REAL LISTENER QUESTIONS ASKED OF AN AM STATION.....

[JIBGUY]

How many frequencies does your station have? (think they meant watts)

Your dial is not coming in on my radio.

Why can't you have any more than 730 volts?

Can you adjust your frequency so I can hear you better? (SURE! I'll try 770 ).

Why are your two stations on different dials? Shouldn't they be the same? (SURE! I'll put both on 740 and see what happens)

Can't you just move it to FM? (SURE! I'll let the FCC know about it after I do it).

My dial only does down to 530. Why are you on a spot below that?--AM 73. (We don't use "73").

Why do you keep saying 7-30?- OK when it was 7:30 this morning, but it's now 8:10 AM and you're still saying it's 7:30 !

I just read on the internet that you have 1,000 modulations. Can you put one of them here in Biddeford?

(And of course, the question every AM daytimer gets
Why do you switch to French at night, talking about Montreal?

 

[Nick Gerard]

(And of course, the question every AM daytimer gets
Why do you switch to French at night, talking about Montreal?

LOL - This reminds me of a conversation I once had with Ross Hokanson when we were both at WGAN about 30 years ago. He'd been at 'JTO and told me about the difficulty of doing a remote close to sunset. It might have been 30 or 45 minutes before signoff, yet all he could hear in his phones at his location was CKAC booming through loud and clear!

Nick Seneca

 

[amguy]

I had a listener call several years ago and said our signal wasn't coming in very well. She thought that it was because there were more listeners tuned in who lived near the transmitter and were absorbing the signal.

 

[OlderRadioGuy]

Know of an ad sales guy who used that as an explanation every time a client complained that the guys FM station couldn't be heard (coastal lifts frequently obliterated it).

I had a listener call several years ago and said our signal wasn't coming in very well. She thought that it was because there were more listeners tuned in who lived near the transmitter and were absorbing the signal.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

When I was working at a Manchester, NH station many years ago, someone called me asking why WCAP in Lowell, MA (NOT the station I was working at!) suddenly disappeared on his radio, and he went into a diatribe accusing the government(?) of shutting down the station due to some topic being discussed on a talk show.

I attempted to explain to him that the sun had just set, and that WCAP must cut their pattern to the north after sunset and is not heard in Manchester NH at night, but that they are still broadcasting in other directions.

I also tried to ask him why he didn't call the station he had been listening to, but he was too busy raving about his conspiracy theories claiming that WCAP was censored off the air for me to get him to listen to a word that I said. I ended up having to hang up on him.

 

[kenglish]

I did a remote on WPTX in Lexington Park, Maryland, from the St. Mary's County Fair in Mechanicsville. At power-change, I lost the signal.
I called the DJ at the station...a pretty sharp guy named Brian St. James, who counted me down for 120 seconds, while I ran back across the fairgrounds (this was in the 1970's...no cell phones!), jumped in the truck, slid into the chair and opened the mike.

Perfect timing! Luckily, we only had a couple of cut-in's left.

 

[JIBGUY]

I had a listener call several years ago and said our signal wasn't coming in very well. She thought that it was because there were more listeners tuned in who lived near the transmitter and were absorbing the signal.

Ah yes, I've heard of a salesman who told a well-heeled prospective client that "so many people listen at night to my station, they just suck up all of the signal, so I'd like to put your spots on just before all that happens". ---which must be the reason why AM's who had to change pattern/reduce power, had a ton of spots to air between 5 & 6 Pm in March. - Remember WSRO-1470 in Marlboro? In January, it was solid spots from 3:45 PM to 4:14 PM, excepting the 5-minute 4 PM newscast.... on a station that played music. THOSE were the days!---that lowly AM daytimers had that situation to contend with.............

 

[True Grit]

Anyone else ever get this one?

"What's the phone # for requests at W***?"

As often as not it was for our direct format competitor.

 

[NHRadio]

And we wonder why salespeople have the reputations they do...
If I ever own a station, any rep that spins tales like that gets tossed.

Ah yes, I've heard of a salesman who told a well-heeled prospective client that "so many people listen at night to my station, they just suck up all of the signal, so I'd like to put your spots on just before all that happens". ---

 

[CrankyYankee]

We would get phone calls for the public radio station because the phone book had them in BIG print, but our phone number was next and more than a few people would use our number somehow.
Also, we had a local member of the 'tin foil hat' brigade that would tell the local police she was sure our radio station was receiving messages from UFOs on our recently installed big satellite dish.

 

[True Grit]

WDEA has (or at least had) a null in the village of Surry, where the xmitter was. Trying to explain a null to someone who was barely a mile from our tower yet got bad reception was difficult, to say the least.

 

[amguy]

Yeah, that WDEA nighttime null is something, isn't it? Can't hear the station in much of Surry, Blue Hill, etc., even with the 5,000 watts, yet it booms into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and even Europe.

 

[True Grit]

Yeah, that WDEA nighttime null is something, isn't it? Can't hear the station in much of Surry, Blue Hill, etc., even with the 5,000 watts, yet it booms into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and even Europe.

