When you do a radio interview about a book signing, make sure You give the dates.

On your Interview this morning on WFNX, the D.J. said you would be in Braintree tomorrow and Newburyport on Friday.

And I tried three times to get them to make a correction. I did not hear one.

Hmm. I didn't give that interview this morning, I gave it a few weeks ago. I guess they ran it on the wrong date. I'll let the publicist know.

I understand that I may have been silly to think that the interview was live.

I still feel that you should try to ensure that the actual dates are given rather than "tomorrow and Friday".

BTW: The only reason I heard the interview was that the Dunkin Donuts on North Street had it on the loudspeaker.

Which suggestion was the polite one?


_________________
Bill
http://shakespeareteacher.com/

I think it was something about Dunkin Donuts.

I do not feel I was being rude or pushy to suggest that Ken ensure that the acual dates of a signing are given in a radio interview.

Hey, Isaac, you made a newscaster quit.

I suspected some exaggeration -- I mean, sly wit -- since it's C. Monks, but Santoro does indeed claim to quit on air (audio link), and blames the rabid Ken Jennings fans who besmirched his reputation.

Isaac will soon be the Steve Bartman of Boston ...

I call shenanigans on this. I mean, really, how many people could have called the station? I made sure Random House's publicist did, because it's her job, but who else in the Boston area knows or cares what book signings fall on what night? When I do an East Coast signing, I'm happy to get 50-100 people in the store. Now: how many of those people knew the date of the event two and a half weeks in advance? And how many of those are listening to WNFX at any given time? At how many of those care enough to call in with a correction?

It seems to me much more likely that the calls came from the worried bookstore manager, random buttinskies who noticed in an alt-weekly that the dates didn't match, etc., than aggrieved Ken Jennings disciples.

I made the calls to help the station,

I know that if I were to go somewere and be told "that won't be happening for two weeks", I would be peeved at the radio station which gave me the incorrect information.

They played a taped interview two weeks early. I am willing to accept that mistakes like that will happen.
I feel that if someone tries to get them to correct such a mistake they should do so.
I don't care much for the type of music they play. I wasn't willing to listen to a 4o Minute block to find out if they made the correction.
They did not play the voicemail I sent. They did play a call from someone who did not like the fact that Ken called Triva A Sport.



Last edited by Isaac Cashman on Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:36 pm; edited 2 times in total

Ken Jennings wrote:

I call shenanigans on this. I mean, really, how many people could have called the station? I made sure Random House's publicist did, because it's her job, but who else in the Boston area knows or cares what book signings fall on what night? When I do an East Coast signing, I'm happy to get 50-100 people in the store. Now: how many of those people knew the date of the event two and a half weeks in advance? And how many of those are listening to WNFX at any given time? At how many of those care enough to call in with a correction?

It seems to me much more likely that the calls came from the worried bookstore manager, random buttinskies who noticed in an alt-weekly that the dates didn't match, etc., than aggrieved Ken Jennings disciples.

It's a joke, right?


_________________
"Jamming gaydar is not a federal responsibility."

Well, the DJ didn't really quit, but Random House told me they honestly did get a bunch of calls about the mistake.

Of course, Isaac used the plural "calls," so maybe it was all him. One man can make a difference! If he's at Dunkin Donuts at the right time.

I called the Station number I got from Information.

When the D.J. gave a different voicemail number, I ncalled that number.

When the 10:00 A.M. D.J. came on the air I called the main number again and spoke to the D.J. and another person.

In that conversation I stated that
I was not saying that the D.J.s on The Sandbox were stupid.

I doubt that I am the only person who tried tp get the ststion to make a correction.

This could all have been avoided if you had just gone to Krispy Kreme.

rockgolf wrote:

This could all have been avoided if you had just gone to Krispy Kreme.

Krispy Kreme opened stores in the Boston area. They all closed.
I could have had my coffee and ... at "Mickey Ds". There is a restaurant up the street, closer to Boston City Hall.

Tell us more!

By the way, while I'm being surly and cantankerous, I think it's pretty rich for that cmonks guy to milk a whole blog post out of the threat posed to America by a loyal, bonkers army of Ken Jennings fanatics. The last time he mentioned me on his blog, also in fun, he assured me, it was his acolytes who were sending me angry emails and putting up snotty message board posts over here (to be fair: the majority seemed perfectly harmless). When it comes to smug humor-impairedness, I'd put his readers up against mine any day of the week!

(Edited to add: I found a couple blogs stating that the newscaster actually did quit unexpectedly this morning! But probably not because of a mis-announced book signing date.)

Isaac Cashman wrote:

Krispy Kreme opened stores in the Boston area. They all closed.

DUNKIN’ DONUTS RULES!!!!

In related news, the President announced a new plan for energy independence today that would mandate all commercial and passenger vehicles be run on donut grease biodiesel.


_________________
J! Archive

Ken Jennings wrote:

I call shenanigans on this. I mean, really, how many people could have called the station? I made sure Random House's publicist did, because it's her job, but who else in the Boston area knows or cares what book signings fall on what night? When I do an East Coast signing, I'm happy to get 50-100 people in the store. Now: how many of those people knew the date of the event two and a half weeks in advance? And how many of those are listening to WNFX at any given time? At how many of those care enough to call in with a correction?

