Amateur hour hits the radio

When a soldier is brought down by a bullet, how do you break the news to his loved ones?

Gently. No question about that. You don’t just pick up the phone, ask for the wife and say, sorry Mrs Entwhistle, you just lost your husband. That’s not only crude, it’s downright cruel to put it mildly.
But this is exactly what one Dubai radio station did last week. Only, it wasn’t a soldier, but a blue collar expat worker who was asked to come live on air and chat with a colleague of his in a programme called “Coming clean on colleagues in the workplace.” Nothing original about it, I’m told, as there’s one on similar lines hosted in the UK and US.
It did sound a bit dodgy, though I must admit I turned up the volume to listen to what was coming. But what followed was anything but clean. What kind of a station would host a programme that would air the good, the bad and the ugly side of an employee by a colleague? But it wasn’t the cleaning of dirty linen or some salacious gossip about some torrid office affair by the boss and a sex kitten that got the programme going. It was far worse. It was shocking, unbelievable; and atrocious wouldn’t even come close to describing what followed.
To cut a long story short, the head of the department came on air, all perked up after his morning cuppa and ready to speak his heart out about a colleague. He promised to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth which must have got thousands of listeners across the UAE glued to the station eager to know what the whistleblower had to say.
But before he could spill the beans, the radio DJ rang up the victim and told him he was live on air and that his colleague had something say about him. The two said hello, joked a bit and then came the revelation that must have come as death blow to the victim. Here’s how it more or less went:
“Ranjit,” said Vikas, “I’ve noticed you’re looking a bit morose these past few days. Everything allright with you?
“Yes, Vikas, all’s well. No worries.
“Well, Ranjit, I’ve some bad news for you. The company has decided to downsize and you’re one of them who have been made redundant. You have 14 days to find another placement. I’m sorry to break this news to you this way, but be brave. It could be the best thing that could have happened to you.”
“You ARE KIDDING now,” says Ranjit, who thinks it’s some kind of cruel joke being played out on him.
“No,” says the radio DJ. “Vikas is telling the truth and I want you to be brave and move on, and don’t let the news get you down.”
“Come on guys, tell me this is some kind of a joke,” says Ranjit, his voice all choked up and threatening to break.
“Sorry, Ranjit, this is no joke. You will be asked to go in the next 14 days. Be brave…”
At this point, the radio DJ sensing Ranjit was about to break down interjected and told listeners she was leaving the two parties to talk between themselves and played some vague song.
Ranjit’s world had come crashing down in one fleeting moment of time and the radio ensured the whole world knew that he was just not up to the mark and had, therefore, been made redundant. What do you think it did to his self-confidence, his morale, his standing with other colleagues, his loved ones…. This is the Gulf, not Europe where he could still get dole and survive. What was the radio thinking when it did what it did? What if the boot was on the other leg and the radio DJ was told her time was up on air? Would she forgive the person who broke the news for all to hear?
 There are ways you show somebody the door when his services are no longer wanted. But to do it on air is just not acceptable. At a time when the media here is pushing the freedom of expression goalpost, this comes as a body blow.