Unprofessional behavior...

...from CKOM News Talk 650 Radio in Saskatoon.

Two days ago a producer there called to ask me (Ed) to do a short telephone interview Thursday morning at 6:10 a.m. (!) about wine drinking in Saskatchewan. He agreed. The producer did mention there was a possibility that the segment would be bumped because of the then-breaking news of the shooting in Montreal, but that the call would happen in any event.

I got up at 6 a.m. (about 40 minutes earlier than usual) to be ready for the call, which came. As half-expected, I was bumped, but the call was rescheduled for this morning, same time.

Again I got up at 6 a.m. Came 6:10--no call. No call at 6:15. Or 6:20. Or...well, you get the idea.

At just after 6:30, I finally called the producer, who said the segment had been bumped again for the same reason and she hadn't called because she didn't want to bother me.

As if sitting around for half an hour when you'd much rather be sleeping is better than getting a call saying, "I'm sorry, you've been bumped again"--or as if I'd prepare for a morning radio interview by waiting for the phone to wake me.

"I would have preferred to get a call," I said.

"I've obviously wasted your time," said the producer, in tones far frostier than the oh-so-warm-and-won't-this-be-wonderful tones she used when originally booking the segment. "So let's just pretend this never happened."

The conversation ended with reasonably polite goodbyes, but I was, and continue to be, steamed that this flighty radio-type a) thought it was better to leave someone booked for an interview sitting by a telephone waiting without calling him to tell him his interview had been cancelled rather than "bother" him with that little detail and b) far from being apologetic, became downright huffy when questioned about it and suggested we just "pretend this never happened."

A simple, "I'm terribly sorry, of course I should have called" or "I don't think we'll be able to reschedule and we're terribly sorry for all the inconvenience we've caused" would have been nice--and would have prevented this blog post.

Which is also going up at Hassenpfeffer.

A big thing? No, not really. But an annoyance--and absolutely unprofessional and unacceptable behavior.

And should CKOM wish to interview me about anything again, I will make a point of telling them so before the interview goes ahead.