by Mike Cleaver » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:49 am
Top Dog: Don't you know Vancouver shuts down at noon on Thursdays before a holiday weekend?
It's noon Fridays on a regular weekend.
Just try getting someone on the phone or to do an on-air or on-camera interview on the weekend, including police or fire people.
I remeber being astonished when I started working in this city that when you called the cop shop, you heard a recording!
"Thank you for calling the Vancouver Police Department. If your call is urgent....." etc.
I was waiting to hear "Press one if you've been shot. Press two if you've been stabbed.
And now, almost any information must come through a "media spokesperson."
I think Howard Chow gets more face time on tv than most of the anchors.
But they don't work weekends and after 5pm.
You have to page someone who is on call and hope they'll respond.
On the weekend, everything is voicemail or a recorded message that their office hours are 9 -5 Monday through Friday, not including holidays.
I've actually been scolded by some "media spokespeople" for disturbing their weekend or evening.
Manning the weekend desk at my current position, monitoring police, fire, ambulance and a host of other frequencies, there's not a lot of real news going on.
Last night, for example, between 6:30 and 11pm, a call about smoke in the cockpit of a commercial airliner landing at YVR, which scrambled everyone but turned out to be nothing more than the smell of smoke.
Then there was a single vehicle roll-over in Richmond.
Don't forget, media outlets too get holidays and staffing levels are not those of weekdays.
At least the death of the "Crocodile Hunter" was something new.
Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
Engineering, News, Voice work and Consulting
Vancouver, BC, Canada
54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations