I’ve been reading from a trade website for those in the radio industry.

I’m shamelessly going to copy-paste words from Perry Michael Simon and his letter to subscribers of http://www.allaccess.com. Perry writes the talk radio content. His lesson to be learned for people who write and talk for a living; make sure people get the feelings behind your words!

Nobody has a sense of humor anymore.

This came up in a couple of stories this week, one about the Congressman who, at the prodding of Stephen Colbert, made a joke about cocaine and prostitutes being “fun” on “The Colbert Report,” and the other about “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings writing some humorous “criticism” of the show and Alex Trebek on his blog. In each case, reporters treated the jokes as if they were some grave error, an unforgivable faux pas, and, naturally, they hit the national news wires, because a game show winner making fun of a game show is news on the magnitude of World War III.

And those are just two examples from this week. I get this more than a little bit from people who’ll read something I’ve written and take it the wrong way- short of writing “THIS IS A JOKE,” there’s no way to convince some people that not everything is intended to be taken in a serious manner. And you may get this, too, because radio shows, especially talk shows, tend to be prone to misinterpretation by people whose job it is to misinterpret. (Those would be reporters, pressure groups, and the occasional listener who just doesn’t get it)

Can you do anything about it if you say something and it ends up taken way out of context in the paper or some single-issue group, none of whose members actually heard what you said, floods the GM with complaints? I hope your management handles it better than some that I’ve worked for in the past- beware when they bring in professional “crisis management” teams, because that will never ever work out to your advantage. And while, sure, you don’t want boycotts (which rarely work, incidentally) or fleeing advertisers, I’m kinda surprised that more of us don’t take a page from the Foghorn Leghorn School of Crisis Management:

“It’s a joke, son.”

That’s all it is. Just a joke. Nothing serious, no harm, no foul. If more people caught in the no-fun-allowed dragnet would stand up for themselves, maybe this wouldn’t be such a problem. Ken Jennings, for his part, is responding to the news media’s ridiculous characterization of his “anti-’Jeopardy!’” blog post with humor (a less-than-serious “correction”), and he, as everyone knows, is really, really smart, because he won on “Jeopardy!” (And his blog’s actually really entertaining, too- ken-jennings.com, in case you’re interested) The Congressman, taking the opposite route, made the “Colbert Report” matter worse by issuing a statement saying that he’d never seen the show before and blaming the whole thing on underlings who booked him on the show to get the youth vote or something like that- dude, do you make a habit of going on shows you’ve never seen? It was a joke, it may or may not have been funny, but that’s all it was. Show’s over. Next!

(Your GM will, of course, demand you apologize. Unless you really did something worth apologizing for, this tends not to mollify anyone AND makes you look weak. But you may not be given a choice in the matter, especially now, with companies having “zero tolerance” for anything and the FCC ready to fine stations for jokes 8 year old kids tell on the playground.)

(Come to think of it, ever wonder if any of the FCC Commissioners have ever been kids? Think any of them have ever uttered a swear word? Think they’ve ever, you know, “done it”? Why hasn’t anyone ever ASKED them that? Because they act as though the mere THOUGHT of a sexual reference will cause society to crumble and anarchy to reign on Earth. Just wondering)

So the humor police are listening. If you’re a GM or PD, next time this comes up, remember that, sometimes, common sense and support of your air talent is better than overreaction. And remember- and I learned this the hard way- groveling and apologizing not only doesn’t always work but embarrasses and weakens your air talent, who should be as fearless and unapologetic as possible.

Enough of that (imagine, all that writing about humor and virtually no actual humor included!). Time for the weekly plug for All Access News-Talk-Sports and the Talk Topics column, the industry’s leading show prep column and blah blah blah etc. This week so far, you’ll find stories about alarming changes to Monopoly, Madonna’s toilet seats, what not to do when your house is full of bats, why you might want to wear a helmet while golfing with some former NBA players, the Revenge of the USFL, how riding a rollercoaster really worked out well for one guy and really didn’t for another, a politician who got the Godfather treatment- a horse’s head in her pool, how you can take a vacation in Mayberry, an unintentional serving of baked cockatoo, a really unappealing way to smuggle a puppy out of a pet store, the perils of being Mr. Nice Guy, the strange case of the stripper and the severed hand, and a guy who severed his OWN hand because he was given chicken instead of goat meat. Plus something about Lance Bass and something else about Gene Simmons and something else about “A Different World.” And there’s lots more all over All Access, including the best/fastest/most industry news, columns, the Industry Directory, and other stuff that I’m too hot and annoyed to think of right now. It’s all free, go there, you know the drill.

Next week: Perhaps the extremely loud construction my neighbors are doing right outside my window will stop long enough for me to write something coherent. Maybe not. Didn’t happen this week. (For a taste of my nightmare, don’t miss the new feature films “Jackhammer!” and “Jackhammer! II: Electric Boogaloo,” now available at pmsimon.com)

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com

I just that Natwest story as it really my attention, but I haven’;t had the chance to follow it up. Your question is exactly what I was thinking. If you want to do pro-bono work then that’s great, but pick a small and worthy charity…. Don’t try and influence the political and legislative agenda without due cause.

I think it is very odd indeed and no-one seems to be interested in finding out why the two big agencies got involved for free!