Gail Ellen had taken her first job offer out of Santa Clara University. As a communication major, she hoped to go into broadcast media and eventually become an on-air personality. But she knew she had to work her way up. So she took a job with a local Bay Area radio station in the publicity department. Gail immediately fell in love with the station's young, hip vibe.
Soon after beginning at the radio station, Gail began to feel uncomfortable about some of the practices within the promotions department. When station officials requested products from local companies to be given away on-air, they would overestimate the amount necessary. The employees would then take the extra products.
This happened several times with tanning packages. A local tanning salon would often donate coupons for free one-month trials. The station didn't have a set ratio for coupon dollar amount per minute of advertising, so the promotions department would negotiate individually with each customer. It was also impossible for the individual companies to keep track of the on-air advertising time, so they never knew if their negotiated airtime was actually in effect. These negotiations resulted in a completely arbitrary system that always erred on the side of the station. Instead of giving all the tanning packages away on the air, the disc jockeys would often keep a few for personal use, or distribute them to other station employees.