One Thing That Drives Ryan O’Bryan Crazy [PHOTO]

I have a few pet peeves, but this one in particular ranks fairly high on the list.

Although I have yet to see a TV show or movie accurately display the world of radio (with the exception of Howard Stern's autobiographical masterpiece, Private Parts), there is one thing they get right, the on air light.

The on air light is basically the illuminated equivalent of a "Do Not Enter" or "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. When the light is on, we are broadcasting over public airwaves. Unless the building is on fire and we need to evacuate immediately, you need to wait patiently outside the studio until the light goes off.

In addition to the studios that are connected to transmitter that emits the music and our words across the tri-state, we also have studios that are set up exclusively for producing commercials and the zany zips and zings with our station name that you hear in between songs. In these cases, these studios have the exact same equipment as the broadcast studios only they're not connected to a transmitter. Meaning if we goof up reading a script, we can scream and cuss as loud as we want with the mic on and the only people who will hear it are ourselves and any unfortunate sap who may be walking down the hall.

These studios are also equipped with an on air light. That way we know that someone is in there trying to record something, so we shouldn't walk in and yell the F-word just because we feel like it (and we feel like it a lot). Which brings me to my gripe — leaving the light on when you're done.

As you can see in the picture above, the light in the hall is clearly on, yet the lights in the studio are clearly off and there's not a soul in there. This is my version of leaving the toilet seat up. This, to me, is leaving your house with the front door wide open, inviting any hoodlum walking by free reign to your stuff. This is the kids playing with toys and not putting them back where they came from when they're done.

That's it. I don't expect it to ever change, but I just needed to vent.