QUESTIONS ASKED
Recently I’ve received three phone calls and one email question related to me answering letters and emails: do I take the time? In a word: YES. One lady was rather put out with me for not responding to her within a week. Okay, guilty. I admit to not getting around to finding out what she asked me. It wasn’t as though the question she asked was difficult, it was because I delayed looking into it because I knew a couple of the people I wanted to ask their professional opinions were gone for the holidays, and to be honest, I neglected to pencil it into my “remember” list; I did forget about it. Admittedly, that was my fault, and while I know I at least tried, this lady didn’t and had no qualms about letting me know how she felt.
As for the others, they were more on the line of personal queries and with each of them I have only half an answer. I’m working on the “other half” but am stymied by the legal world of “personal information” that I have not found a way around yet. I mention these instances for a reason. It is not unusual for me to receive as many as 75 new emails every day from people making comments or asking questions. Between regular emails and all the “social media” forms of communicating today, 75 to 100 people contacting me or anyone else in the world of media access seems like a lot, but many I speak to who write weekly columns (or have face to face contact with a variety of people or who have been around as long as I have within the “public” or write blogs or have a bazillion “friends” on Facebook) know 75 a day is not that many in the scope of who we all connect with in one manner or another. Unfortunately, as with many people my age, my brain’s “computer chip” is pretty well filled up, and unless I remember to remind myself, I have a tendency to forget things that are unusual or just off the course of regular every- day “to do” tasks.
Aside from writing, I also own a business that puts me in contact with a variety of people every day. And while most don’t necessarily know who I am by name, many still recognize me “from somewhere.” What I do to make an actual living wage (freelance writers don’t make a great wage unless they are syndicated with a publicist and have their words printed in hundreds of papers) places me in somewhat of an adversarial role with the person I contact. Well, at least, some may think so. Personally, I look at my job as just that. It’s a job and one I do well. Period. I bear no ill thinking toward the person I am to find and hand over papers to. Whatever is going on in their lives is their business, and unless the person I make contact with is overtly nasty, nine times out of ten I have forgotten them or even what they look like by the next week. I have a great memory for voices and instances of what happened, but not for faces.
If I have not returned a phone call or written an email back or in some way re-contacted anyone who has made an effort to tell me something or let me know about some issue they think is important, please feel free to call, email or re-contact me again. I would much rather someone do that than think I blew them off or am ignoring them. If I cannot find an answer to what you are asking about, almost always, I can find someone who CAN.
We supposedly live in a world of “communication overdrive times ten,” and yet it seems few actually communicate as well as we did fifteen years ago when all we needed were phones and fax machines! Uncanny, to say the least.
SMALL TOWN STARS
Congratulations to Candace Thornberg on her new weekday position as KVVR’s newest anchor. I watched Candace on the weekends and she’s a young woman who can handle a camera. Walhalla –ites should be proud, as they are of Shauna Olson, a one-time KVLY meteorologist who has moved on to earthier ground, probably better pay and certainly different hours at KFGO radio as their latest agricultural reporter. I never knew the Thornbergs when I lived in Walhalla (class of 1973) but I knew Shauna’s step-dad well. Having two young women from such a wee bit of town make it in the world of state-wide media and beyond is quite an achievement.
And while I’m happy for Candace, I’m even more delighted that Andrea Larson will be showing up on KVLY’s anchor desk soon. I’ve missed seeing her and she will be a major plus personality to the nightly news KVLY dispenses since Robyn Hubner and Charley Johnson left.
It’s nice to see “real people” that everyone can relate to who inform us about what we need to know.
Speaking of great informers! Mark Altenburg may have missed his true “calling.”
Mark replaced Mc-what’s-his-name on KFGO last week and the week before, and both shows Mark hosted were terrific! He had informative news, guests, and above all, he didn’t jabber constantly, so I could actually hear more from the guests he had and the listeners who called in.
I think he gets the concept of what being a radio talk-show HOST is supposed to do—ask pertinent questions and allow the guest to give THEIR opinion or answer the question posed, versus trying to entertain with sophomoric humor, stories about themselves, and sometimes unnecessary rude remarks.
There are people who are born for positions such as radio talk show hosts. Larry King, Don Imus, Joel Heitkamp, Boyd Christianson, Jay Thomas even Ed Schultz were or still are very good give-and-take radio hosts. They know what’s going on in their world and the world at large. They seemingly have a “feel” for what’s important on any particular day to their audiences, and they can bring on guests who will answer questions for their listeners’ benefit. They don’t need to be Mr. Nice Guy all the time. Ed Shultz, Boyd Christianson and Howard Stern all proved that.
There is a special talent for hosting a three-hour live show. Timing and interesting topics plus the feed-back from the audience are what drive a great radio talk show. More than likely, if a talk host has been on for any length of time, his or her audience will know pretty well where the host sits on most given topics. But after all, aren’t talk shows for the listener to call in and have a chance to put forth their opinions? Every “ying” needs a “yang.”
Questions or comments for Soo can be sent to: sooasheim@aol.com, and letters can be sent to P.O. Box 123, Fargo, ND., 58107. Our phone number is in the book for anyone who cares to look it up. All editorial letters should be sent to: Tammy Finney @ P.O. Box 1026, Moorhead, MN, 56560.