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

[pqgeorge]

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.

You've got it right on the noggin "adbuyer1". Of course you'd never say such snarky comments to your audience/callers like the ones I mentioned to (unless you're Howie Carr, Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern). Much as I would have loved to have had said it. But yes, those downright stupid questions were all too common. But the snow cancellations were the worst. We would give the cancellations twice an hour, if there were any. But the kids would call anyway and when you tell them to listen to the radio instead of calling or if you tell them that school will be in session, you'd get a rather rude comment (and I'd leave it at that). I don't miss those days at all. But, it was a lot of fun playing radio, especially when you had great people to work with.

 

[choicevoicepro.com]

@ remaster: WJTO is just such a station. A real anomaly - No commercials, 60+ years of music and real public service announcements. (That this community truly appreciates)

@ adbuyer: I appreciated your cogent, thoughtful response… and have given thought to what you said - and you're likely correct.

And BTW: I've no doubt that McDonald's (or other corporate entities) have such a forum and I can only imagine how stupid I look there!

Just seems to me that there is a dearth of positive posts on these boards - (and I understand that part of the reason for such forums is to vent but I believe it's carried to the extreme… maybe I was more reacting to that.)

Although "funny" is subjective - here's an example of what i think was a funny call: In the 70's I received a call from a kid that couldn't have been any more than 6 or 7 years old - asking to hear the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck Of The Ella Fitzgerald."

I fell out… but felt badly when the boy didn't realize what I was laughing about… a silly call? Yes. But because of his age you assume that it is the innocence of a child and not "stupidity."

This kid was also likely the kid that called to ask if there was school on snow days… and dozens of times in a 20 minute period to hear Sean Cassidy sing Da-Doo-Ron-Ron.

Did I get upset with those calls? Somewhat irritating, yes.

But I also remember the excitement (and how intimidated) I was when calling the "WRKO hit line" as a tween.

And I will never forget the time I called WMEX on an "Instant Request."

After patiently hearing my request - King Arthur Knight says to me: "Hey would you like to be on the radio?" "Hell yeah!" I thought.

"OK" he says " Say this…. "I'm Tom Pagnotti from Swampscott and I want to hear Floy Joy by the Supremes on WMEX." (Not the song I wanted to hear - but OK) He asked for it one more time and then lauds me with praise and tells me I was going to be on next." Then adding, "I hope you'll call back sometime."

He made me feel like I really mattered.

Two important lessons for me: It was OK to coach callers to give you what you need (a technique I used a lot while on the air) and perhaps most importantly: that you should let every caller know that yes, they mattered. A lesson I carried with me through 28 years of being on the air.

And @ Peter: sadly I HAVE heard jocks get snarky with listeners in this way - they didn't last long in the biz though. And agreed: I don't miss day-to-day radio - but I miss the fun. Let's face it, radio on it's worst day beat any job by a mile.

 

[remaster]

WJTO is a great listen and is a perfect example of what I meant.

People forget that a kid calling a station in 2011, probably feels the same as one who called in 1971. If this board is still around in 30 years, they be might be posting about how radio "used to be." Radio in the 50's was different than the 80's and is different today. Some of it is good and some of it is bad. If everything stayed the same, it'd be very boring.

 

[MarcB]

I used to host a show on SUPERMAX 990 - the one that was in Connecticut, not the one in Rhode Island. I would tell my friends that my show is on SUPERMAX 990 and they would say "SUPERMAX 990? Is that 99.0 FM?" I would say "No, it's 990 AM". I would also tell them to listen on their computer after sunset, otherwise you'd here Philadelphia or Rochester on 990 and they didn't understand the concept of listening to the radio on their computer.

One of my boss's who at the supermarket I was working at at the time knew I was interested in radio and told me her favorite station was WPRX AM 11.20


One caller to AM 990 (before it was SuperMax) asked how come "We're not on FM?" He actually thought to become an FM station instead of an AM was as simple as pushing a button or flipping a switch just like the AM/FM switch on his radio.


And once when I was at 990 I had to make a call to WPRX a Spanish station - the girl who answered the phone answered in Spanish and I asked to speak to someone who knows English and she was offended when I asked. She said in a very nasty tone to me "I do know English."

 

[adbuyer1]

In the mid-late 80's the use of 900 telephone numbers, for a variety of adult services, exploded. The only difference between the station I was at toll free listener line and a very popular 900 number was the 8 versus 9 starting off. Our toll free number was nationwide and at night the five lines would be constantly lit up with very wrong callers. The company ended up restricting the toll free number to just receive incoming calls from two states. This cut down on the wrong calls significantly but upset a number of on air people who would regularly have relatives out of state call them toll free for lengthy family conversations.

 

[kestrel]

And once when I was at 990 I had to make a call to WPRX a Spanish station - the girl who answered the phone answered in Spanish and I asked to speak to someone who knows English and she was offended when I asked. She said in a very nasty tone to me "I do know English."

No offense there, buddy, but you bought and paid for that.

 

[bturner]

These are fun.

I tried to explain to one caller wanting another station's phone number and becoming upset that I didn't know it. I told her I had a non-compete and was not to associate with my competitors. I suggested it was like calling Burger King and asking for McDonald's phone number.

The best was a guy who heard a smooth jazz cut on a local station who began cussing me out when I explained we were a daytime only radio station, required by law to go off the air at night, so it was not our station that played that smooth jazz cut Saturday night. A bit more cuss words and he wanted to talk to the manager. I told him I was the station manager. That really set him off. About the time I was about to laugh out loud at the guy I told him I had another call, put him on hold and tended to other duties (coming after my 4th attempt to explain we were not an FM station and were not on the air Saturday night).

I recall getting in trouble when some kid told me to play some song f...ing next and told him it was a request line not a demand line...hang up and try again.

 

[w9wi]

But the snow cancellations were the worst. We would give the cancellations twice an hour, if there were any. But the kids would call anyway and when you tell them to listen to the radio instead of calling or if you tell them that school will be in session, you'd get a rather rude comment (and I'd leave it at that).

I work in TV, where we give the cancellations continuously with that scroll at the bottom of the screen.

Kids will still call and ask whether there's school.

I hear complaints about our kids not knowing how to read, could it be *that* bad?

 

[MarcB]

I hear complaints about our kids not knowing how to read, could it be *that* bad?

The kids don't know how to read because their parents don't know how to read. Right now I'm employed at a supermarket where I have to bring in the carts from the parking lot and maintain the bottle return room. Everything in the bottle room is labeled neatly. On the wall above a blue recycle bucket is a sign that says Bottles/Cans. - That's for bottles/cans that won't go through the machine. On the wall above a trash can is a sign that says trash. - It's for trash only - i.e. paper or plastic bags, bottle caps, etc. And on another wall above another trash can is a sign that says "Flattened Cardboard Only". - That one is pretty much self explanatory. Yet day in and day out I have to sort through the containers.

 

[True Grit]

I hear complaints about our kids not knowing how to read, could it be *that* bad?

The kids don't know how to read because their parents don't know how to read. Right now I'm employed at a supermarket where I have to bring in the carts from the parking lot and maintain the bottle return room. Everything in the bottle room is labeled neatly. On the wall above a blue recycle bucket is a sign that says Bottles/Cans. - That's for bottles/cans that won't go through the machine. On the wall above a trash can is a sign that says trash. - It's for trash only - i.e. paper or plastic bags, bottle caps, etc. And on another wall above another trash can is a sign that says "Flattened Cardboard Only". - That one is pretty much self explanatory. Yet day in and day out I have to sort through the containers.

I'd be willing to bet it's as much people being lazy and rude as being illiterate.