why is my abc full of idiots, or is your abc full of idiots too?

November 20, 2007 3:06 PM

is it just my station or is it all stations.... often the presenters seem to answer calls and there is a problem with the line... either there's no-one there, or they've got the wrong line. i listen to a fabulous local a.m. radio station. it's my local australian broadcasting corporation. they have lots of interviews, no advertisements and the music is infrequent but pretty cool by my daggy standards.

is this human error, and my otherwise intelligent, astute and perceptive presenters are techno-idiots.... or is phone technology so unreliable on radio stations and it's a problem with all interview-type programs around the world.

http://abc.net.au/sydney/
(i can heartily recommend james valentine or adam spencer if anyone feels the urge to listen to a podcast.)

posted by taff to media & arts (8 comments total)

Well, the only time I called in to a radio station I sat on the line for more than 20 minutes and finally I had to leave for an appointment so I hung up and left. I imagine that happens a lot.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 3:12 PM on November 20, 2007

Cell phones cause people to call (and hang up) on a whim. Sometimes the signal drops out. The boss catches you on the phone at work, or a call waiting interrupts your call. The increasing complexity of telephones can cause all kinds of scenarios.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 3:41 PM on November 20, 2007

A friend who worked as an assistant producer for ABC Local Radio here in Brisbane once explained it to me in roughly this order of decreasing importance:

1. Dumb callers hanging up as soon as they're put on hold
2. More people calling from mobiles, & so more dropouts
3. Callers hanging up after long waits
4. The presenter mis-keying & choosing the wrong line
5. The producer / assistant tagging the wrong caller info on the wrong line.

(We playfully argued over the order of the last 2 points, but she was adamant it was usually the presenter's fault ;-)
posted by Pinback at 3:49 PM on November 20, 2007

It's pretty much all caller error.

Most (if not all) phone screening systems have some sort of indicator as to the status of the call - whether it's empty, ringing, or on hold. These indicators, while not always perfect, are usually correct. So, to take Pinback's list -

1. People who hang up as soon as they're put on hold show up almost immediately as an empty line. Any host who goes to an empty line is an idiot.

2. Problems (at least at the "Go ahead, you're on the air" phase) with mobile phones are generally of the being able to hear one way, but not the other variety - either the caller can't hear the host calling their name, or the host can't hear the caller responding. This is a bit of a problem.

3. See 1.

4. Sometimes, but in my experience this is pretty rare.

5. Also, sometimes, but pretty rare. One of the major call-screening packages does have a pretty serious bug (well into the development of the program) where it swaps or completely loses caller data. It's a huge pain, and some places refuse to use the software because of it.

My experience has been that most of the problems with callers not being there is directly related to the caller - a lot of listeners put the station on speakerphone to make the wait more bearable, and then when the host goes to them, they're across the room, and can't get to the phone before the host dumps them and moves on. Alternatively, a lot of callers, despite the fact that they're told to turn off their radio (because the station is in delay), put down the phone, and listen on the radio. By the time they hear the host go to them (10-60 seconds after it has actually happened), they've long since been dumped.

This is, admittedly, what goes on for shows that have a reasonably long wait time. On certain FM shows, where the pace of callers is more rapid-fire, Pinback might be a little more on point.
posted by god hates math at 4:22 PM on November 20, 2007

The ABC gets smarter callers than 2UE or 2GB, and that is pretty disquieting.
Another issue is most Australian talkback is done on a 3 second (or is it 7 second?) delay, so the host can hit the kill button if a caller starts swearing or defaming. This confuses people who are on hold as the broadcast is chugging merrily along in their ear then is cut off in mid word when the call is taken.
Especially bad when the caller puts the phone down and is listening to the radio, as they don't hear the presenter say their name until some seconds after the caller is connected.
Usually the call is then just dropped.
If you like good radio, listen to the test cricket this summer when Harsha Bogle is commentating - the man is great.
posted by bystander at 4:34 PM on November 20, 2007

Or what god hates math said - oops.
posted by bystander at 4:35 PM on November 20, 2007

previously
posted by Rash at 1:27 PM on November 21, 2007

oops. thanks rash for finding that.
not sure how my googlemetafu farked that up. but clearly it did.

sorry possums. and thank-you all, for the above.
posted by taff at 11:22 PM on November 21, 2007