Best Repeat Caller

[BluesDaddy]

What's your station's funniest/weirdest/scariest repeat caller? When I worked MCO back in the mid 90's, there was this woman we called "The Thunderstorm Lady." Anytime our weather guy called for a "chance of thunderstorms" (which is EVERY FREAKIN' DAY in the south) she would call up, "Is dere gonna be any shunderstorms... oooh I don't like shunderstorms, dere's not gonna be any shunderstorms, right?" on and on and on. After one of the MCO's terrified her by saying "Yeah we're gonna have the worst storms ever", we got a stern memo from the ops manager. Turns out she was an elderly mental patient. The home she was in eventually had to block her ability to dial our number. So, what's your story?

[FTOJRLST]

We used to have a guy who would call the station and you could not get him off the phone....He always wanted to talke to the talent. I think he ended up in a mental home. And even then he would call collect from there. (Any co-workers remember this guy)

I think maybe he moved to St Louis. :)

[ewink]

^^LOL!!!

We have a couple. The first is named 'First Block Guy'. He calls at 10:45 and asks the over night producer to pretty much read the entire first block to him. Very odd.

Then we have a strange man who calls the sports department... His name is Danny... Big Cubs fan... He's very... Odd... Can't seem to speak at a noral tone either. He always screams. He's the main reason why I will let the sports phone ring for an hour rather than answer it.

[<actionnewsman>]

We have Spencer, and anybody that's been around our shop for a while knows him. He's a conspiracy theorist of the bizarre sort. His conspiracies usually involve the Mayor or Chief of Police, and they are polluting the water with mutant frogs, or some such thing. He usually rambles off some bizarre stuff like that for a while, then says "..and you tell 'em Spencer told you...", and hangs up. He's always good for a few laughs.

[nosticks]

When I worked in a small market, we had an old woman, Pearl, who would call just about every day. She had a police scanner and would call us anytime she heard something and thought we should know. After years of calling, she suddenly stopped. We found out a couple weeks later she had passed away. It was a little sad, she was always nice and eager to pass on news tips.

[Minnesotan]

Watching the Baseball All-Star Game a few years ago...Tori Hunter robs Barry Bonds of a home run...Guy calls up, he calls a lot, and says something to the effect, "I'm glad Hunter took that homerun away from Bonds, that N*gger." I'm an intern, I have no idea who this guy is and he's dropping the N Bomb on me. Gotta love Fargo, North Dakota.......

[The Kid]

When I worked at an ABC station, some old lady called during an awards show and wanted us to tell Mrs. Osbourne (yes, ozzy's wife, who's name escapes me at the moment) to clean up her language and put on a different dress because she looked like a slut.

[ewink]

Sharon is her name...

But it reminds me of other calls we got during the Superbowl...

First - We are an NBC station.

Second - Our markets CBS station can only be seen on cable or satellite.

Third - The UPN station is owned by the CBS station and USED to be a satellite station of the CBS station, but it changed 3 or so years ago.

That being said, WE (WICS, and NBC affiliate) recieved no less than 50 phone calls asking us why the superbowl wasn't on Channel 49 (the UPN station).

I really hated making the generalization that television viewers are stupid, but I had to that day. I don't understand why people assume that just because it all comes out of the same box that it would all come from the same building.

Typical phone call:

ERIN: Newschannel 20.
VIEWER: Yeah, why ain't the Superbowl on 49?
ERIN: Probably because the Superbowl is on CBS?
VIEWER: They used to be CBS!
ERIN: That's something you would need to call 49 about.
VIEWER: What's the number?
ERIN: I don't know.
VIEWER: You don't have thier number?
ERIN: No sir. I don't normally call them.

Idiots!

[<foxwood>]

I used to work in a split market. We got calls from a woman who always complained about stories on our competitors air, a town 50 miles away.

When told that it was another channel and she would have to call them to complain, she always said, "That's long distance!"

[Land Rover]

We used to have a woman call everytime it rained and wanted to know if there was going to be any lightning at her house.

[news man]

So if you call the station do they let you talk to the reports or anchors themselves?

[Code-3]

At our station, the desk phones are forwarded to the overnite cell phone (just in case any juicy news tips come in).

I'm standing around waiting for a clip from our fire chief with the competition and a radio station - after a house was set on fire by a group of protesting punks. I'm sicker than a dog and ready to thrown myself onto the fire when I get a phone call.

It was a polite asian man with a thick accent and I had to ask him to repeat himself a dozen times. He asked me who I was, and if I had a scanner. I told him I was the overnite cam and yes I had a scanner. He then wanted to know if I could hear the Vancouver police on my scanner, I said no, because they digital radios, and we can't hear them because of that. He paused - then asked if I could give him the frequencies for the Vancouver police dept. Politely I tell him that I can't because they're digital. He then asks why. I lose my patients and hang up. :mad:

5 minutes later, my head still foggy and ready to pop under the pressure of cold - I get another call - same guy. :mad: :mad:

His first question... Do you hear the Vancouver police dept. on your scanner?? And if I could give him the frequency.... I flip - I tell him stop calling this number at nite because it's meant for news tips only. And that I don't appreciate him wasting my time. I then hang up.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

The competition asks who that was, and I replay the conversation to them when the reporter from radio exclaims that she knows him - they call him "Crazy Asian Question Man" and he calls their station almost every nite at the same time each nite - asking for, you guessed it - police frequencies.

[Filter_5]

My last shop was an NBC affiliate, it wasn't on a regular occasion, but on certain monday nites we would get a call from an agry old woman asking, no telling us to stop airing "that fear factor crap", it was always good for a laugh.

