My getting pushed out of online radio story..

Post Reply New Topic

As radio phone-in callers often say, I've been a long time lurker but never poster, I was diagnosed with AS myself at the age of 7 I think it was, been to a special school, led a fairly Aspergers type of life up until now. Females like my company but I haven't got a frickin' girlfriend. In some ways I'm pretty normal and cope with a lot of things until you get down to the limitations of the traits, so I've taken to calling myself a halfger, half AS, I don't know how many of you have ever thought about doing that before. I have a strong interest in broadcasting, radio, music, but a big part of this obviously is people and interacting with them, like so many of you I can be great at 1 to 1, and this is good for interviews for example but put me in a group situation and I know f all what to do and I just become uncomfortable. I hate the pack mentality and that it's all about assigning you a place in the pecking order and I feel a lot of group banter is about exactly that. But I'm an Asperger and I think that's a total waste of time, we all have our place and it's an equal one know what I'm saying? I have that trouble like so many of you are familiar with that if they are telling a joke you don't know whether it's bringing you down, I ahve this paranoia about everyone unless I know them. But with some, being a self proclaimed halfger I do have the sense that they are "alright" and someone I could click with, I understand that could remain missing with more severe AS.
This radio station I joined had an online chat that the whole thing pretty much evolved around, as you can imagine during my show or anyone elses unless it was 1 to 1 type comments, I often thought it was bollocks.
But I'm not one of those loyal to everyone type Aspergers people I work to my own agenda I'm afraid, so on this station I got several people who probably really despised me and never said it to my face ad well as some strong friends who were more minded like I was, such is life.

Anyway I was inspired to post a bit about my online radio experience as a reply to a post on the Digital Spy Forums on a topic about who you despise, so I'll save the trouble of relating it again and just repost it below.



"I never really had anyone I despised until I got sacked from an online radio station back in 2010. Had the view of there being some good in everyone and that remains true. Unfortunately though if you despise someone's actions then you are also despising what they stand for and that can't escape including some of them as a person.

I really despise this person now and can't help feeling extremely angry when I think back to him, he runs an online radio station on which anybody is invited to broadcast what they wish to, it's bookable slots. I joined his station when I left another (back with them now and sort of got my own to go along with that too)., at first I thought it was pretty great because the place seemed to ooze creativity, eclecticness and everything was accepted.

But there was a rather dominant throng of cliquey broadcasters who were all rather up themselves, they would talk down anybody not singing to their tune, it was a supposefly open format station but I had people beside themselves in the online chat when I tried to play some alternative music. This is typical egotistical behaviour that seems to be rather the thing on radio stations of any description. There was a sickly culture of sycophanticness around the manager were everybody was taking part in the online chat and sucking up to him and each other., Me and the manager got on brilliantly at first but he always thought he was a bit of a comedian and so did I, in the end I'm sure he found me a bit of a threat taking attention away from him. I always had no end of ideas for the station but he ended up being pretty dismissive, not welcoming any feedback that wasn't sycophantic in nature.
In the end these factors ended up working towards finishing my relationship with the station, he wrote a patronising criticism of one of my forum post ideas. I said I would be keeping any ideas to myself in future (he had implemented some of them in the past so I had actually contributed to the station) and then because I wasn't happy I told him I was pulling out of the annual Top 500 show. At that point I hadn't decided to pull out altogether, but he made that decision for me and I have always despised him for it. He let petty personal politics get in the way of professional broadcasting.

Despite it though I made some good friends there who I know to this day, one of them being a teenager with Cerebal Palsy who is a keen broadcaster. He had also been let go after he had tried to defend someone else against an alleged discriminatory action by the manager. In the online chat he later branded him "a wheelie". I also once witnessed someone with severe autism attempt to join his station once and when he blocked them he said "thank god they're gone". There was a real current of arrogance and dismissiveness about him, perhaps he was somewhere in the autism range himself This station remains lively but the quality is mostly real "broadcasting to your mates" stuff. When I was there, those sorts of people seemed to hate what I was trying to achieve.

