This is reprinted by permission of the author from the Fat-Acceptance listserv:
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 15:38:27 -0800
From: marilyn@fatso.com (Marilyn Wann)
Subject: Re: Marilyn on KROQ
Sender: fat-acceptance-approval@world.std.comHey Nancy (and list):
I learned a very valuable lesson from that KROQ experience that I'll share with you...
When a radio station wants to interview you, they call you up and set up a time. For famous people, they pay an appearance fee. I'm not famous, so I don't get paid. As an activist, what I "get" for appearing is promotion of my message, and the chance to mention my 800-number a couple times on-air. I've found that it works best if I tell them that I expect them to mention the 800-number, or allow me to mention it, otherwise they blow it off. Every single show I've done has agreed to that. If they resist, I figure they're just trying to use me to fill airtime without me getting anything out of it. Coincidentally, the radio hosts who have been least willing to let me state my phone number are also the ones who are the most fat-hating. Hmmmm.
Anyway, here's the lesson I learned from the KROQ thing this morning.
This past week, I spent an hour on another LA radio station, as part of a show which was called something like the John & Jerk Show. The two obnoxious male hosts both attacked me, tried every possible nasty trick to make me sound foolish, threw the most hateful callers at me, and then, at the end of the hour, refused to let me say my 800-number. I was at my wit's end, and threatened to hang up on them right then. They laughed and said, "So? There's only a minute left in the hour. We got you!" Well, I vowed that I would never put up with that kind of treatment again. I thought, perhaps I will simply refuse to appear on radio shows hosted by two guys in LA. Perhaps that's the secret!
So, of course, just a couple days later, I get the call from the Kevin & Bean morning show on KROQ (the station I grew up listening to, I might add)--two guys in LA.
Grudgingly, I called them back. I told the woman setting up the interview that I simply was not willing to be used as a punching bag by two jerks. I'm certainly willing to have fun with the subject, but I'm not willing to be made fun of. The woman said it wouldn't have to be that way, and I agreed to do the show.
We agreed on the 800-number issue. She then asked me to call them long-distance the morning of the show. I said no, they could call me. (Every single radio show I've ever done has paid for the call. I'm not about to start paying for these calls!) Then she said I could come on at 7:30 am. I was still pretty punchy from the other experience, so I said, "No, that's too early." She said, "Okay, we'll do it at 8:30 am." Hunh. It worked! I asked for what I wanted and it worked!!! They actually ended up pushing the interview back to 9:30 am, which was fine with me.
And evidently, before I came on-air, this woman gave the hosts a bunch of rules on-air about how they had to be nice to me. She made me sound uptight, but who cares, I disabused them of that image the minute I came on! Evidently, the hosts said they had to get all the fat jokes out of their system before they talked to me, and I guess they did. When I was on, we joked around and I got a lot of great points in, in a fun way. I certainly wasn't a boring guest, but I also wasn't a victim. What's more, I got about ten calls right away from listeners who wanted to find out about FAT!SO? and fat community. That's a big response for a 15-minute appearance! I'm finding that I get more response when I'm able to sound happy and fun on-air, not defensive and confrontational.
So, the moral of my long story is, tell the media how you expect to be treated, and be ready to walk away from them if they don't treat you right!
Cheers! -- Marilyn
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