Cry for help gets wrong number

By: RANDY DOTINGA - For the North County Times | Wednesday, September 15, 2004 11:14 AM PDT ∞

It's pop quiz time. Question: You're a radio morning host, and a guy calls the studio and says he's thinking about killing himself. Do you (a) Call the suicide prevention hotline; (b) Call the police; or (c) Talk to the man on the air.

If you answered (a) or (b), well, you sure don't belong in broadcasting.

Consider what happened Monday morning when a man named "Greg" called A.J. Machado, host of "A.J.'s Playhouse" on Channel 933, and said he wanted to kill himself by jumping off a bridge. Machado brought in Dave Rickards, co-host of KGB's "Dave, Shelly & Chainsaw," to help, and after about 30-45 minutes, Greg found himself live on the air, talking about his emotional breakdown after a run-in with an armed car burglar nearly cost him his life.

"I've got that feeling again, Dave," the man said ominously at one point, admitting that he was driving around town after going for days without sleep. Finally, after about a half-hour of conversation, a voice of reason entered the situation. KGB co-host Shelly Dunn contacted a psychologist who asked the caller a series of questions and offered to talk to him privately on the phone. (What a concept!)

Meanwhile, the station called a friend of Greg's, and his mom, alerted by a friend who was listening, rang in to offer help.

"Tell us where you are and we'll come and be with you," she pleaded. But the mother's call flustered Greg, who reluctantly agreed to speak with the counselor off the air and soon hung up. Shortly afterward, Rickards interrogated the distraught mother about what she knew of her son's troubles.

Suicidal gestures have a way of concentrating the mind, and there's little doubt that Greg's dramatic call made many listeners late for work. There hasn't been this much tension on the local airwaves since a battered woman called Star 100.7's "Jeff & Jer" for help several years ago.

(Radio stations often make up phone calls, and it's possible that "Greg" and his story were fake. But his rambling, confusing call sounded real, and the fact that he was willing to talk with the ever-cranky Rickards suggests he truly wasn't in his right mind.)

The good news: Greg calmed down and eventually visited the Clear Channel studios of KGB and Channel 933, where he got promises of a free hotel room and free counseling. The bad news: The radio stations let a desperate man expose his personal demons ---- including fears that the men who burglarized his car would come after him ---- to tens of thousands of listeners. How could this kind of public exposure help anyone? Not to mention that it wasn't too smart to let Greg, who was apparently using his real name, tell the world about his fears of retribution from criminals.

Airing the call would be more forgivable if Rickards & Co. immediately brought in a trained professional to help Greg. But they didn't, choosing instead to try their own amateur brand of therapy for way too long.

Later, Rickards joked that he was able to immediately diagnose Greg with sleep deprivation. "Dr. Quinn!" laughed one of his co-hosts. Moments later, he admitted, "I'm worried about him," and added a bit of wisdom: "When you go without sleep, things get twisted."

The same thing happens when you call a radio station looking for help.

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The sad thing about the whole Greg incident is that the "Dave, Shelly & Chainsaw" show, the highest-rated in town, usually does such great job of handling mental health issues. Indeed, Rickards managed to redeem himself Monday, just moments after finishing his ill-advised chat with Greg, by speaking openly about the stress and physical symptoms he felt after the sudden death of his wife in 2002.

"I'm telling you, talk therapy is good," he said.

Co-host Dunn chimed in to talk about her therapy sessions, and sidekick Ruth 66 mentioned her own depression, which she has discussed at length on the air in the past.

The intimate discussion turned into an example of radio at its best: on-air personalities letting their guards down and discussing the challenges of their lives. Whenever people in the public eye discuss therapy, they strike a blow at the stigma surrounding depression, anxiety and mental illness.

If only DS&C could always set such a good example.

Quickies

Look to this column later for the second part of the report about the nation's emergency alert system. ... Kenny Weissberg, the off-kilter host of KPRI's eclectic "Music Without Boundaries," on Sunday dedicated the Beatles song "We Can Work It Out" to maddog Georgia Sen. Zell Miller and his nemesis, MSNBC host Chris Matthews. What's next? "Margaritaville" for the Bush twins? "Fortunate Son" for President Bush? Or perhaps "The End" by the Doors for John Kerry?. ... Speaking of presidential offspring, KGB's hormone-addled Web site has a poll asking visitors who's a "better pair" ---- the Bush twins or the Kerry daughters. At last check, "Jenna & Tonic" were winning by a landslide. As if they need another excuse to celebrate.

Randy Dotinga won't dare say which candidate deserves a rendition of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine." E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.