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Lazy Jocks

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One of more finer arts of being behind the mic is the skill of answering the station phone line.There r 3 types of them...the syndicated,the voice tracked & the live & local. Now as we all know,it is contact to one of the most important items radio really needs right now......listeners.So why on earth do these "lazy jocks" still could not be bothered in picking up the phone.That's what it is there for.To speak to the people who listen to you.Because without them,you have no ratings & then no employment.Come on people,do your job.That's what you get paid for.
 
But why should disc jockeys be obligated to answer the "request line" these days with the advent of a) pre-programmed playlists, and b) board/ops-phone screeners.
 
Wrong wrong wrong. Serving the Advertisers is most important, not the listener. As long as the phone is answered in the sales dept. then we're good. The request line...who cares? ::)
 
I have even had occasions when trying to call the jock about business, like the computer is messing up, and they just ignore the phone (no, they were not trying to fix the problem-they were just ignoring everything).

Request lines I can sort of understand. You are not going to play the song until it is programmed to play, so why bother. Late at night, the phone lines yield stalkers and worse.

But radio is supposed to be a people business. There has to be a middle ground here.
 
I actually worked at a station once where the GM disconnected the request lines. The warmline was up and running, in case the engineer or the PD called or needed to be called. His reasoning was, "We don't take requests." Consequently, the receptionist got to trot down the hall several times a day to pass along traffic info,etc. I didn't work there for a very long time before I found another job and moved along. As I recall, my paycheck from that gig bounced twice in the four months I worked there, before I left the state altogether. Funny, how great a job can seem in the interview, until you move for it.
 
Can't really speak about radio now - got out of it when the VTs took over.

I was one of those - pardon the expression - "Boss Jocks" at a heritage AM - yes...AM Top 40 station in Philly and a few other markets in the 70s. The fact is it was a time when AM ruled the market and you really had little competition. The request lines in those years had about 25 or 30 "tripped" lines. The phone lines were rarely empty. The lights were always blinking. There was no way to maintain a light bright and tight Top 40 presentation on the air while answering the lines. Hell, I remember clearing the lines for a contest and as quick as I would vacate the lines, they'd all light up again within a second or two. That was indicative of the power of radio in those days. One of my last jobs at an oldies station in a major market, I cleared 10 lines and it took about 2 minutes for a new call to come in - and the station was in the Top 5 in a major market.

That's it! Just found this particular topic interesting and it brought back memories of all those lines blinking!
 
ever think that the "live jock" actually isn't live?

"if a phone rings in a studio that's no one is in. . .is it really ringing (blinking) at all?"

--D.C.--
 
Buttrfly said:
Wrong wrong wrong. Serving the Advertisers is most important, not the listener. As long as the phone is answered in the sales dept. then we're good. The request line...who cares? ::)
Click to expand...

Sounds like a modern day GM or sales manager...and another example of why radio is in the toilet. Without listeners, advertisers vanish. Cultivating listeners seems to be a lost art in todays radio. Answerings phones, interacting with the listener, street work; remotes, listener parties concerts and promotions all have a part in "winning" radio. If what you say is true, then the station with 50 commercial units per hour would be number one. Absolutley ridiculous! I haven't run into anyone on the air that would want to just sit in the studio and not interact with the listeners. And I have yet to hear a sales exec say to an advertiser, " maybe our station isn't right for your business". I personally love to interact with the listeners and the best way to do that is answer the phones and have fun with them. Granted with todays tight playlist and formatics, it's a challenge but still an important part of the job.
 
I had a PD tell me once that about 1% of the listening audience will ever call in - if that's the case, not answering the phone isn't really going to impact ratings. It has been my experience, by the way that the 1% who do call are idiots...morons.
 
simonbarrsinister said:
If what you say is true, then the station with 50 commercial units per hour would be number one.
Click to expand...

How were the ratings of the old WKHI in Ocean City, Md. back in the late 70's? I recall listening at night to Dave Fleetwood, and the stop sets were longer than the music sets at that time.
 
well... with the stations Ive worked for, we personalities never answered the phone lines!!! Thats what we had Program Producers for.

I worked for WBOT HOT 97 in Boston and we always had someone in the Production room answering calls for us and taking requests. Unless we had a question of the day, then we'd answer and pre-record the call and play it back during the next content break
 
I've seen a fair number of CHR jocks reading books, doing cross word puzzels, etc. while the music is playing. They certainly had time to answer the phone! It's not like they were concentrating on their show.
 
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