It's like calling the Sydney Morning Herald and asking to speak to Malcolm Turnbull: Wendy calm ...

As an industry trade publication about radio, we are sometimes mistaken for radio stations themselves.
 
Our Admin Manager WendyWhalley is listed as our main contact, and she gets some 'interesting' interactions from listeners who are trying to contact YOUR radio stations, but actually ringing, messaging or emailing radioinfo.
 
Wendy has chronicled a few of the more 'outstanding' examples she received last year:
 

 
Ah, the joys of having one's home and mobile phone numbers on a website that consistently comes at the top of a Google search when looking up anything to do with radio stations.
 
As the first port of call, given that the radioinfo team works remotely and has no central office location and my phone contacts are on the website, I get some "interesting" phone calls at all hours of the day and night – Americans have not worked out that Australia is on a different time zone to them, and different again from that of Austria, with which they sometimes get confused.
 
Here is the favourite message on the answering machine that my daughter intercepted (I was out of the country at the time, and she was house-sitting).
 
It went on for nearly five minutes and we kept it on the machine for months, just to have a chuckle) and was from a gentleman with a very thick accent (think Bombay call centre)
 

…Good afternoon to you good Sir or Madam
I am thinking that I know what the secret sound is… you know when you use a stapler and it makes a clicking sound that is difference depending on how many pieces of paper – that I what I think it is. I tried two pieces of paper, that wasn't right, then I tried three pieces, and that wasn't it either [he went on in this vein for another three minutes] so, I am thinking, the answer is stapling ten sheets of paper is the secret sound.
I listen to your show every day and would be liking to win the money and then I can bring my family here for a holiday and perhaps we can all stay. God bless!

 
Another favourite of mine came some time ago when Justin Bieber was in Australia. Early one afternoon the house phone rang…
 

Wendy: Hello, Wendy here…
V1 - Young Girl: Oh, I've got through! I want the two Justin Bieber tickets!
W: This is not a radio station – we don't have any Justin Bieber tickets
V1: But you are advertising them! I really want the tickets – I am in love with Justin Bieber!
W: You have called radioinfo – we are a news and information site for the broadcast industry, not a radio station. You need to call the radio station that has the Justin Bieber promotion.
V1: But I am desperate for the tickets
W: You need to call that radio station[hangs up phone]

 
Two minutes later…
 

V2 - Young girl's mother: My daughter wants to get those Justin Bieber tickets – why won't you let her have them?
W: [gently repeats earlier comment and says that they need to contact the radio station that has the tickets]
V2: [sounding quite cross] But your phone number is on the website!
W: [explains again that this is not the radio station and I don't have any tickets]
V2: [sounding very cross] Well I don't think much of your radio station, not giving the tickets away to someone who has rung through – I will report you to the radio ombudsman
[slams down phone]

 
 
Another constant request…
 

W: Hello, Wendy here…
V: Hello, I want to speak to [insert name of well known radio personality here – Neil Mitchell/Alan Jones/Meshel/Hamish & Andy/Kyle… you get the idea]
W: This is not a radio station, you have called radioinfo – we are a news and information site for the broadcast industry, not a radio station
V: But why can't I speak to [whoever]? They are on your website…
W: It's like calling the Sydney Morning Herald and asking to speak to Malcolm Turnbull…
V: Oh, well, what's their phone number?
W: I don't have it to hand immediately, look it up on Google

 
Not only are there phone calls, but I also get emails like the following one. At least there was an apology at the end of this one!
 

 
The other day I had a call from a lady called Erica who lives in Hobart and has just come back from a caravan trip around Australia 
 
She purchased some kind of radio digital streaming devices (not sure what, exactly) and she called us because she has spent three days trying to find a list of stations and frequencies to put into her new device.
 
Luckily, this time I could help. I referred her to our radio station interactive map page.
 

To all our radio station readers, have a great year in 2018…
and please put your contacts prominently on your website!
 

Wendy Whalley
wendy@radioinfo.com.au

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