Taking live calls without delay is just plain stupid!
By now, I’m sure you all would be aware of the stupid stunt which Kyle & Jackio pulled on 2DayFM last Wednesday. I won’t repeat the awful details here.
Kyle and Jackio have been supended indefinently from their brekky show, and Kyle has been sacked from Australian Idol. It was stupid mistake to have the whole lie-detector segment in the first place, and it was an even bigger mistake to allow a teenage girl on the show in such a segment.
However, it has been revealed recently that 2DayFM runs it’s brekky show without a seven second delay. Why? It would seem Kyle doesn’t like it:
A 2DayFM staffer said Sandilands believed “pure” live radio was “better entertainment” – an approach which has long made his colleagues nervous.
“Kyle believes the kill button kills the truth, but it is there for a reason and everyone who was in the studio at the time wished it could have been used,” the program source, who requested anonymity, said.
Live radio with segments such as the ones run on 2DayFM is dangerous enough – it’s just suicide doing it without a delay.
It’s not that these delays are necessarily expensive. A basic one from Elan Audio can be bought for just over $3000. If you step up a few notches to the AirTools range, the price will increase, but you don’t need an expensive thing doing this job. If you just want to save yourself from the repercussions of airing stupid things like what we have heard, then a cheap one will do just fine.
Of course, nothing could have saved Kyle from this embarrasment – he has a bad attitude, and seems to refuse to do his show with a delay. But, that’s not a technology problem; it’s an ego problem. No amount of technology can fix that.
RadioInfo asks a simple question:
…So why do many FM announcers, like cabbies, consider it as some sort of badge of honour to travel without the simple apparatus that could save their broadcasting lives in the event of the type of emergency that occurred on 2Day… ?
[No delay at 2Day, 31st July 2009, RadioInfo]
I don’t know the answer to that.
One thing I do know is that my own station does not have a delay, but we also have a very strict rule about airing live phone calls: don’t. Sure, record it and then play it back later, but never, ever, ever, air a live call.