Yes, we used to get 10 or 12 postcards and/or cassettes every year from Europe.

 

[forevernight]

Anyone else ever get this one?

"What's the phone # for requests at W***?"

As often as not it was for our direct format competitor.

Still happens on a regular basis, TG!

In a related story, our studio toll-free line must be very close to Delilah's, I love being asked if I am Delilah!

 

[reelyreal]

Anyone else ever get this one?

"What's the phone # for requests at W***?"

As often as not it was for our direct format competitor.

Ughh more than I care to admit...

When I worked at a 5k station with nighttime flea power, I would give a full-on lesson on earth science, the ionosphere, and skywave propogation. It was usually dull enough and technical-sounding enough to stop any questions/complaints from said listener.

 

[Deleted User]

1470 in Watertown MA, the former WSRO is 3.44KW right now, sending WLYN's simulcast right out into the Atlantic ocean for the most part, broadcasting in the dark to fish. I am waiting to get a QSL card from a lobster.

At least the people who are calling you asking stupid questions speak english.

When we were doing Chinese at WAZN it was brutal to answer the phone.

Not that it is any better now that it is Russian....

And the Portuguese and Spanish WLYN listeners are always a joy to converse with.....

remind me again why I am still doing this at my age?

 

[pqgeorge]

1470 in Watertown MA, the former WSRO is 3.44KW right now, sending WLYN's simulcast right out into the Atlantic ocean for the most part, broadcasting in the dark to fish. I am waiting to get a QSL card from a lobster.

At least the people who are calling you asking stupid questions speak english.

When we were doing Chinese at WAZN it was brutal to answer the phone.

Not that it is any better now that it is Russian....

And the Portuguese and Spanish WLYN listeners are always a joy to converse with.....

remind me again why I am still doing this at my age?

Many, many moons ago, I was doing the 6 to midnight shift at the late WBET/1460 (now WXBR) in Brockton, MA. More times than not, I was basically doing board-op for the Red Sox or the Bruins games. Naturally you'd get the calls like....... "Hi. Can you play a song for me?" (yeah, right...during the middle of a game), "Hi, can you give me the correct time?" (Yeah sure lady, it's called 637-1234...call now while the rates are low.....). You'd always get the rugrats calling.... "Is there school tomorrow?" (Not one snowflake had yet to materialize..... )....YUP! (then I would be given a nice wordy-durd for my trouble by that well schooled child). And yes.... the ever popular "Where are you on the dial?", "1460...ma'am", "Is that AM or FM?" "Medium Wave, ma'am" (long pause........C-L-U-N-K!). Have a nice day, ma'am!

I can go on and on.... but..... NAH!

 

[choicevoicepro.com]

I can't be the only one that feels this. I dunno - maybe I am. We'll see.

While I answered those phone calls for 20 something years, and I know what it is like - I'm struck by the "tone" of many of these postings. I'm not certain that arrogance is the right word, but it would appear that radio folks think most listeners are just stupid.

I assure you - they're not. Most listeners (especially today) are distracted and probably not paying the rapt attention to the medium that our egos tell us they should.

Maybe having to explain the difference between AM and FM (and thus how they could actually tune into our station) is bothersome. After all, how could they not know about something we're so passionate about?

Well, they don't. Most listeners use the medium like a utility. It either pleases them or it doesn't. It's in the background - until we do something to annoy them, and garner their attention just long enough for them to hit the scan button.

If you think that listeners should be issued some sort of intelligence test before calling the obviously superior radio person, then maybe you're in the wrong line of work.

And I don't wonder if this kind of disconnect between listeners and the people on the other side of the speakers is one of the reasons that people simply don't care about radio. It doesn't take any real intelligence to know that you've just been blown off.

I've been privy to enough verbatims from research and directly from Arbitron diaries that showed me courtesy on the telephone (or lack there of) can cost you in terms of image and ratings.

Your thoughts?

 

[adbuyer1]

Choice:

While my thoughts are that your thoughts are correct, I am not interpreting this thread the way I believe you are.
I'm sure anyone who has been in broadcasting for 20-30-40 years has experienced their share of the absurd/bizarre/ridiculous/hilarious/out right stupid questions from listeners and they are recounting what those questions are; not how they exactly responded to the listener. I'm interpreting Peter's post as what he was thinking and what he would've like to have said and not what he actually did say. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere out there in the internet universe there's a McDonalds Manager's message board with post's regaling all the absurd/bizarre/ridiculous/hilarious/out right stupid requests from customers throughout the years and not how they actually responded to those customers. I am willing to give broadcasters far more credit in that they understand this listener is their most important customer, even though they are not the direct monetary customer, and do treat them with the courtesy and respect they deserve.

 

[remaster]

I still enjoy searching the AM dial for the mom/pop stations. Great programming on many of them. If I ever stumble into money, my toy would be an AM station. Some people buy a boat, I'd go AM.