Re: new TV spots

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@erols.com>]

Marc Lemay wrote:
 
> When it comes to a talk show host - we're looking for their opinion, we
> either agree or disagree.  If I want hard news - I'll wait for the top of
> the hour.
> 
> And yes, I'm prepared not to be flamed, but torched for this post.

Torches?  We don't need no stinkin' tor...  But, I digress.  Caveat
emptor!  If you accept that a listener to a talker is a
buyer/customer, then the warning applies.  If we translate Barnicle
banishment from print to tube to radio, then we had better be ready
to apply the same set of principles and scrupulousness to convicted
felons, as well.  And there goes the network!  (Not really, but...) 
THEE question that I never hear from a caller, and this surprises
and disappoints, is, "(TO HOST), what are your credentials?  What is
your story?  How did you get here?  Why are YOU in the chair?  When
you said XYZ to the last caller, what moved you to go there instead
of, say, over there?"  Someone floored me with that question once,
early one morning.  She was not accusatory or baiting, simply...
curious.  I thought (and said aloud at the same time), "Wow, you
really want to know?  Sheesh!"  Then I told her (and the 2 or 3
others who may have actually been paying attention at the time.)  It
got me to realize that the story there was how sad it was that so
few listeners and callers default at "distrust" mode of talkers on a
radio. Sadder, still, is that so many in radio, who should know
better, exploit that trust.

Bill O'Neill