[photogguy]

We have a few, but my favorite calls himself "Elvis Presley, Jr". He's a guy with mental problems (duh) which he takes medication for.

Basically, he's a nice guy, and only spend about a minute on the phone, so he's not too hard to deal with.

The other is Bay City Bev. She's a scanner listener from a city far enough away from the station that we can't hear scanner traffic. She calls about anything and everything, including just to chat about the day's events.

The big reason we tolerate Bev is because out of 20 calls to the newsroom, one will be a good story, and occasionally she leads us to a great story that we wouldn't have gotten if she hadn't called.

Oh, and she always starts the phone call with "Hey, dear".

[Lenslinger]

Many moons ago, when I took over a news bureau from a departing one-man-band, I also inherited his scanner hounds. Most were old coots I was familiar with, having turned alot of cop-shop fodder for the competing station.

But there was one caller whom I came to think of as 'The Frog'. He'd call pretty often, never introducing himself, just issuing a declarative statement in his distinctive gravely voice.

"Log truck just t-boned a semi on Hiway 11." -CLICK-

"The old cotton plants goin' up in flames. -CLICK-

"Deputies got a busload of hippies pulled over by the college." -CLICK-

"Bigfoot just ran out of the woods and gave the Mayor the middle finger." -CLICK-

He'd never say more than a sentence or two at most before hanging up. And he never, EVER steered me wrong. (Minus the Bigfoot call, I made that up.)

To make it all even stranger, 'The Frog' used some kind of whacked-out speaker phone that made it sound like he was calling from the bottom of a deep, metallic hole. I got to where I could recognize the particular aural qualities of his set-up before he even croaked out another mysteriously accurate missive.

In the two years I pulled that bureau gig, I never never met 'The Frog', but I quickly learned to trust his disembodied directives. Though I had many other scanner-hound buddies, I never mentioned 'The Frog' to them - afraid I'd somehow scare off my spot-news Yoda.

Before selling my soul to the devil and entering the Evil World of Promotions, I almost figured out who 'The Frog' was. I'd see him on two out of four breaking news scenses: A leathery old African-American gentleman in a wrinkled ballcap and an oversized portable scanner in his hand. As far as I could tell, he wasn't part of any of the responding fire departments or emergency crews, just some old cat who added to the background of a thousand fires, head-on collisions and fender-benders.

Loking back I can't explain why I never approached the old fellow. I never even heard him speak. But his look fitted the voice on the phone, and I came to assume he was indeed 'The Frog'. A time or two, I locked eyes with the guy and he nodded in silent acknowledgement. Or maybe I was just hallucinating, a not-so-outlandish possibilty given my extracurricular activities back then.

Whatever the case, I got great love for the man. It was a spot news market and I was competing with a whole station of ambulance chasers just down the street. 'The Frog' saved my bacon a number of times. In fact, I have no doubt he's doing the same for whatever young news punk is making his bones back there today. At least, I hope he is.

[ November 10, 2004, 07:44 PM: Message edited by: Lenslinger ]

[thru-the-lens]

One summer a kid would call the news tip line several times a day to politely ask: "What is the temprature now?" We all would take the time to check and let him know.

One day I answered the phone and the kid again politely asked: "What is the temprature now?"
I turned glanced at the thermastat in the newsroom and replied: "72 degrees." The kid said "Thank you." and hung up.

Our main anchor looked at me saying "You did not just give that kid the temprature in the newsroom did you?" "Uh, yes." I replied with a knowing grin.

"He wants the outside temp! Which is 101 outhere" she says. Well, if he wanted the outside temp. he should learn to be more specific!

I usually am not a such a jerk to those who call. This was just having a little fun with the kid. Who continued to call several times a day and when he would politely ask I'd give him both the indoor temp of the newsroom and outside temp.

thru-the-lens.

[ewink]

Originally posted by news man:
So if you call the station do they let you talk to the reports or anchors themselves? No. Don't bother.

And they are reportERS.
:rolleyes:

[ November 10, 2004, 10:37 PM: Message edited by: ewink ]

[news man]

Originally posted by ewink:
quote: Originally posted by news man:
So if you call the station do they let you talk to the reports or anchors themselves? No. Don't bother.

And they are reportERS.
:rolleyes: Well I read on media line people do it all the time and let them talk to them. I mean I'd talk to one of the hotties and tell them they do a good job :)

[ewink]

&lt;crying&gt;
Oh the humanity....
&lt;/crying&gt;

[livedude]

There used to be a man who would call everynight asking bizzare questions. We kind of figured that he was doing somekind of crossword puzzle.

[Jaded]

Wasn't a "repeat caller" to the best of my knowledge, but my favorite call came one day from a guy who was incensed that our station was sending out an abnormal ammount of static with our picture that particular day. I promptly replied: "OH MY! Seems that someone left the static knob turned way up--Im sorry sir. I will turn that down right away." He happily stated that would be fine and hung up.

[Air_7]

To thru-the-lens

Great thinking !!! Now That WAs Funny !!!

[LGW]

have one her in the D...she calls and has been for about 5 years, 4 or 5 times a week to the evening desk. lotta spot news here, caller can tell by the AE's voice that he is stressing and asks right away for our "comment line"... nothing else said

if it's slow we'll option to chat with her...

i have been known to call the newsroom whilst off work, normally looking for the answer to some trivial question
e.g. " do you know the candlepower of a police helicopter night-sun"...he was cool..."50,000,000" came back the page.

now that service will keep 'em coming back for more.

maybe another thread.."have you called the newsroom drunk?"

[NewsMan]

Her name is Mary and you just reignited my bout of recurring nightmares. This woman would call and pitch stories about the president....

[ November 12, 2004, 09:07 PM: Message edited by: NewsMan ]