Quote:
Originally Posted by OldDave
OK, so if the old radio guy can chip in. Radio has a history of being one of the most important inventions in the world. It brought national instant information to us for the first time. I'm not quite old enough to remember all the war correspondents in London, but I know many of you are and I've heard the reports. I was always very proud of my industry.
Now keep in mind I worked most of my career in public radio with the typical classical music, news, etc. format. It was many, many years ago I was a disc jockey on a commercial station. Nonetheless, I have been truly saddened by where much of commercial radio has gone in the past 20 years. Shock jocks who exist simply for that purpose; to do things so outrageous to shock you, and of course to get you to tune in.
Naturally I know nothing about this Aussie station, but it sounds like the normal morning zoo show doing stupid things to be funny. I guess the call to the Princess is less funny to me since we've gone through 5 miscarriages. Those tend to happen right at the 3 month mark, where she was. I know they said it was extreme morning sickness, and perhaps it was, but I think of more serious issues. It is bad enough to have your new marriage and first pregnancy watched by the world under a microscope, but to have these idiots make that kind of call is truly sad.
I am surprised they were able to get through. Surely the hospital is used to stepped up security when a royal or other VIP in in the house. But regardless this poor, well meaning lady let them through. It is hard to image she would have taken her own life just over this; she must have had some other issues bothering her. But anyway you look at it, this pulled the trigger. I'm guessing she was getting a lot of pressure and feeling very guilty.
I agree with you all, it is a terrible tragedy and just horribly sad.
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Yet let another old radio guy step in. Unlike Old Dave I spent all my years in commercial radio. However the FCC rules for behavior are the same whether you are in commercial or public radio.
First off we are not comparing apples to apples here. FCC rules in America do not allow on-air broadcasts to just "pop" somebody on the air without their actual permission FIRST. I do not know which group governs the Australian radio service, so I can't speak for what their rules are. But here in the US, people have to be let in on the gag BEFORE it hits the airwaves. Technically you cannot even record their voices without their OK, but that step is often by-passed and then permission is asked for after the prank is pulled but BEFORE going on-air.
As a station manager I would never let any of my people use what we called an "ambush" where you do something like this. (Even if they got the required permission) There are way too many things that can go sideways..and badly..when you run an ambush. It's not worth your license to run a prank like that.
I doubt that any court would hold the two air-people responsible for the nurse's death. Not to say it didn't push it along, but it is very unlikely that they would be held liable.
I also think that given how England sees it's royal family, the woman would have felt terrible afterward, and despite what press releases are saying that the hospital was "standing up" for the nurse, I can all but guarantee that is one big whopper. Since my wife is an NP she knows exactly how hospital administrations would have treated that poor woman. Figuratively they would have jumped on her with both feet repeatedly over granting those two radio twits access. So the poor woman was probably miserable.
Again, it's hard to know what Austrailian broadcast rules cover the sort of ambush broadcasts that this was. I am guessing that Old Dave came from the same radio tradition that I did, where radio was looked at as a "guest in the home" and if you're a guest in somebody's home, then you don't commit a disgrace on their living room rug.
BUT....A great many of those niceties went right out the window when the Congress wrote and Bill Clinton signed the Telecom Act of 1996 that allowed the creation of the huge broadcast corporations, and many of the old and "quaint" rules were tossed to the curb as being unneeded.
If the Austrailian broadcast rules are anything like the those in the US, this was nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.