680News - Lisa Brandt

Our Mike Eppel brought you a story this morning about the generation gap at work. Experts are saying that the onus is on the younger workers to keep a cap on their hip catchphrases, not try to socialize with older coworkers and to treat them with respect.

With all due respect to the experts, my experience in the 680 newsroom would cause me to disagree!

Perhaps it’s because we’re in media, our atmosphere is more casual and collaborative than most office settings, but except for the respect part I’d say the advice is all backwards.

The younger employees in the 680 newsroom actually help to keep us all young. They bring information about their interests, share their catchphrases and socialize with those of us who have the time and inclination. The mix of ages and experiences brings textures to our workplace that we would not have otherwise.

The fact that the younger members of our teams feel comfortable enough to joke around with us and be themselves with us is a sign that a comfortable working environment has been created. As long as we all play fair and with integrity and respect there’s no reason why workers of different ages can’t work and play together well.

One of the questions we’re often asked on the 680News morning show is, how do you know when to talk?

Some people assume that we are handed full scripts before we go on the air and that we stick to them like glue. That would be an easy way to explain how we know when to speak and exactly what to say.

That’s definitely not how it works!

Regular listeners know that because we’re first to bring you breaking news, we cannot be sitting and waiting for perfect scripts to be delivered to us. New content is being put into the system all the time and - not to take anything away from our editor Elizabeth or writer Jennifer who are as important to the process as we are - Paul and I do a lot of writing. You can often hear the tap-tap-tap of keyboards in the background. That’s us!

So, how do we know when to speak, when we’re editing and reading on the fly and with new information popping in and out? We employ a variety of hand-signals that allow us to keep reading while letting the other know what’s expected of them and what’s coming up next. Some of the signals were devised by Paul and Marlane Oliver when Marlane co-anchored on mornings. (Marlane is, of course, now on afternoons.) Some I’m happy to say I helped develop. Others we make up as needed.

There isn’t always time to verbally tell each other what we plan to do so the silent signals work like magic. They’re our little secret for how we communicate when traditional communication isn’t possible.

Mondays.

Does anyone like them?

I don’t think it matters if you love your job or what you do, there’s something about having to face the end of a weekend and the start of the busy weekday routine that can wipe a smile off even the most optimistic face.

In the news business we recognize that people are in different mindsets depending on the day of the week. Mondays, you may be a bit glum about getting back on what I like to call the “hamster wheel” of work life.

On Fridays, you may have a little extra spring in your step, anticipating weekend fun and a chance to shake off the regular routine.

Does this affect the news? Absolutely! The news is still the news but it can also be presented in a way that’s more reflective of the way you, our audience, is feeling. Today, we hope we brightened up your Monday by reminding you that not every autumn is this warm and this sunny! We should enjoy it and be grateful. So…are you?

I tell a story in today’s Sun Media column (Turning Points in the Money Section) about an intern we once had who was very keen and had a terrific attitude about anything and everything we asked him to do.

You might never know it but we rely on a small army of interns for a variety of things, from gathering tape to helping monitor various news sources to, yes, going to buy a tray of coffee. They come from various colleges and universities in and around the city and we are getting pretty good at figuring out who’s going to make it in broadcasting and who won’t.

Those who stand beside our desks around 5 a.m. as we’re in the throes of preparing for our 5:30 a.m. start, rattling off the highlights of their resume after NOT being asked and suggesting they’d like to replace us one day, may be a little immature for the job. One well-meaning and ambitious intern took me aside conspiratorially one day to explain that I didn’t need to “work so hard” and that she was a “great writer” and would be happy to write my news for me so I could “take it easy.” I explained to her that not doing my own job isn’t “taking it easy” it’s “neglect of duty” and that I actually “LIKE” my job!

I’m quite sure she meant well. I know she was just trying to get ahead but she was going about it the wrong way.

We do love the opportunity to have a few extra pairs of hands around the newsroom and to help groom the next generation of broadcasters. But if there’s an intern-ready teen in your family, no matter the industry they’re targeting, I’d love it if you showed them my column today. It would save us all a few grey hairs and perhaps give them an edge on the job.

How safe do you feel in this city?

I’m finding it’s all relative.

Now that I have a teenager living with me (my Little Sister who’s attending college in the city) her safety is, of course, top of mind, and I suppose I’m thinking like a parent now. (I’m childless, otherwise.)

She knows that she can call me for a ride from anywhere, anytime, no matter the hour or that I get up at 3 a.m. and a midnight call might not be my favourite thing to receive! Still, I’d be up and on my way in a heartbeat. That’s what parents and pseudo-parents do.

But when it comes to my own safety, I ask you this: I’m moving in a week and my new route to the radio station will no longer take me past a coffee shop drive-thru. There is a walk-in only outlet on my way but, at 3:30 in the morning, should I stop and go in to buy a couple of cups of java or is it too risky, even in a so-called “good” neighbourhood?

