Editorial from radioinfo

It’s happened to all of us.
 
We’ve said something stupid we’ve regretted the moment the words left our mouths.
 
Once said, we can’t take them back.
 
Even at a private party, among friends, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time can tarnish your reputation for all time. People will form an opinion about you based on just a few words, uttered in jest, that are often completely out of character. Yet, those few stray words have the potential to define you in others’ minds for years to come.
 
Say something stupid on the radio and you’ll amplify the damage by an Einstein factor of E = mc2.
 
In the radioinfo editorial team’s combined 120+ years’ experience, of all the on air gaffes we’ve heard, none have been worse than the one issued from the mouth of Anna Dare on Hobart’s 7HO FM last Thursday.
 
While soliciting listeners to guess their Secret Sound, Anna, one-half of the breakfast duo alongside Mick Newell, commented on the sound saying “…is it someone stuck in a conveyor belt at a theme park”. She then added, “Too soon?”
 
About a century too soon, Anna, if ever.
 
We cannot imagine a more tasteless, more tactless thing to say about anything. What was she thinking?
 
It’s probably a question Anna has been constantly asking herself since the moment after she said it and was swiftly taken off air by Grant Broadcasters management. She will probably be asking herself that question for the rest of her life.
 
All attempts to reach Anna have failed. Word is, she’s returned to her home state, Queensland. A close friend tells us that she’s “doing as well as can be expected,” but is reluctant to provide details beyond that.
 
While Anna’s mistake was appalling, mainstream media and the trolls of social media have gone out of their way to ensure that the outrage is not confined to Hobart’s 7HO FM listeners. Within hours the gaffe was on national tv news and went viral on social media, so that everyone in Australia had an opportunity to share the outrage. 
 
For all of that, for all the reasons people want to see Anna Dare pilloried, for those of us in radio, it’s a case of ‘let he or she who is without sin, cast the first stone.’
 
The first stone certainly won’t be radioinfo’s Kim Napier who recalls when she was a rookie announcer almost 30 years ago, “I said someone looked like they ‘just got off the special bus.’
 
“I knew straight away it was wrong and given I have a special needs friend, I couldn’t believe it came out of my mouth.
 
“But stuff does. Fortunately for me, that was before Facebook, so all I endured along with a giant knot in my guts from feeling so bad was a spray from the GM, a few phone calls and a couple of hand written letters,” says Kim.
 
Anna Dare has not been so fortunate.
 
A single Mum who says on her LinkedIn profile, “I enjoy attending my son’s soccer games, trying out new cafes & restaurants, reading, writing, talking for hours about film and television,” moved to Hobart from SCA on the Gold Coast in January.
 
If, like most announcers working in provincial markets, she dreamt of landing a job in a cap city then last week’s sudden claim to fame has left those dreams in tatters.
 
That, plus a suspension from duties should be punishment enough. But then the trolls come out to play…
 

“Play it again and again Anna… as hopefully it’s the last time you will ever sit behind a radio station microphone… disrespectful and a disgrace….”
 
“So wrong . Get her off the airways . Let’s hope her kids never ride in a theme park”
 
“Disgusting bitch.”
 
“what an inhumane piece of garbage”

 
And these are just the ones that are polite enough to print.
 
These gutless, faceless losers who hide behind the anonymity of a computer screen have no real interest in avenging the families of the deceased.  Like parasitic barnacles on a boat’s stern, they lay in wait to belittle those who actually try to contribute to society but stumble in their attempt.
 
Unlike Anna who is working in a live studio environment without a script, these trolling twits can take their time to carefully craft their venomous attacks in the hope they’ll score some kind of ‘victory’ in their otherwise worthless lives.
 
One last thing: Working on live radio without a delay mechanism is akin to performing on the flying trapeze without a net.
 
Perhaps if a dump button had been deployed last Thursday in the 7HO FM studio both Anna and the the station might have saved themselves a heap of embarrassment – as if none of this had ever happened.