Anyway you did ask, and I did tell..
As an Asperger I've got no social skills when dealing with those sorts of people so it was always doomed to go nowhere fast. I really despise the manager though to this day for not having the sensitivity to see that that was an issue and not wanting to try and move forward to get the best from me and them, I felt I have potential and he appreciated it at first and I felt we really clicked with our similar interests but he betrayed me and sided with a bunch of bullys and gossips. people of limited quality who were doing that mainstreamer thing of trying to get rid of me because they sensed some true competition to themselves. But he has lost out on some fairly decent things I've been up to lately when his schedule has just been full of pop and prattle".


A year or more on from this now and I'm doing pretty well, made lots of new friends, and got some good interviews and content but this experience is still a source of much bitterness for me.


In bringing this to the Wrong Planet forums I am wondering how many of you will have gone through similar at a workplace for example, how much of this is inevitable when trying to join a community of strong egotistical mainstreamers, interestingly on the station another person with AS survives there because he's willing to muck in and take it. Unfortunately I am too much of a critical thinker for that and can't stand it when people take the piss instead of giving respect, and I wouldn't conform with the manager in a sycophantic way, I was hoping it would work on a basis of mutual respect for each other, I got pretty peeved when he started to take the piss out of me instead. Maybe I have a bit of radio egotism myself, but If I do/did have something to offer he should have realised that he should work with it, not against it, but it's his loss and competitors stations (including my owns) gain!

Interestingly I have heard of a project called Autism Radio UK, I haven't had any contact or anything to do with it yet, but it sounds interesting, especially as there might be more people like me who want to take up an online radio hobby without the fear of getting the piss taken out of us.

Thanks for reading
Mike.

Interesting.

Mike, Welcome to Wrong Planet!

The idea of a person being partially aspie, I refer to as being a 'bridge person.' And such a person can potentially be a substantial contributor here on Wrong Planet. Sometimes I think I'm kind of that way myself, although I do have some real aspie traits.

I'd approximately say 1 out of 3 bosses are bullies and jackasses. But, just like poker players, you can get streaks, you can lose three in a row even if you're playing well.

The part with the teenager with Cerebral Palsy trying to stand up for someone else and this idiot squelches him down, that's horrendous. Instead of viewing it as a good and noble thing on the part of this teenager, he views it as a threat and he cheats. He misuses a position of authority in order to "win", some horses**t like that. And I take it that this manager later made a slur at this teenager, the fact that he uses a wheel chair, calling him "a wheelie" on a online chat. Holy Sh!t This so-called manger is so out of line it's unbelievable. He's also discrediting himself. He's acting like an overgrown adolescent, which I guess is exactly what he is. And I guess other people stick with him because they're on the ins, they're in the hierarchy. As well as some people who privately probably don't think much of him at all.

Some battles are worth fighting even if you lose. But kind of like the Tai Chi, and the Zen deep breath, kind of under-investing emotionally, being strategic, letting the person expose himself but not devastating them. I struggle with all this. I do hold grudges. At the same time, I try and take the high road. For example, I think I did a pretty good job posting on H&R Block. I also posted on what I call crapola department store, but I'm not even sure there's a high road to take on that one.

H&R Block, bank products, cross-collection, unethical wo
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt114422.html
“H&R Block, unethical company.” And it feels good saying that! And I back it up with references.

Bullying behavior at work, nonresponse here at WP.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt155745.html
Disappointing in a number of regards. Basically a case of commission sales people who were aggressive, bullying, lying, unfairly, and managers who were passive and absentee. Not a whole heck of a lot I can do about this one.

Tight, defensive boxing to a draw. One week.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt134616.html
I don’t want to oversell, only works against someone about a person’s own size. A baseline of confidence, hoping not to have to use it. And please don’t take repeated blows to the head during training.