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Dumbest radio station callers ever

MarcB said:
What are some of the dumbest callers you have heard on the radio? I'll start.
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Every person who has worked in the studio has received request calls where the caller wants to hear the very same song that is on the air at that moment. Or the song you just played.
 
I was probably the dumbest caller that WILD, the Boston soul station of the '60s-'90s, ever got. It was fall or winter 1966. I was 11 years old and had no clue about the difference between rock, pop and soul. All I knew was that I liked all of it. And so, one day, I was listening to WILD and decided to call in and request a song I'd heard on other stations but not on that one -- the Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron." Of course, the DJ had never heard of it. He made me repeat the title and artist. Still hadn't heard of it. Finally, he told me he'd look to see if the station had it. I wouldn't take that for an answer. I called back a half hour later, then a half hour after that. Finally, he told me he didn't have the song. I might have even offered to send him the 45 during one of those calls.
 
There's an episode of "WKRP In Cincinnati", where Bailey Quarters is shown on the phone, saying "We're off the air."(slight pause)"How can we announce we're off the air, if we're off the air?" That happened to me once, word for word, before I saw the episode! I used to say that people thought the show was fiction but it was actually a documentary!
 
semoochie said:
There's an episode of "WKRP In Cincinnati", where Bailey Quarters is shown on the phone, saying "We're off the air."(slight pause)"How can we announce we're off the air, if we're off the air?" That happened to me once, word for word, before I saw the episode! I used to say that people thought the show was fiction but it was actually a documentary!
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Is that the episode where Les, upon hearing that, makes it his lead story on his next newscast, which he does despite the transmitter being off? (I'm thinking it's the one where the terrorist group blows up the transmitter site right after Johnny and Venus hightail it out of there.)

I did once field a call from a listener who, upon being told we were off the air due to a power failure at our transmitter site, said "well, why don't you announce that so we'll know why you're off the air?" I was stuck for an answer to that and she hung up after a few seconds of my non-response. More life imitating art, or vice versa.
 
A station I worked for had NEVER taken requests, yet we had a guy call in overnight to make a couple. I also have a gentleman that requests songs we've never played, but he swears that we have it.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Is that the episode where Les, upon hearing that, makes it his lead story on his next newscast, which he does despite the transmitter being off? (I'm thinking it's the one where the terrorist group blows up the transmitter site right after Johnny and Venus hightail it out of there.)

I did once field a call from a listener who, upon being told we were off the air due to a power failure at our transmitter site, said "well, why don't you announce that so we'll know why you're off the air?" I was stuck for an answer to that and she hung up after a few seconds of my non-response. More life imitating art, or vice versa.
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That sounds like the same episode. I don't think I ever caught the show in reruns. I just remember it after 40 years! Has it really been that long? :)
 
One day we got a call from a woman wanting to know what song we played the day before at about the same time, between noon and 1pm. The DJ actually remembered every song from the day before and the caller said it was none of the ones he mentioned. After about 20 minutes on the phone she asked if AM or FM made a difference. We were an AM station and in our market some dial radios picked up an FM station without moving the dial, just flipping from AM to FM. She had been listening to that FM station from the next county.
 
My boss spoke of a diligent new DJ that announced every few seconds the station would return to the air shortly. With the transmitter down, the boss didn't want to embarrass the poor guy, so told the guy great job and gave him a thumbs up while holding back a laugh.
 
Many moons ago a station I worked at did a lot of the classic 10th caller contests. One Contest Pig and here sister used to win all the time. After some investigation by authorities, it was discovered both this particular Contest Pig and here sister were both phone company operators. When one was at work, the other would literally insert their sibling into the line of calls ahead of other callers. Once discovered by their phone company employer, both of them were fired from their jobs.
 
I remember a caller who complained about the music that we were playing, and said, "just play better music." He was NOT specific about what we had played that he did not like, and he did not make any specific request. I should have said "well, I would, but we are a country station!"

But the worst was all the conspiracy theorists who would call in when I worked in shortwave radio. One night, a storm came through and knocked out the electricity, thus forcing us off the air. Fortunately, the lack of electricity also took out our phone lines. Otherwise, I would have been fielding calls all night wondering why we were off the air. And since many of our listeners were from out of state, they would have had no idea that we had had a storm that evening.
 
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