"Doubts eh? Tell me, do you guys actually know how to do your job? Are you even aware of what kind of channel we are running? Who our target audience are? And please tell me who the heck prepared this schedule so that I can fire his ass."
Like bullets from a machine gun, Liam's sharp questions came one after another, causing Evan to feel a chill in his heart. Especially the last statement, it really made his heart skip a beat.
Evan had been the one in charge of scheduling. He didn't think there was any problem with it. No one had even hinted about it before as well. But now, there seems to be some big problem with it. At the least, the young boss seemed to dislike it.
"Ahem, this…"
"What? Spit it out?"
"Mr. Hastings, it is like this. While outwardly I am the one in charge of scheduling, it was actually Mr. Parker who scheduled it. While I felt that something was wrong, I didn't know what exactly it was. So, I didn't dare to contradict Mr. Parker. You know how it is…"
Evan Johnson smartly shifted the blame to his old boss. He knew that there was no hiding the fact that he was the one in charge of scheduling. So, he didn't deny it. However, he wasn't ready to take the blame. So, he dragged in someone above him to take the fall.
If the young boss was angry, let him be angry with his old superior. Even if the young boss was dissatisfied, he wouldn't be able to confront his old superior immediately. Later, he would obfusticate things and slowly plant some seeds in his old superior's mind about the young boss being dissatisfied with his efforts. By then, even if the young boss confronted the old superior, he wouldn't be on the chopping block.
Right now, the important thing was to shift the blame. As for saying that he had a feeling and whatnot, as long as he didn't articulate it, who can tell for sure. After all, things like intuition are highly valued in this field. Moreover, he would be able to plant some seeds in the young boss's mind about his usefulness. Turning danger into opportunity is the kingly way.
Liam looked at the sleazy bald man in front of him and felt like cursing. This bastard was too slippery. He was slick enough to accept responsibility, while acting pitiful. If he pursued this matter, then he would come off as unreasonable. There was no other way apart from swallowing this bullshit he was fed.
"Did Mr. Hastings figure out what the issue is?"
"Don't call me Mr. Hastings, that is my father," Liam bit out irritably.
"Alright, Mr. Liam," Evan changed the address smoothly. "What's the issue with this scheduling?"
Liam felt like punching the bastard for a moment. He reigned in the impulse and composed himself. If he didn't give an explanation at this moment, he would come off as nitpicking for the sake of finding faults. That would put him in a negative light as well. It looked like whatever avenue he pursued, this man was able to flip the tables and make him the disadvantaged one.
This guy was truly a talent. Liam could only begrudgingly acknowledge the man's slickness.
While he could prevaricate and say some nonsense to get out of the predicament, Liam didn't want to do such a thing. Right now, he needed to establish his authority. Moreover, he was always going to change the scheduling and point out its errors. So, there was no need to hide.
"What's wrong? The entire damn thing is wrong! It was as if some lazy asshole grabbed a bunch of songs and filled them together to make this schedule. There is no structure to this. How can this be called a schedule?" Liam snorted and threw the schedule on the table.
"I want you to change this immediately. Since you are in charge of this, you will be responsible for correcting our scheduling issues. Let's not go into too much detail right now. But, the new schedule needs to at least have a basic structure."
"Group the songs into music styles first. Then, further divide them based on themes, artists, and such things. Prepare a list of songs as per these requirements. There should be no song appearing in two genres. If there is a genre overlap, put in the genre that most suits it."
"After that, rearrange the schedule. If we are playing rock songs for two hours, it must be followed by jazz songs for the next two hours. Then we follow it with country music, blues, and so on. Do this for now. Ideally, we shouldn't repeat the same song in the next three or four hours. And shuffle the song list each day as well."
"Also, if we have too many songs in the same music genre, you can sub-divide the genre based on moods, themes and other such things. This way we will have a basic structure in our scheduling. Get this done, by the end of the day."
Liam patiently instructed Evan how he wanted things to be done and sent him scurrying to complete work. After dealing with these insipid idiots, Liam felt his mood had already plummeted. He didn't want to stay in the office any longer.
When he emerged from his office after an hour, he saw the entire workforce gathered around Evan's table trying hard to sort out the songs the channel had. Looking at them all hard at work, Liam sneered inwardly. This should have been done long back. This just showed how bad things were at the channel.
As for whether it would affect their other work, Liam didn't care. He didn't think these people had any other important work. Sorting out the songs in their system and preparing a structured schedule was a fundamental thing. Before accomplishing that, none of the other work mattered. So, he left them to their devices and walked out.
After sending the entire office into a frenzy, Liam bid farewell to Receptionist Bella and hopped into his car. With no clear destination in mind, he floored the gas and set off into the Silverlight city traffic.
As Liam lazily drove his muscle car and cruised around the city, he began to realize that he didn't really enjoy working in MusixZ. No, what he wanted to do was different. He wanted to be involved with the glitz and glamour of the media industry.
In fact, what he truly wanted was to be involved in the film industry. To be mingling with actresses and producing blockbusters was his dream. Silverlight city is the film capital of the nation. How can someone born in such a city be not involved in the film industry?
The only successful people this city recognized were the ones who made it in the film industry. As someone who was incredibly ambitious and born in this city, how could he not want a part of the pie that feeds this entire city?
That wasn't his style at all.
To an outsider, the film and TV industry might be one and the same. But, any insider could tell who was the big brother among them. And the film industry was the big brother without a doubt. To truly be at the top of this city, one definitely needs to be in the film industry.
Unfortunately, his family didn't have any deep roots in the film industry. They had some connections, but there wasn't any true root belonging to his family in the film industry. At most, they could be called a relative. But, never the true son.
So, if he blindly entered the film industry, he wouldn't have the proper support system to truly grow strong. If he wanted to be an actor or director, it wouldn't matter if he was an outsider or not. However, his goal was different.
As a second generation, he didn't want to toil in front of the camera or behind it for some lousy fame. Even if he didn't enter the film industry, he could live out the rest of his life lavishly. So, such a path filled with struggle had no appeal to him.
Rather, he wanted to be the big shot affecting things from backstage. For that there were only two routes. The path of a producer and the path of a movie company owner. For both, his connections in the industry wasn't enough to have a somewhat smooth road to the top.
Most producers or movie company owners ended up struggling at the mid-tier of the power structure of the film industry. He wasn't satisfied with that. What he wanted was a path to the top. If not, any struggle he might endure will be meaningless in his eyes. Only if he dared to aim for the top would he end up in upper level.
That was his goal in life.
As for the dalliances with actresses and other such things, those were mere side benefits of the path he chose. They weren't that important. While he wouldn't say that such things didn't tempt him, his goal had always been clear.