What a delightful moment on talk radio it was Friday, when CKTB mid-morning host Tom McConnell took a call from the relentless “Sonny from Richmond Hill.” a guy well known as a talk show regular who tries to get on every show on every station, regardless of the topic, and turn it into a rant against Islamophobia, how evil Conervwtives are, why the western world is doomed and how every white person is an obvious racist. 
 
Sure enough, at about 10:45 AM, he got on the air on 610 – the only station in the area that will accept his calls anymore – and immediately launched into a complaint about being kept on hold for too long when he called in the previous day. When they finally went to him, he hung up on them on air.
 
McConnell not so politely informed him that the show isn’t there at his disposal, that they have other callers and other topics, and that he has to wait his turn like everybody else until they get to him – if they ever do. He further intimated that talk shows aren't a democracy but a "show" and that it's not always the caller who dialed in first that gets taken but the one who can best contribute to the dialogue that gets priority. 
 
Sonny’s idiotic though perhaps predictable response was something about the ignorance of call screeners and how the process should either be automated (how would that work exactly?) or else – and get this – the given phone number should go directly on air without ever going through a producer first.
 
McConnell finally hung up on him, but not before thanking him for his call, and telling him that the next time he dialed them up, he would make sure he waits on hold for at least 20 minutes! Priceless.
 
I’m curious how those out there who’ve done this in their careers deal with regular callers who jam phone lines claiming to have an opinion on everything and wanting to get on day after day after day. Annoying but part of the job.