blogcutter

From time to time, I get a phone call asking if I'd be willing to participate in a survey. My answer depends on a number of things - my knowledge of the company doing the survey, my overall interest in the topic they want to survey me about, and my mood and overall level of busy-ness at the time they call.

Yesterday I took a call from Numeris (formerly the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement). They explained that they were a ratings company and were surveying people's radio listening habits. Since I do listen to and enjoy a number of shows on CBC Radio, I said I'd be interested. The surveyor explained that they would be sending me, via snail-mail, a unique user name and password to sign in and complete their online survey, which should take 10 to 15 minutes. So far, so good.

But first I had to answer some questions over the phone. There were the usual questions to ascertain that no one in the family worked for a media outlet such as a radio or TV station or newspaper or magazine, nor for an advertising agency. Fair enough. Then I was asked my name, age, gender and the number of people in the household. Then I was to answer the same questions about the second person in the household. At which point I said: HOLD IT right there. I don't know yet if the other member of my household wants to participate!

The caller still wanted all the details of the second person in the household in order to set up a second unique user name and password and said that if they decided not to do the survey, that would be OK. So I asked, couldn't he just create some sort of unique signon & password for "second person at same address"? After all, he had promised that all the data would be confidential and anonymized and all that good stuff. Nope, no can do.

At that point, I decided that this whole thing was way more trouble than it was worth. I told him that given those restrictions, I was no longer interested in participating. Goodbye.

Apparently Numeris is NOT accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Their BBB rating is 1.32 stars out of a possible 5. I looked at the complaints about them, resolved and otherwise, but they weren't particularly illuminating. Mostly people were complaining just about actually GETTING calls from Numeris at all (or too frequently), and indicating that they would be putting themselves on the Do Not Call list. But I didn't find anything about the specific method or tactics they use in conducting their surveys. Still, for a company that's been in business since 1944, I find that to be a rather startling indictment.

I'm still a bit bummed out that I didn't get a chance to put in a good word for Vinyl Tap (which will broadcast its final episode this summer), Quirks & Quarks, The Next Chapter, Tempo, or any of the other shows I enjoy.

One of the things I'm really looking forward to today is a full hour of local news at 6PM on CBC.

Back in March, quite early in the lockdown, it was decided to scrap the local newscast altogether, and instead broadcast CBC Newsnet at 6PM on our local channel. So I started watching CTV instead, ut turned back to CBC at 7PM to watch Coronation Street.

Then a few weeks later, they wised up a bit and offered a half-hour newscast at 6, re-run at 6:30. Usually that consisted of Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld huddled alone on Sparks or Queen Street outside CBC's downtown studio, where she anchored the show, switching over to the various regular reporters broadcasting from their makeshift home offices. I tried to read the titles on the spines of their bookshelves behind them and I must say was interesting to see what looked like real home libraries, not just shelf after shelf of homogeneous Encyclopaediae Britannica, Hansard or Law Reports! And occasionally you could actually see an interesting picture or two on a wall or a desk. Adrian Harewood's office, for example, has a framed $10 bill - the one with a picture of Viola Desmond on it. A few weeks after that, Lucy actually got to go inside the studio to do her newscast, as did a few of the other regulars on the show, all of them observing appropriate physical distancing standards. Luckily they weren't required to speak from behind masks, though I think they probably had to invest in a few extra-long microphone booms to ensure appropriate distance from anyone they were interviewing.

Today, the day after Labour Day, has meant back to school and back to routine for as long I can remember. Back to school is happening this year too, though routines and procedures look very different from in previous years.

We may have missed out on a lot of great summer festivals, but some of the old routines are back. Including the one-hour CBC suppertime newscast.