Samuel on the John Laws Morning Show
November 21st, 2005 at 12:05pm
This morning I had the great pleasure of talking with the king of Radio, Mr. John Laws, the conversation was to do with Nguyen Tuong Van who is due to be hanged in Singapore in a couple weeks.
I must say I was very impressed with the short amount of time it took to get through to Lawsie. When I started ringing at about 10:50 the open line number, 13 13 32, was engaged, so I kept trying. It was about 10:55 when I did get through, and I ended up speaking with Lawsie at about 11:07 after the news and Lawsie reading some emails.
I had the radio setup to record the event, but in my haste (and I can’t really check these things when I’m on hold) the volume of the radio was a bit too loud, resulting in some clipping of the digital recording. It is still perfectly legible, just not perfect.
Anyway, you can hear my conversation with John Laws by clicking here, it goes for about a minute and a half.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Samuel News,TV/Radio/Media
9 Comments
1. John B1_B5 | November 21st, 2005 at 1:07 pm
You certainly got through quickly ! I heard you live on air.
As for the fellow marked for hanging in Singapore …. I suppose we can say he ‘deserves it’ ….. but despite what he did , I don’t support the death penalty ……even though that’s the penalty in that country ……and then there’s the element of “compassion” … but that’s a separate topic .
2. Samuel | November 21st, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Well I also have issues with the death penalty, I don’t think I would support it here, but I just don’t believe we should interfere with the justice system elsewhere unless we are willing to have have other nations tell us what to do.
I don’t mind the government asking Singapore for clemency, but they’ve done that, trying to take Singapore to an international court that can’t really force them to do anything, threatening them with trade boycots etc are all a waste of resources and can only serve to damage international relations. What a lot of people don’t seem to understand is that Singapore believe in the death penalty and they are a sovereign nation with a right to have their own justice system.
I probably wouldn’t support the death penalty here, but I would certainly support mandatory toughening of sentences…some judges seem to be insane.
Anyway, that’s my opinion, and your opinion is just as valid and welcome.
3. Samuel | November 21st, 2005 at 2:13 pm
As an aside, I was very surprised by the short time I had to wait, especially seeing as I’ve been on hold for over half an hour to talk to John Kerr after 2am on previous occasions.
I suspect it may have something to do with preventing people from waiting for too long. In the middle of the day, people are busy and most won’t be able to stay on hold for hours, and if you were to just let calls flood in that is exactly what would happen, and you would end up with a lot of Lawsie saying “they didn’t wait on the line”.
What I suspect that they do is block the lines during some lengthy interviews (although they do unblock them during contentious interviews) and only let through the calls they will have time for. Most daytime talkback calls don’t last more than 2:30 minutes, so a producer can estimate how many calls they can take. I think I managed to call just as they were unblocking some lines.
In essence, what this does in enable more people to have their say as lines aren’t taken up by people who have already hung up, and show time isn’t wasted on the host informing us that nobody is on that line. It sounds odd, but it makes perfect sense, and makes a show flow much more smoothly.
4. cunninglinguist | November 21st, 2005 at 2:28 pm
The thing I don’t like about Laws: he craps on like he is your average “Aussie” bloke, but he’s a filthy rich smug nob whose wife “The Princess” *vomits* has had more plastic surgery than I’ve had dinners. He laughs at his faithful followers behind their backs. I’ve worked with people who cannot express their opinion on anything until they’ve heard what damn Laws has got to say.
5. Samuel | November 21st, 2005 at 2:53 pm
I’m going to take some of that with a grain of salt, after all, you hear these sorts of stories about anybody and everybody in the public eye and it is good to take those things with grains of salt.
I’m not disputing what you have said, as I have no proof one way or the other, but I think he is a pretty decent bloke. He certainly holds a lot of influence, and that can be dangerous at times for anybody to have a lot of influence, but I have a great amount respect for him. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I still respect him and enjoy his show.
6. cunninglinguist | November 21st, 2005 at 3:57 pm
You are absolutely entitled to think he is a pretty decent bloke but I have had dealings with him – believe me, he has a different side away from that tacky golden microphone
7. John B1_B5 | November 21st, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Well, John Laws is not exactly your ‘average battler’, that’s for sure . I’ve noticed that he doesn’t mention “the Princess” as much as he did 2 – 3 years ago, so it’s possible somebody gave him a bit of ‘feedback’ on that .
8. cunninglinguist | November 24th, 2005 at 5:01 pm
Mmm John Laws does have a very testosterone-charged voice.
So JohnB1_B5 what does interracial really mean in your list of interests? As you probably know, it was discussed over at that other place.
9. choice~wah | November 26th, 2005 at 12:47 am
Interracial is choice