How a stranger’s quest for change for the parking meter led to an unexpected radio interview
News consumers rightly are critical of journalists who provide news that is fluff, repetitive, partisan, or peppered with errors and omissions.
But what about the newsmakers – the guests – are they off the hook?
Local public radio in Toronto once emerged from an old theatre at 509 Parliament Street. This was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s version of information radio. Hosts, guests, and newsreaders would come in the main double doors, walk down an aisle between hundreds of movie theatre seats, mount a stage and broadcast.
I sometimes did Metro Morning, Radio Noon, and the four to six show from that stage. Working in a historic movie theatre was classy. Every now and then, someone walked in off the street to see the faces connected to the familiar voices they heard daily.
Odd and not classy was the desk around which the host, sports guy, news reader, traffic reporter, and guests would sit. It was a gigantic spool made of wood, which likely held the cable that was strung across the Atlantic. It was so big it could seat four to five easily.
 Image by Andrej Lišakov |
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As host and commentator, on many occasions, I’d get my cues in my earphones from the producer behind the glass or get a visual cue that the traffic guy had something new or a guest had arrived.
One morning, not on my watch, the host was alone at the oversized desk with no guest in sight and no visual signals from behind the glass or auditory ones in his ear. But he noticed a man who looked lost, standing far up the aisle among the hundreds of theatre seats. The host frantically waved at the man, making a windmill motion with his arms to urgently signal him to “get on down here.”
Down the man came, took another gesture from the host, and sat at the big round spool.
As the host was calming down from the panic of having nothing to do or say, the guest was obviously nervous, as some are. Questions ensued in the journalistic fashion of “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.”
After five minutes, the audience had vague ideas about the man’s group, the group’s goals, when action was required, and where. The host pulled some teeth to determine what action had to be taken to improve our community. It was probably not the best interview that morning, but it did fill about five minutes.
At the end of the interview, the host had a moment off-air to thank the guest. The guest responded with the news that he had nothing to do with the interview’s subject matter or the group’s lobbying efforts and was not involved in civic matters or public policy.
Shocked, the host demanded, “Why did you pretend to be someone you aren’t and go on for five minutes about a topic you know nothing about?”
“Well, you seemed agitated and really wanted me to come down and sit with you. When I did, you asked questions and you seemed to want me to answer. So I did.” (or words to that effect.)
“But why did you come in here to begin with?” the host asked.
The unwitting guest confessed he was just trying to get change for the parking meter when he was drafted into service.
Another unremarkable five minutes in the history of journalism.
Allan Bonner was the first North American to be awarded an MSc in Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management. He trained in England and has worked in the field on five continents for 35 years. His latest book is Emergency! – a monograph with 13 other authors on the many crises that occurred during the pandemic.
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