Who is responsible for hiring these disc-jocks?

Desmond Allen

PEOPLE WHO seek jobs or who are hired as continuity announcers/disc jockeys on radio stations need to know even a little bit about how to do the work. Last Saturday. September 22, a travesty was committed on LOVE-FM near mid-day by a disc jock who failed to protect a caller who needed anonymity.

The woman called to warn girls in Buff Bay, Portland against her 'philandering' husband whom she said had given her a sexually transmitted disease (Herpes). She was, apparently, unaware that she was on air at the time. The disc jock asked for her name and the woman expressed her wish not to have her name on air, then proceeded to give her name. The deejay tried to inform her that she was already on air but it was too late! But then what really shocked me was when the deejay a few seconds later asked the woman to state her name again! That deejay should have cut the caller off (air) the moment she started to give her name and most certainly should not have asked her to repeat her name on air after that.

I felt bad as a media man. I suppose you could put a positive spin on the thing and say that at least the girls of Buff Bay who might have slept with the woman's husband, now know who he is, and presumably, would avoid sex with him and contracting Herpes. But then that was not even the intention of the deejay. He just didn't have a clue!

And by the way, who is responsible for hiring these disc-jocks anyway? Look, people it might sound glamorous to be on radio, but one needs to be trained in the business. You can't just go on air and do anything you please. And as for those news readers who don't bother to practise reading the newscast before going on air, you better realise that the public is getting wise to it. The many uncorrected errors, some of which are obviously in the original text, and the difficulty in pronouncing some tough names, betray the fact that the reader had not gone over the news before going on air! Even if you set no standards for yourself, the public deserves better than that.

Half-staff or half-mast?

Reader Kevin Sangster, writing from Temple University Beasley School of Law wants to know if the media erred in reporting that Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had ordered that the Jamaican flag be flown at 'half-mast or half-staff' in support of the people of the United States in their hour of bereavement following the beastly attack on the World Trade Center. Here's the letter:

"Dear Mr. Allen, I am a regular reader of you column, which I particularly like because of its educational value. I wish to seek clarification on the proper characterisation of the act by which a country lowers its flag as a mark of respect for some cause. Recently, the online Jamaica media sources that I consulted reported that Prime Minister Patterson ordered that our flag be flown at 'half-mast' as a mark of respect and a show of support for the United States.

"My issue is whether the media correctly characterised the Prime Minister's order as a calling for the flag to be flown at 'half-mast', which is to have the flag on ships and at naval stations on shore being flown so lowered; rather than at 'half-staff', which is to have the flag flown lowered everywhere else ashore. My guess is that the Prime Minister recently ordered 'half-staff', especially as our military situation does not provide us with such naval stations and ships that would make only a 'half-mast' order that worthwhile.

"I would welcome comments as to whether there is indeed a distinction between 'half-mast' and 'half-staff' as used in Jamaica. Additionally, it would help to know what those distinctions are, if any, and which of the two the Prime Minister recently ordered. - Kevin O. Sangster ksangster@temple.edu.

My trusty Collier's Encyclopedia did not make the distinction and seemed to use the terms interchangeably, as we tend to do here in Jamaica. But I will talk to the experts and get back to Kevin on this one. In the meantime, let me hear what you have to say, dear readers.

Vivienne, Tony and Glen

Hard to keep up with some media people, isn't it? If you are missing Vivienne Siva who up to recently ran the Observer's Western Bureau, she is now doing a stint as Information Officer for the JIS in London. Vivienne and her husband Michael Siva migrated. The column wishes them well.

Tony Morrison of CVM-TV fame is nicely ensconced in a media relations job at the Bank of Jamaica and seems to be relishing the challenge away from the glare of the lights, camera, action.

And Glen McFarlane who has been in PR for a while, is doing some production work at Alston Stewart's reconfigured KLAS-FM. It's early days yet, but I must admit that the morning talk show First Edition and the Saturday Scoreboard make for pretty interesting listening. Scoreboard sometimes overdoes the witticism, but it is quite informative.

Seen and heard

I have to give you this CVM-TV classic: During the news on September 23, we were told that "by all accounts, Mr... was asleep in his bed when he was surprised by the gunmen" I don't imagine one can be 'surprised' while asleep!

Send spikeables to spike@jol.com.jm;desal@
cwjamaica.com or fax to 9260295. Desmond Allen is a 27-year veteran of journalism.

Back to Commentary