What’s in A Name

Labor Day, I filled in on the air for another newscaster who had taken the three day weekend off. It was during my 7 p.m. newscast that I misspoke Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s last name and I knew it.

Instead of “Pell-oh-see,” like it should be, I said “Poh-slee” or something to that effect. I followed the general rule of thumb in radio and television that teaches broadcasters to move forward even if you ‘gaff it,’ don’t wait around trying to fix the mistake—just move on.

No sooner had I switched off the microphone, than the studio telephone started ringing. It was a male listener who was intent on criticizing me for my error.

After so many years of radio broadcasting, a person kind of gets the idea of what is going to the topic of conversation.

The first time I answered the phone he wanted to know if I was the announcer. I told him I was and he proceeded to ask, “Do you know how to say Nancy Pelosi’s last name?”

My response was emphatic and immediate, “Yes, but didn’t you listen to what you’re grandma told you: If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all?”

Then I added, “Thank you for the call. Have a nice evening.”

I hung up the phone. A few seconds later the phone rang again. It was the same guy and once again he wanted to know it I knew how to say Nancy Pelosi’s last name correctly.

I responded, “I know I said her name wrong,” then added, “When you get your own radio show then you can be critical of me all you want.”

In my mind there was nothing left for me to say and there certainly was nothing left for me to hear. I screwed up her name and I realized it before anybody else. I think that it is appallingly rude to call someone you don’t really know and remind them of their short comings.

Then around 9 a.m., Tuesday morning, I got a telephone call from the stations Program Director wanting to know what happened at 7 p.m. My stomach fell through as I figured I was going to get “canned.”

He wanted to know what had happened and I recalled the entire incident for him. I also apologized for causing him a problem and not handling the situation in a better manner.

The Program Director explained to me that he deals with these sorts of situations all the time. His position was that the majority of complaints are listeners who have nothing better to do than “bust our chops” for any thing they can find wrong.

It doesn’t pay to be a smartass.