I’m on the fence about it. I’m not a scaredy cat by any means but I also don’t like to take any unnecessary chances. Still, we’re talking about hot, delicious coffee that we cannot get within the station’s walls! And my beloved colleagues are counting on me. Your input is welcome.

It’s a rare feat to stay with the same company for 40 years anymore and even more so in an industry that relies on a combination of talent and weird working hours.

680’s Russ Holden has managed to weather all sorts of changes in the broadcasting industry and in the Rogers Radio family to mark 40 years on the air. He was congratulated and given gratitude by Ted Rogers himself and by our many colleagues. Everyone who works with Russ knows he’s an absolute treasure. He has a consistently great outlook and a warm and funny personality. We all love him!

Russ says he still gets a thrill out of climbing into Skymaster One to take to the air to report on traffic. And that, I think, is the key - after all of these years, Russ still really enjoys his work. He’s doing what he loves and it shows.

It’s not very often that a radio station can bring you someone with so much experience. That’s our Russ. Happy 40 years Russ and many more!

Some truths are universal in the Canadian experience.

We crab about the winter but we don’t move to a place where the snow never flies.

We unfailingly support our hockey teams even when they don’t win a cup for decades at a time.

And we love our Tim Hortons and get very upset when someone messes with it.

In Etobicoke, some Catholic high school students are upset about the policy at the Hortons across the road. Management has posted a sign telling students they are allowed “take out only.”

The teens say their money is as good as anyone else’s and they have a right to sit at a table and enjoy their goodies.

Some non-student patrons say the kids flood into the restaurant en masse and take it over, leaving no room for them to sit.

Plenty of stores limit the number of students who can enter at one time but actually banning them from staying? That’s new and some say, very unfair. As I write this it’s unclear if the coverage the policy has attracted from The Toronto Sun and 680News will prompt any changes but it’s doubtful the policy will spread chain-wide.

How do you define “obscene?”

You, your kids, or someone you know is on Facebook, guaranteed. It’s the massive social networking website where you can meet old friends, make new friends, play Scrabble, send silly notes and characters and simply keep up with the goings-on of people whom you choose to allow to become your “friends.”

Now, the powers that be at Facebook have decided some photos are violating its decency policy. Amid the sea of bare adult chests and cheesecake shots posted by members, are a few pictures of babies breastfeeding. It’s those shots of an infant having a feed that have been pulled off the site.

This has outraged Moms and so-called lactivists. As of this writing, more than 10,000 people have joined a group opposing the censorship.

I, personally, do not want to look at photos of babies eating lunch but are they obscene? I don’t think so. This is the problem with vague definitions that condemn one group while allowing another, similar one.

I’d wager a guess that more people are put off by the naked cheesecake than the wee babies, but on Facebook, for now, the cheese apparently cuts it.

Today, the October 10th Provincial Election becomes official. And you know what that means!

Everyone has a stake in politics whether they’re engaged by the process or not. If you pay taxes, buy goods, use services - essentially, if you are breathing, government affects you in some way.

But let’s face it, it can be boring and very frustrating to follow the day-to-day relentless announcements, especially if you’re a bit of a cynic. Or if you have lived on the planet for a few decades. We all do get a bit jaded by hearing about the promises and sometimes watching them not come to fruition. And that’s just the start of many peoples’ complaints about the political process.

Our role here at 680News is to bring you what the politicians are saying, cleanly and honestly, without throwing any of our own perspectives around it.

I will offer my own opinion on elections here, today, though. So many people say you have to do your duty to get out and vote but I disagree. I think you have to become informed first, and then get out and vote. As a voter, I don’t want someone using the eenie-meenie-miney-mo method to cancel out my well thought-out selection!

So, we hope you’ll stick with 680News as part of your duty to inform yourself about the issues and the personalities who are hoping to represent you at Queen’s Park.

When I’m out and about, just living my life, it’s very gratifying to talk to 680News listeners and find out why you listen to us and what you’d like more of, less of and none of. Responses and reactions vary widely.

Early this morning as I waited for my team coffee order at a Tim Hortons drive-through, the server at the window suddenly became chatty. She wanted to know why I was coming through every morning at such a ridiculous hour. I told her where I worked and her eyes lit up.

“Oh, I love Celine Dion, can you please play any one of her songs for me?”

“Sorry,” I replied. “We don’t play music. But our sister station CHFI does. I could mention it to them!”

“No,” she said, explaining that she listens to another music station.

“I can’t help then, sorry,” I said.

“You read the news?,” the coffee maven asked.

“Yes, that’s what I do,” I said, kind of hoping she’d hand me my coffee tray and change soon.

“OK, next week, I’ll give you a news story and you’ll read it, okay?”

I was stunned and amused! I’ve never had anyone try to get me to “play” their news story before. She had the tray of coffees in her hands, outstretched toward me and I knew it was the moment of truth - or untruth.

“OKAY!” I replied, with absolutely no intention of reading anything this very nice woman writes for me. I just hope this means I don’t have to look for another 24-hour drive through!