There can't be anything worse for an all talk station's hosts than to have the phones suddenly go out and stay out all day long. That's the position yakker AM640 found itself in Friday, after the lines disappeared sometime after 9 am. Kelly Cutrara, Lorne Honickman (who did the morning show and was subbing for Jeff MacArthur as well) and then Mike Stafford, were forced to go on and on and on and on in conversation with their producers and themselves, as the hours went crawling by.

Stafford was mightily entertaining, of course, tap dancing with Chris Creston about everything and nothing, at one point referring to the station as "Talkless Radio AM 640.". (640's format has always been caller heavy, whereas Larry Fedoruk on CKTB could easily go an entire show without ever taking a call and continue with just his usual stream-of-consciousness spiel. But it's much harder when you're not used to it.)

He also suggested that if it happened at 1010, a Bell Media station, the issue would have been fixed immediately. The more angry and frustrated he became, the funnier the show was. In some ways, his program was better with no callers and wall-to-wall Mike ad libbing like crazy. At one point, he simply pulled back the curtain and let listeners know what was going on behind the scenes - and a good part of the show became a rant about how hard it is to do a talk show on radio without being able to take any calls. It was hilarious, especially for people who've ever been in the industry.

Still, I feel for all of them. I remember one day when the phones went out on a show I was producing and we had a huge big name guest, who we'd been hyping in promos for over a week. Unlike 640, callers could get through but the guest couldn't hear them. For more than an hour the host had to endlessly repeat the question through the mic, slowing down what should have been a very good and riveting 60 minutes of radio. That was more than 30 years ago and I still remember that day. It was awful.

So have a moment's silence for the brave soldiers of Corus's AM non-talker. If you've ever been there, you know how hard it is. In fact, it's enough to leave you speechless. Even if you're not allowed to be. 

Last edited by RadioActive (August 19, 2016 5:33 pm)