Sunday, December 28, 2008

‘Masters of Disaster' Seem Pleased with Their Performance Despite Obvious Shortcomings

Most of the questions in yesterday’s post were directed at Clear Channel, the owner of several radio stations on Oahu, including KSSK-AM, a designated emergency broadcaster. The questions implied criticism of the response by some first responders. Columnist Lee Cataluna in today’s Advertiser shows we’re not alone in thinking the response should have been better.

As Cataluna notes, KSSK’s response to the outage was initially anchored by Mike Buck, a talk show host on KHVH, another Clear Channel station. We also were impressed by Buck’s businesslike handling of the emergency – straightforward, fact-based and relatively little nonsense.

But that changed within an hour when the weekday morning drive time team of Michael W. Perry and Larry Price took over. Fom that moment on, it might as well have been Tuesday.

Perry and Price deserve accolades as radio entertainers. Their show’s ratings – like that of the legendary “J. Akuhead Pupule” before them on Cec Heftel’s KGMB-AM – are always at the top and may make P&P the most dominant radio show for their market in the country.

But unlike “Aku,” who could turn off the zaniness when the moment demanded journalism, the current team can’t find the off switch. The self-professed “Masters of Disaster” seem immune to suggestions they somehow don’t measure up, bolstered as they are by the praise phoned in by adoring fans. Here’s Perry in today’s Advertiser:

"Larry and I just sort of know what to do. It's not a burden at all. My gosh, it's the best possible use for your radio and our electrons."

No, the best possible use of the station’s airtime as a designated emergency broadcaster would be to serve, not entertain. Rather than encourage calls from listeners on how to aerate fish tanks, the team might have kept lines open or showed some inquisitiveness about any number of crisis scenarios – such as apartment dwellers who were trapped in elevators. The 10 o’clock news Friday night reported on at least 42 such cases even as the outage continued.

Upon Further Review

Two calls to the station illustrate how Perry & Price so often miss an opportunity to serve. A caller inquired about whether the outage would affect the water supply for toilets and such. He was laughed off the air with the observation, “The water’s flowing, isn’t it?” or something close to that. Another caller asked whether the canoe regattas scheduled for Saturday would be cancelled. Again, one of the team seemed incredulous and dismissive. The sun would be shining!

Yet by Saturday morning the Board of Water Supply was urging water conservation, and an Iolani School canoe coach called to say the ILH regatta was cancelled.

The P&P knee-jerk reaction is to play it for laughs rather than treat the emergency like what it is – a time of uncertainty and even trauma for tens of thousands of listeners. As one of the Ps quipped about the blackout on the Windward Side: 

“The only light in Kailua was from the rockets red glare…. The good news is that they’re depleted….”

What would a service-oriented emergency broadcast station do in similar circumstances? One can imagine such a station admonishing the public to NOT call in unless the message is critical. On-air personnel might well keep incoming lines free of all “frivolous” calls so first responders could communicate their messages.

Clear Channel’s response to the above criticism – if it were to respond at all – is likely to be as dismissive as Perry and Price are when the mood strikes them. The company’s top executive told a Media Council gathering in 2007 that the team’s ratings show they must be doing something right.

And to that, we would agree; Perry and Price do their act exceptionally well from 5 to 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday. But in Friday's emergency, the team seemed stuck in a weekday morning mood (right down to answering the phones "Good morning").

And maybe it’s not the celebrities’ fault. Maybe it’s Clear Channel’s philosophy to “be entertaining” in the midst of emergencies. If that’s the case, citizens have a legitimate reason to question whether that's what we need in a crisis.  Dozens of mainland radio stations get serious when the going gets tough.  Hawaii deserves a similar response.

4 comments:

  1. It seems to me that Perry & Price might not be the appropriate personalities to handle the station during emergencies.

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  2. Great observations. P&P truly seem to dig deeper into their "Dumb and Dumber" personas with each passing emergency. We deserve some real media in a crisis.

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  3. Thank you! The only credit to be given to Clear Channel is the fact that at least they were on the air right away this time. Otherwise, a grade of C- is the best I could award.

    At our house, one person had to make an 11 PM flight that evening. A phone call to the airline (NW) was useless since it yielded an obviously recorded message that the flight was "on time."

    We waited for over an hour for some valid, on-air information about airport operations, in the meantime listening to endless citizen phone calls & on-air joshing by P & P, when they weren't insulting their callers.

    Why can't Clear Channel have someone screen phone calls in these situations rather than cluttering airtime with anyone who gets through?

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  4. I wholeheartedly concur. And Perry and Price seem to pander to HECO and its on-air representatives rather than asking them hard hitting or probing questions. In stead, P&P basically give HECO an free Infomercial for 12 hours.

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