Monday, September 17, 2012

That Tony Call-In -- How Did They Know?


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Pretty cool of Tony Romo to spontaneously pick up the phone and dial The Hardline.  And The Line did a nice job with the on-the-fly interview.

Danny described the call-in on The Orphanage this morning.  I was wondering how, when they get an unsolicited celebrity call, they ensure that it's the real guy.  I guess it doesn't happen too often, but I do believe I heard Danny say that that is a concern when this they get an unexpected call from somebody claiming to be  .  .  .  somebody.

Tony Romo hoping to delay diaper-changing duties during a glittery
DFW function by dialing up his pals at The Hardline
I wonder how they handle it?  You don't want to offend a major catch for the showgram by showing too much skepticism, but neither do you want to be scammed.  So do you just chat for awhile and hope you can convince yourself that the voice is right?  (Actually -- I thought the voice did not sound a whole lot like the Tony we hear interviewed on the teevee -- although not doubt it was him.  Just saying the producer faces a difficult task.)  Do you ask some identifying question, and if so, how would you ask a question that any follower of the news wouldn't know the answer to?  Do these stations have secret lists of phone numbers of the Local Famous they can check against the incoming call?

Anyway, if any insiders can give us some anecdotes on schmoes trying to call in as notables, please let us hear from you.

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6 comments:

  1. Not an insider so this is just an educated guess. I'm thinking that the "hotline" number makes its way to the local sports celeb, and definately to the media relations guy with each particular team. So if Tony Romo, or some other local sports celeb gets the itch to get on the air for some reason, he has the hotline number, or can get it from his "people".
    At that point the odds are greater that the person calling is the person they claim to be, and then it just falls to the producer to confirm the voice and the vibe of the caller to "confirm" his identity.

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  2. They already explained on-air that he used the hotline number and that's how they knew it was legit.

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  3. That must have been a tough choice for Tony - change diapers or get whipped by Football Corby for 15 minutes.

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  4. From experience...you look up their wikipedia page and ask them personal questions, like birthplace, etc. Tony actually calls in more than most. He did with with Arnie one time and it was pretty great.

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  5. Oof! Yet another Neil Young segment. I'm more and more out on The Hardline. It's such a selfish show. It's all about them, the listener be damned. Yeah, it's worked out well for a long while now. But one day it won't, and who knows, it might come sooner rather than later. Also, what's the deal with Jake's voice? Isn't the dude from here and has lived here his whole life? What's with the sorta faux East Coast accent? All the a's pronounced as in "hat" and the endings of many words like Billy Joel asking for some "watah" to drink? What's up with that?

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  6. Has The Ticket also changed its online streaming software? It's not coming up for me for some reason and the URL in the little box is "widget.newsinc.com" and some spaghetti. Didn't ring a bell, but I may just be failing to remember what it's always been.

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