Listen to the last two minutes of the show in the clip earlier in this thread and they say it was an individual who "was obsessed" with the correction and called multiple times.

I was driving to work and WFNX (not WNFX, but I don't expect non-Bostonians to know that, so you're off the hook, Ken) went to commercial, so I changed the station. Can't believe I missed hearing this live! Santoro is pretty much an institution.

Those DJs are completely flabbergasted. Crazy.

For those who are interested, Henry Santoro has been the news host on WFNX's morning show since 1985, far longer than any of the DJs with whom he shared the 6am-10am time slot. I began listening to him in the early 1990's and found him to be a competent radio personality. It's hard to cover legitimate news on a show that's aimed at an irreverant alt-rock listening audience. Henry could do just that, and he took his job seriously.

It's disturbing that Mr. Santoro came to so much grief over this one mistake. The listener calls gave way to a call from Mr. Jennings' publisher, in which the representative allegedly questioned Mr. Santoro's competence at work. These events prompted station management to come down on him too.

Mr. Jennings, I do not think that you played any direct role in these events, but I do think they resulted from other people taking undue liberties on your behalf. It's not your fault, but Mr. Santoro didn't deserve what happened either. He's not an Imus-type shock-jock. It's a shame that this one event would send his credibility and 23-year career "down the dumper" (Henry's words).

And I have a hard time believing that getting a stupid signing date wrong on-air would send a newsman's credibility down the dumper. But I guess I should save that for a blog post tomorrow...

I have a hard time believing that people would want to go to a book signing by the guy who had a good Jeopardy run -- but it's true.

All the best to you Ken. I'm sure your book is top-notch. But we would rather have Henry back than be graced with your presence.

To the FNX staff: I gave up on your station a while ago, but Henry kept me coming back. He's the best thing going on Boston radio.

HenryFan_2008 wrote:

I have a hard time believing that people would want to go to a book signing by the guy who had a good Jeopardy run -- but it's true.

Wow, you Henry Santoro fans are all class!

wilhelmh wrote:

For those who are interested, Henry Santoro has been the news host on WFNX's morning show since 1985, far longer than any of the DJs with whom he shared the 6am-10am time slot. I began listening to him in the early 1990's and found him to be a competent radio personality. It's hard to cover legitimate news on a show that's aimed at an irreverant alt-rock listening audience. Henry could do just that, and he took his job seriously.

It's disturbing that Mr. Santoro came to so much grief over this one mistake. The listener calls gave way to a call from Mr. Jennings' publisher, in which the representative allegedly questioned Mr. Santoro's competence at work. These events prompted station management to come down on him too.

Mr. Jennings, I do not think that you played any direct role in these events, but I do think they resulted from other people taking undue liberties on your behalf. It's not your fault, but Mr. Santoro didn't deserve what happened either. He's not an Imus-type shock-jock. It's a shame that this one event would send his credibility and 23-year career "down the dumper" (Henry's words).

FWIW, I listened to the station on the way to work this morning, and Henry was back. He mentioned meeting with the higher-ups at the station and having dinner with the other guys from the Sandbox program yesterday. They threw out a couple jabs at both Ken and "the Jeopardy! army," but didn't seem to focus on it too much. Anyway, he's back, so everyone should be off the hook and can play nice again, right?


Right?

j wrote:

wilhelmh wrote:

For those who are interested, Henry Santoro has been the news host on WFNX's morning show since 1985, far longer than any of the DJs with whom he shared the 6am-10am time slot. I began listening to him in the early 1990's and found him to be a competent radio personality. It's hard to cover legitimate news on a show that's aimed at an irreverant alt-rock listening audience. Henry could do just that, and he took his job seriously.

It's disturbing that Mr. Santoro came to so much grief over this one mistake. The listener calls gave way to a call from Mr. Jennings' publisher, in which the representative allegedly questioned Mr. Santoro's competence at work. These events prompted station management to come down on him too.

Mr. Jennings, I do not think that you played any direct role in these events, but I do think they resulted from other people taking undue liberties on your behalf. It's not your fault, but Mr. Santoro didn't deserve what happened either. He's not an Imus-type shock-jock. It's a shame that this one event would send his credibility and 23-year career "down the dumper" (Henry's words).

FWIW, I listened to the station on the way to work this morning, and Henry was back. He mentioned meeting with the higher-ups at the station and having dinner with the other guys from the Sandbox program yesterday. They threw out a couple jabs at both Ken and "the Jeopardy! army," but didn't seem to focus on it too much. Anyway, he's back, so everyone should be off the hook and can play nice again, right?


Right?

That's good. It would certainly be a shame for a couple of calls from "Isaac" to have seriously affected Santoro's life.

Might that have just been the straw that broke the camel's back for him? I'd suspect that something else was going on behind the scenes that set the stage for these events. I can't imagine he hadn't dealt with similar callers in his 23-year career.