Crap KJ complaints

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sun May 31, 2009 3:22 pm

Got a phone call last night from the person I personally trained to do karaoke. (5 nights a week.)

They went to another show to neb around. The KJ was/is a singer that frequents my show until the started KJing.

He is using a cheap Fender Passport system. If you haven't seen one search it. They have different models starting around $300 for a COMPLETE system. I use the term system loosely.

If you want the "good" one you could spend $1500. Just slightly more than I pay for 2 microphones....

He has very cheap microphones to go with it.

The sound sucked and distorted.

He was complaining that bar owners don't want to pay any money....

This is what I have been trying to tell everyone. CHEAP isn't worth it. CHEAP sounds CHEAP. CHEAP looks CHEAP.

I wouldn't take that system to a kindergarden show.

He can't draw a crowd to sing on CHEAP. So why should a bar owner want to pay for a lot of NOTHING? The bars I work in pay DOUBLE what he gets.

Hmmmmmm........I guess I DON'T know what I'm talking about.

spotlightjr · Post by **spotlightjr** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:16 pm

As the old adage says...... "you get what you pay for". I recently got undercut by another kj who offered to do his show for half of what I charge. I had been there for about six weeks and was getting a pretty good following. The problem was the owner didnt have any loyalty to me and was looking for the least expensive way to entertain. He offered me to keep the job at a discounted price (about 30% less than I was charging) and I promptly declined.

Now that was 3 weeks ago and who do you think called me less than 30 minutes ago whining to me about this undercutting kj...... thats right the friggin' owner!!!!! He asked very politely that I come back at my original price and he would get rid of the othetr kj. Also told me that business was in the tank on that night and was willing to advertise more (as I suggested) and offer better drink specials(which I also suggested). I listened to this for about another 3 minutes when I finally had to interupt him and simply say..... "Well, you get what you pay for". I further told him that I would not accept his plea to return (have another show that night) and that I wished him luck and said goodbye.

You really do get what you pay for most times and I dont feel a bit sorry for this owner. He knew how upset I was when he tried undercutting me and he also knew that I poured my heart and soul getting karaoke off the ground there. I would've turned this job down whether or not I had another gig that night it just turned out I did. Sometimes saving a hundred dollars can bite you in the rear. Owners be warned!

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sun May 31, 2009 5:06 pm

These are perfect examples of why I suggested we start some type of bar owner education program.

We all know (in case you don't yet) ALL bar owners are idiots that do not know how to make all the money they could be making. They ALL do stupid stuff to kill their business on a regular basis.

A well educated bar owner is in our best interest to help us all make more money.

Sabrina59 · Post by **Sabrina59** » Sun May 31, 2009 9:56 pm

One of the more successful KJ's in the area bought the sports bar where she had had a show for years. Now she has karaoke five nights a week at the bar.

Alot of those who followed her from show to show were middle aged folks. The sports bar has turned in to a worse meat market than it was before.

She has other folks hosting the show most nights ... but they are all pompous jerks. None of them, herself included, keep the rotation clean.

She used to be very personable, exceedingly friendly and everyone at her show felt welcome and appreciated. That went out the window with the purchase of the bar.

The first thing she did was raise all the drink prices; and they are raised again during karaoke. Now, I understand raising the prices when a band is there; alot of places do that. But not for karaoke!

Actually though, her business is doing very well. But a lot of older folks have stopped going to the show because of the meat market atmosphere.

After reading this I'm not sure what my point it.

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sun May 31, 2009 11:15 pm

HEY!!!! ...What's wrong with being a meat market?

Why do people go out...karaoke???

The price increase after the new owner happened to me. They raised the price of drinks .50-.75 per. That was 10 years ago. 3 sisters weren't getting a big enough piece of the pie, so they made the pie bigger.

40 people came up and said they were not coming back.

40 people can spend a lot of money.

After a few weeks the prices came back down.

But increasing the drink prices during any type of entertainment ins't a bad thing. It helps pay for the water drinkers. And I'm not cheap...

That goes back to my thinking that if beer, water and pop were the same price it wouldn't matter.

Sabrina59 · Post by **Sabrina59** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:44 am

As a matter of fact, yes. I do go out for karaoke!

She is the only one in the area that raises her prices for karaoke. None of the other places do it. The prices were not increased for karaoke before she bought the bar, either.

In my younger day I probably enjoyed meat markets too, but now that I'm an old married lady ... not my cup of tea. I prefer a bit more maturity in the drunks I laugh at.

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:30 pm

The prices were not increased for karaoke before she bought the bar, either.

She found out she didn't like little pieces of pie. She needs to make more money to stay afloat.

I can guarantee she doesn't have enough capital saved to keep her up for 5 years it's going to take to get the new business profitable. The biggest mistake of 99% of new business owners. Big ideas and no money...like me

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:59 pm

I just found this out.

The crap KJ lost his Friday job to another crap KJ. He let his ex-stripper girlfriend run the system. She probably knows up & down on the volume and I'm betting that's it. She somehow turned off the hosting program and didn't know what to do....

The bartender said since it's 1 oclock don't worry about it.

The owner wasn't happy about it so she found another crap KJ to kill the Friday and They are still killing Saturday.

That is another question.

Do you do what the bartender says, if the owner isn't there?

Sabrina59 · Post by **Sabrina59** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:38 pm

You seem to have some awesome KJ's in your part of the country!

As far as your question goes ... that's really wide open. There could be so many variables it's hard to answer.

ETA: How do you find out all these little goodies? Do you have an "insider" at the bar that tells you about this?

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:21 pm

Well....I told you "all" ALLL singers talk and they talk about crap KJs.

The worse you are the more they have to talk about.

It's like the Alaskan pipe line...it all comes back to me.

EX. What can they say bad about me? (Insert "Angel" emoticon here) Good system, nice selection, great sound, fair rotation....see how that works????

But I heard this from the KJs I trained.

Sabrina59 · Post by **Sabrina59** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:24 pm

Bigdog wrote:EX. What can they say bad about me? (Insert "Angel" emoticon here) Good system, nice selection, great sound, fair rotation....see how that works????

You forgot humble.

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:05 am

I have a singer that started being a regular. He came in tonight and the very first thing he told me was about the bad karaoke show he went to the other night.

Right after saying Hi!....

He was pretty upset with it and told me I was the bomb. He gave me $5. I guess as a way of telling me he appreciates what I have done. I know he won't go back there. "Good enough for karaoke system.." Not really but in their head it is.

This is a perfect example of singers talking. He won't stop with telling me how bad it was. I bet he tells other singers about it as well. That happened a week ago. So how many people has he talked to already.

Another visitor tonight told me about some other karaoke spots they checked out. Computer KJ couldn't hook up to the TVs tonight. Equipment failure problem. Passport system. And he screwed up the rotation making the singers mad because didn't know how to use the "up" arrow button to move them into the correct spot in the rotation.

He can only input the songs in the proper order. Can't move them in the queue. It's the same program I use.

You highlight the song and use the buttom.

He's part owner of the karaoke company.

Another one had 2 singers and one was the KJ. Hardly any crowd. Another crap system. Same company as above.

See the pattern developing here. How can you ask for and expect to get full money and their full money isn't what I get.

And I can't get what I'm worth because of guys like this.

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:49 pm

Story update:

The KJ could't hook up to the bar TV because he forgot the RF modulator to do it. So He told the bar owner it was broken. The singers had to sing looking at his laptop all night while he loaded songs.

He just grabs a bunch of loose equipment and runs out to the job.