4-10-2012
On any other day, Cumulus' Senior VP of Programming Mike McVay is very accesible and great at returning phone calls and e-mails. Yesterday, not so much. Thanks to Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator, everyone learned that McVay was caller #1 to the Mike Huckabee show when Cumulus launched Huckabee into syndication on nearly 200 radio stations.
McVay's voice was easily recognizeable to anyone who's been in radio for more than four days and the snafu resulted in a short statement (see below) from Cumulus co-COO John Dickey. The call probably wouldn't have been that big a deal, Huckabee was admittedly nervous on his first day, however, McVay took a swipe at Rush Limbaugh which undoubtedly prompted the Rush people to get the word out to the press that McVay was caller #1.
Here's what McVay said when he called in to Huckabee on Monday:
"Well Governor, let me start by saying it's great to have a different opinion and a different person on the radio and I'm very, very happy that you're doing this radio show. One of the reasons why I want to listen to your program every day is because you ran for office and you've been a politician, you have a different perspective I think."
Here's the statement John Dickey released:
"A colleague in the company was excited about the new show and arranged to call in with the first question without Governor Huckabee's knowledge. When I learned of this I began the process of reminding my colleagues in the company that we should reserve air-time for our listeners and refrain from calling in to our own shows."
Here's the lesson from the story:
If you are going to stage a call, you may want to give the script to the receptionist, an actor or someone who's voice isn't easily recognized by 99% of the radio industry.
Read Lord's entire American Spectator story HERE
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