The screener should prep the caller. Often you are on hold a long time before you actually get to air.  The screener on AM 640 came on during the last commercial in the break and told me I would be on in about 15 seconds and please go directly to my question, and don't ask Mike how he was today...perfect. Not all callers will remember but many will. Also this person made a point of telling me to listen through the phone and turn the radio down. He was friendly but also all business which I liked.

Jerry always sounds rushed during his show. He should slow down and let callers speak more, rather than interrupting right away when he disagrees. As I said often the caller has been on hold a long time and they should be allowed more than 10 or 15 seconds before Jerry cuts them off or interrupts if he disagrees with them.

It doesn't bother me, never has, and I completely understand it.

Professional 'broadcasters' quickly forget just how intimidating and unsettling 'broadcasting' can be.   I'd much rather have a caller who says 'how are you' or 'as I was saying' or 'long time caller..." than someone who just launches into it.  A caller who just launches into their point generally tends to be an unpaid co-host who's illustrating they get on-air far too often.  They're polished, get to the point, and know how to play the game.  They're my least favourite callers because I don't want or need someone on a phone line who I don't know hosting the show with me.

I always thought the 'ditto' response, unsurprisingly from Limburgh was a prick thing to do. As is 'get on with it' or any of the other responses.  I'm all for having fun with the callers at their expense, exposing them as lunatics, insane or just funny.  There's an unwritten agreement that they have chosen a seat in the front row at a comedy club, but not at that stage of the call.

See the real callers, not the groupies, even though they are completely prepared by the screener with their point,  hear the burst of static at the start of the call and find themselves 'on-air'.  A completely alien environment for them.  Especially the true 'long time listener, first time caller' crowd.  They've now become a part of the group they've listened to for years and it can be nerve wracking as hell.  So they reach for something to stabilise them..  buy them that split second to regroup and get their point across.  That reality check tends to be something they've comfortable with like 'how are you' or whatever.  It's only necessary for a few seconds, but they reach out and grab for whatever is closest before being 'live on the radio'.  

Every host who bitches about 'how are you' and all the other crutches was obviously perfect and not nervous on their first time at the mic.  Otherwise they'd remember just how nerve wracking it was.  I'd suggest they post a skim of that first broadcast, it would be fascinating to listen to.  Or they don't understand that what their callers are doing is the same as them, broadcasting to an ACC full of listeners....

A screener who reminds the caller not to 'ask him how he is' is tilting at windmills.  You might as well ask the caller not to say 'you know' or 'umm' or 'like'.  The more they try not to , the worse that caller will be.

Unless of course they're NDP Don, Phil the Trucker, Jerry the pharmacist, crazy Mary (our name, not hers ), or any of the vast number of 'regular' callers who are or were on the air far too often. 

My 2c.





 

The Brits, as is quite often the case, seem to have the answer.  There is a scene in an episode of the most-excellent Foyle's War where the title character is meeting someone for the first time. When he is introduced to Foyle he says, "How je do?" To which Foyle replies, "How je do?"  Neither answers the question just put to him; neither expects an answer.  I've seen that happen untold times IRL.

(Just is case .. "How je do?" translates as  "How do you do?" )
 

grilled.cheese wrote:

In person, I never ask people how they are.  I simply don't care.  
I'm well liked around the office.  

I learned the hard way not to ask this question to Germans, who apparently unlike here take the question literally. I worked in an office in Munich and made the mistake of greeting my boss one morning with Wie geht es Ihnen? ("how is it going?"), to have him answer with a curt Schlecht. ("Badly.") I did not ask for details, and never asked again.