Interrupting your guests
I hate the way you all interrupt your guests in the middle of their sentence. It really is rude.Can't you do it as the network NPR shows do? That is start the theme music at a low volume and gradually increase the volume. I understand that you have to get to station breaks (although I don't know why- most of it is telling me what I'm listening to - which I already know) but why is the time of the break so sacrosanct?
--T.S., Miami
posted by Cleve Callison @ 10:21 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
From WMUB Program Director John Hingsbergen, this is the reply we sent:
"For the record, we are trying very hard to provide local shows that match NPR quality and style as much as possible. That is actually one of the reasons that we have a very strict format "clock" with fixed station breaks.
Sometimes we miss the mark and ask a question too close to a break. Sometimes guests tend to run on, as did the guest on Monday's Interconnect. One way or the other we were going to need to interrupt the Doctor since he'd get "on a roll" and keep going.
One of the jobs of program hosts is to stop that from happening or at least make the best of it. I agree that we didn't do so well with this guy and, as a result, some of the cutaways sounded a bit abrupt.
We also do roll music starting no later than 30 seconds before every break. Perhaps it was too soft for you to notice. The guest likewise didn't seem to notice."
Tom Schaber wrote back with a request for more information about the timing of station breaks.
Our second reply:
"At the half hour, we need to hit the timing exactly for the NPR newscast cutaway.
The other two breaks are a format that we have established. In addition to being a discipline that we choose to follow, it provides consistency for the control board operator (usually a student) and makes the evening re-play easier to execute."
And finally, Schaber replied with the following:
"Both my wife and I really liked that show and that guest; and for that matter like the show in general and your and Cheri's demeanor and questions in particular.
Ironically, we had been in the presence of a PDI victim just the night before and my wife, a Licensed Independent Social Worker nailed the perpetrator as a PDI right away. Between you, Cheri and the listeners, all the questions that I posed to my wife were asked of Dr. Kapuchinski.
His responses made my wife look pretty good. Especially the idea that they will never change and the only way to deal with them is to get them out of your life. Heavy stuff - No?
Well, keep up the good work - in spite of the station breaks."
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