You Are Too Friendly!

Have you ever been accused of being "too friendly"? I never knew there was such a thing, but apparently for some, its a real turn off.

We received a complaint from a viewer regarding our 4pm-5pm newscast on WLBT. Here is the complaint:

“I think it is so unprofessional for your people to be so chatty with each other while broadcasting. Rob Jay and Maggie Wade tease each other; Barbie Bassett, Maggie and Stephanie Bell-Flynt talk about their families on TV, what they think about a subject, etc. I just get so tired of it. I turned to Channel 12 yesterday because they are VERY serious, as they should be. I learned in my mass communications education that one does not talk about oneself to the public: no one wants to hear it.” ---a viewer from Hazlehurst

Maggie, Steph and I spoke about this on yesterday's show. We really are good friends; what you are seeing isn't a result of any acting class. When Rob Jay and Maggie poke fun at each other, its genuine (you should see and hear what they do during the commercial breaks!). With the personalities at WLBT, what you see is what you get. Granted, the 4pm-5pm show lends itself to a more relaxed atmosphere, and any subject goes, especially when the medical professionals show up. When its time to be serious, we are; when its time to have fun, we do it in a big way!

So we asked yesterday's viewers what they thought: should we be "VERY serious" like the other channels or should we continue to do what we're doing and be ourselves? We asked our viewers to send emails to the show and vote. As of last night, the vote was overwhelming---2 for the "VERY serious" approach and 77 for the "be yourselves" approach. We'll be sharing these results with our viewers today on the show. Here is what the viewers who wanted us to stop being ourselves wrote:

"I agree with the emailer about the professional conduct of the three noisy, cackling, news women you have!" Signed, Anonymous

"Please, Please loose this entire format! I don't understand what WLBT was thinking anyway. There is nothing in this time slot that won't be repeated at 5, 6,and 10. Nobody wants to hear the weather repeated for the 99th time. You must be going for the ad revenue. There is already a doctors program on the air at 3:30. This program takes me back to my youth when my grandmother had chickens, about the same time of day they would all cackle while laying eggs. Boy, you really laid an egg with this one!" Signed, Anonymous

Isn't that the wonderful thing about remotes? You can press a button and it changes the channel instantaneously! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go sit on my nest.....(I'm smiling)....