Today's post might seem more like a rant – and that's because it happened to me last week…and you NEVER want this to happen to you or you will get blacklisted for sure!!!
Last week I had a publicist book a guest to be on my radio show at 8:10am Wednesday.
All morning long I talked about this guest coming on the radio to discuss his topic. I thought it would be a fun interview and my listeners would get a real kick out of it.
So I called him at 8:08 am. No answer.
So I call back at 8:09 am. Again no answer.
The song I am playing on the air is coming to an end.
So I open the microphone and promo that the guest isn't there yet but we would have him on immediately following the commercials.
4 minutes later and the guest is a no show.
So I say the guest was a no show. I mean what do you do? It's LIVE radio.
At 8:19 I get a text saying, "sorry man, I have 2 sick kids but I can talk now."
What do you think I did?
I said no thanks because I already have things I need to talk about at 8:20 and 8:40.
The guest has lost their spot.
Needless to say, the publicist, who worked hard to make this happen, was listening in his car and screaming at his radio – shocked the guest just wouldn't show up on time.
HERE'S THE MORAL OF THE STORY ABOUT TIME AND MEDIA
8:10 is 8:10. It's not 8:11 or 8:12 or 8:15.
You should always be standing by to do your interview at least 10 minutes early.
If I say the interview is at 8:10, that means I will call you at 8:07.
IF something does happen and you can't make the interview…you MUST call the second you know you can't do the interview. Us media types understand things happen, so we will be more than happy to move the time or even the day if we have to accommodate you.
This works both ways by the way – when I have celebrity guests calling the show, I am ready and waiting at least 5 or 10 minutes early – just in case they call.
Thanks for reading my rant, now I have to run – so I'm not late for any meetings!
Wayne
