Thursday, November 08, 2007

Another rant about manners

Because of the time of day that I work, it usually falls on my shoulders to answer the phone in our newsroom. Let me tell you, a radio or TV newsroom attracts calls from all kinds of stupid, ignorant, ill-mannered people. It usually increases exponentially when the moon is full (a story for another time), or when a hockey game is on.

Tonight, we are airing the Washington-Ottawa NHL game. I just got a call from someone who wanted to talk to an engineer. I told him there's none here tonight, and he would have to call back tomorrow. So then he asked me if I noticed that the A-Channel logo (we call it a "bug") is always on the screen. I said yes. He said it gets in the way of watching the hockey game. I replied that I hadn't noticed that, and besides, it takes up such a small part of the screen. So then this jerk says "Well, how do I go about questioning someone's competence and ability?" My reply: "Well, if you're going to get insulting, forget it." Him: "Yeah, I am going to get insulting." Me: "Then forget it," and I hung up.

I've always exercised that approach. If someone is going to be polite and civil, I'll participate in a civil conversation. If they want to get abusive, I warn them that if they continue, I'll hang up. If the abuse continues, I hang up.

Again, what happened to common decency and respect???

6 comments:

XUP said...

I think that guy should have been falling all over himself with gratitude that a human being had actually answered the phone. Holy shit! I mean, how often does that happen? What kind of crazy place do you work, anyway?

Maria said...

Some people don't have any manners Bobby. Kinda reminds me of a story but I will have to save it for another time. You did good!

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, the A Channel logo IS quite huge compared to other TV station logos that appear on screen. It's also grey as opposed to white like CBC's or TSN's logos, so it becomes even more evident.

Like that caller, I found it to be
terribly distracting as well... and I don't recall ever having given it a 2nd thought except for last night's broadcast. There were a number of plays in the bottom left hand corner and you couldn't see the play because it was blocked by the logo.

I got two calls from people during the 1st period of your last broadcast too. They were each wondering if their TV's were on the fritz since the picture was all bright white. I assured them that their TV's were just fine and that you guys were likely VERY aware of the problem and were working on it. Sure enough, it got fixed.

So... you're not the only one getting calls! LOL! But I hear ya about the rudeness. In our business mistakes happen, technical snafus happen, signals get lost etc... I'm more than happy to give callers the name and number of someone who can actually do something for them ('cuz I'm just the schmo on the radio, I don't run the joint). But when they're rude, they ain't gettin' squat.

Anonymous said...

Just so's ya know, Milky (or is it "Uncle Milky" today? Congrats on the new nephew) the problem with the game last week was that we were getting Sportsnet's HD signal, but we don't transmit in HD yet. Once the signals were switched, everything cleared up.

Yeah, Sportsnet actually produces the game broadcasts for us, and they usually also air on Sportsnet's East network.

aandjblog said...

Wow! Who rained on his parade?

grrr..

Ma Horton said...

Why sweat the small stuff ?