playlist of at least 15 to 20 artists with around 10 to 13 songs in each playlist. Christine, this will be your responsibility."
Christine immediately nodded in affirmation.
"The next new program we will be launching is New Arrivals. Donna, is the list of billboard songs I asked you to prepare ready?" Liam asked Donna.
"I have it here, Mr. Liam," Donna replied promptly.
"Are the license agreements settled?"
"A few songs are dragging a bit behind. Their asking rate is a bit high," Donna replied hesitantly.
"Get it sorted out within this week. If their asking price is too high, then replace the song with an alternative according to the standards I set at the beginning," Liam instructed curtly.
"All our new programs will be going live next Monday. I don't want any hiccups with it," Liam warned his employees. "As for New Arrivals, the playlist needs to be updated every week. Ideally, we will be playing songs from last week's Billboard Top 100 this week. This list needs to be kept updating quite regularly. Donna, this will be your primary responsibility. Don't screw up."
"The New Arrivals program will be aired twice per day. Every morning at 9 AM and every night at 9 PM. The current programs in that slot will be pushed back one hour respectively. That means, Rock Night will now air from 10 PM to 12 AM. We will see how the performance is and decide whether to change it back to the old slot timing or not."
"Also, if there are any particularly trendy songs that make an impact on the Billboard Top 100, I want us to be on it like hounds on meat. Secure the rights for its broadcast as soon as possible and include it in the New Arrivals section prominently. Am I clear?"
Everyone nodded obediently.
"The last program we will be launching is Rap Zone. This will feature only rap songs. Evan, are the licensing agreements in place?"
"They are in place, Mr. Liam. Dave was a big help in getting them sorted out quickly," Evan replied succinctly.
"Good, then from next week, Rap Zone will be put at the 5 PM slot. Evan, monitor the response for the program. If it is good, we will add another slot in the morning as well."
"I will, Mr. Liam," Evan said enthusiastically.
"Also, several new workers will be joining our office starting this month. You need to train them in all areas as quickly as possible. I will assign them to each of you to shadow and learn. Ideally, they should be able to replace you in the coming year," Liam said, causing several people to shuffle in unease.
Liam knew that these bunch of smart alecs will not train up anyone to replace them. They would most likely guide the trainees wrongly and watch them flounder. But, he had a Trump card to keep them obedient.
"According to Mr. Hastings, once these young ones are trained up, there is a high possibility that you will be recalled back to headquarters to work on other channels. Next year is slated to be a big year for the network and the requirement of manpower is a bit high. However, if your trainees aren't trained up, you will still be here even if a need arises at the headquarters. So, take note of it," Liam said and watched the expressions of his employees.
The moment the possibility of being recalled was put forth, excited expressions appeared on the faces of everyone. It was clear that these idiots didn't realize what kind of prime position they are in now. These people still yearned to go back to the headquarters. This is good for him as well. This way, there wouldn't be any hang up in getting rid of them.
As for what the old man will do with this bunch of good for nothings, he didn't bother to think about that. As for whether these people would regret leaving MusixZ in the future, that wasn't his problem as well. So far, only Evan's performance in the last month had met hir approval.
Evan Johnson wasn't a genius. He was an able Manager and a very slick social creature. But, he didn't have that brilliance required to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. He also rarely took initiative work wise. But, he had one shining point. He learned from his mistakes and made sure not to repeat them. His learning ability was also top-notch.
After introducing him to Dave, Liam had to only step in once at the beginning. After that Evan had managed to deal with the entire thing by himself. What was more astonishing was Dave and Evan became good acquaintances as well. Their relationship was quite good. Evan had also struck a friendship with several Black record label owners of the rap circle.
This ability of Evan really impressed Liam. Now, he had handed the entire rap music videos project to Evan and let him manage it. If he did a good job, he will hint Evan further on how to further expand it and see if he understands. After all, rap music is only one aspect of music, isn't it?
Once everyone calmed down, Liam spoke of some other trivial matters and brought the meeting to an end. Dismissing everyone, Liam walked into his office and found his secretary waiting for him.
Looking at her arranging files on his table with her short skirt, Liam couldn't help but smile slightly.