I am not happy to be woke up to be asked for money by your radio station. So what if the law says you can. You lost a loyal listener.
Jun 9th, 3:38pm
We apologize for any inconvenience you experienced recently regarding our radio station. We do our best to be mindful of time zones and times of day that is acceptable for phone calls. We won't always be perfect with the call times so we are very sorry that you were awoken by our call, we wouldn't have liked it nor appreciated it either. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. Sincerely, Radio Station
Jun 9th, 3:41pm
No worries. Sad that you have to make phone calls for money.
Jun 9th, 4:18pm
In part asking for money is part of our station mission because we desire listener support and to have flexibility that being owned by a corporation wouldn't allow. The cost of running a radio station in any one area, not to mention in several areas as this radio station is, requires that we invite people (and businesses) to invest in the station itself. If we were a corporation run radio station and owned by a conglomerate then we would have a lot more funds available to us to air the station but we wouldn't have the freedoms we have with content, etc. We made the decision years ago, by being a listener supported station, that the pros outweighed the cons for our particular goals and mission. This means that we do pledge drives and we make follow up phone calls to previous and current listeners asking if they would like to be an impact partner to keep this radio station in their local communities. It is our hope that you will understand the position we are in as we try to reach people with God in this particular format. Sincerely, Radio Station
Jun 9th, 5:02pm
Budget better and don't call people. Extend your pledge drive.
Jun 10th, 6:08am
Thank you for your suggestions.
Yep. That's an actual conversation I had with someone not too long ago. I didn't make a word of it up, it's all verbatim. I was fine until the highlighted response. Really? I mean, gee we hadn't thought about a budget. Huh, we'll have to give that a go. *scratches head*
Unbelievable. We all can be unbelievably ridiculous when we presume to be an expert on something we know nothing about or when we think the answer is so black and white. Unbelievable.
The conversation I had with the listener above reminded me to quit being unbelievably ridiculous. Don't speak into something that isn't black and white, that I don't know anything about, that I haven't taken the time to look into and get the facts. When I open my mouth and speak about things that I actually know nothing about all I end up doing is alienating people and looking like a fool.
There are proverbs that speak about fools and their speech. I wince when I read a proverb about how a fool talks and realize I have been a fool from time to time. Proverbs 18:2 says, "Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions." OUCH. I don't know about *you* but that stings a bit. In my conversation the disgruntled listener I gave some fairly clear understanding in my explanation of why we choose to ask for money. Their response proved that they didn't care about understanding, just in doling out their version of advice. That listener, in that conversation, was the fool.
Customer Service always provides a lot of great examples for foolish people and interactions. A few months ago I was engaged in another conversation with a disgruntled listener and this proverb came to life, "Don’t answer fools when they speak foolishly, or you will be just like them. Answer fools when they speak foolishly, or they will think they are really wise." (Proverbs 26:4-5) Wait. What? It says don't answer them or you look like a fool but then it says if you don't answer them they think they have won the "argument." Well, which is it? It turns out it is both! Some situations we should apply the first idea and in other situations we should apply the second. The offended listener that helped me navigate this particular proverb took us through both scenarios. The complaint came in so I, in the spirit of the second way to answer a fool, sent a reply back. The person was very unhappy with my crafted response so they responded back (see Proverbs 18:2 above for an idea of their response) and I was then compelled to respond according to scenario number 1 which is to not respond at all. This made them extra mad because by this point it was clear I was supposed to take their side and change our entire programming just to please them and their opinions of which they didn't want to take a deeper look at to examine for change. So I answered for understanding and then I didn't answer because there didn't need to be two fools attempting to converse.
I realize both of these examples don't seem to put me in the fool category but believe me, I've been the fool plenty of times in my 41 years of life. We all have had moments of playing the fool and being the wise. The key to being mature about it is when we can recognize our foolishness and 'fess up to it before too many other people notice it, are alienated by it, or have to deal with us because of it. Confucius said, "To know that one knows what one knows, and to know that one doesn't know what one doesn't know, there lies true wisdom." The older I get the more aware of what it is I don't know, so shouldn't speak about, and what I do know, and should only speak about when invited or strongly compelled by the Holy Spirit.
I'm grateful for these recent interactions that have caused me to examine myself to make sure I'm not behaving and speaking like a fool. It doesn't mean I don't ever play the fool but I'm becoming more and more aware of when I'm headed in that direction. And I'd rather keep that information to myself than let it be known to others. *grin*
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." (This wise quote is attributed to many people. Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain being two of them.)
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