The Erwin Pawn Trade-A-Thon Calls Out Facebook Spammers

For the first time in the history of our version of Trade-a-Thon it fell on a holiday, Halloween to be specific.  It was quite a scary show.

It's the show that invites you to use the airwaves of News Talk 940 for all your benevolent and nefarious purposes.  We do it every Saturday and its a show that is most gratifying.  The show isn't about me or the rest of the staff of the show, it's about you and your needs.  We find it to be the most altruistic radio possible.

Being that is was Halloween some of the information imparted in this post may be a little dated but we don't want you to miss anything.

This week take a long look at the stuff around your house.  Then consider the lack of money you have.  Imagine turning those unneeded items into cold hard cash.  We will lead you to the affluent land, all you need to do is call.

THE BIG QUESTION

We ask all our callers a poll question before they list their items.  If helps provide a running stream of discussion and adds a little bit of brevity and information about you to the show.

Saturday was Halloween and along with bringing buyers and sellers together we were curious what the trick or treat traffic you are accustomed to at your home.  It seems with each passing year the door-to-door trick or treating lessens a bit in favor of Halloween and Harvest parties where there's enough candy to send a diabetic to the hospital.  Regardless we were still curious.

Do trick or treaters stop by your house for candy?

Yes 11

No 7

Only 18 responses?  Yep, only 18.  We were only able to do two hours of the three hour extravaganza last Saturday.  We have several studios here at the Amarillo Radio Ranch and many of them are used for various broadcasts.  The studio we use for Trade-A-Thon is set up to do a live talk show, featuring two studios, one for the producer and a second for the talent.  West Texas A&M football kicked off at noon on Saturday and they always have an hour long pregame show.  Unfortunately the studio we utilize for Trade-A-Thon is also the studio for WT.

This was quite the conflict and after several ideas were bandied about it was decided that the best course of action was to record the first hour of Trade-A-Thon and encore it on 940, thus clearing the studio for Mike Roden to execute the pregame show on 98.7 Jack FM.  Sometimes you've got to roll with the punches and make the best of a difficult situation.  Unfortunately this may not be the only time we have to execute this plan before the end of the season.  We appreciate your understanding of the challenges involved in getting both broadcasts going concurrently.

RULE #6

Trade-A-Thon is not a difficult concept to understand.  You have things you no longer need or want but they are too valuable to throw away.  The solution is to call Trade-A-Thon on Saturdays and you list your items, give your name, put our your phone number and in theory your phone is ringing with interested buyers before you get of the phone with us.

Past that simple explanation, we have 5 regular rules of the program and we discuss those at the beginning of each hour.  Along with the 5 regular rules I bring you a special rule #6 that changes every week.  Sometimes it's inspired by something that happened to me over the previous week, other times it's from the news, and sometimes it's topical.

This week I had two really good rules and I made a command decision.  We'd have a Rule #6a and a Rule #6b

6a deals with Facebook.  I was a late comer to Facebook.  I've been on there for almost two years now and for the most part I see the attraction and appreciate being able to keep up on what's happening with my family and friends better than I would have without Facebook.  Only there is a problem.  I don't know if some of you are incredibly bored, hooked on Facebook like it's heroin, or you just think every little picture with joke written on it is worthy of a post.  Obviously you can run your Facebook account anyway you want but sometimes this creates a problem.  Like an annoyance problem.

I swear, I think a large portion of my Facebook friends have little to do all day other than post inane drivel on Facebook.  Tell me about your day, talk about your kids, tell me where you are out, give some props to your spouse, but please, for the love of Facebook consider cutting it back some.  I've got Facebook friends that post more updates than pellets flying from the business end of a shotgun.  For the most egregious I've taken to completely ignoring their posts.  I'll like one, two, and sometimes three but there I draw the line.  I'm getting every closer to unfollowing the most prolific offenders.  So here's a good Facebook rule for you and I really hope you start following it.  There's more to life than meme's posted with jokes written by a person who was born without a funny bone and doesn't understand sarcasm either.

Rule 6a: If you are posting five or more status updates per day on Facebook you are spamming your friends list and they will eventually stop following you.

Rule 6b is a little dated as it was focused on that night's trick or treating.  I couldn't believe it when I saw it but some idiotic costume company has created what they call the invisible costume.  They are essentially a black body suite that is very difficult to see in the dark.  I don't know what is more insane, the company for selling them or parents for buying them.  It makes trick or treating a fairly dangerous affair.

It's too late to fix these issues this year but it's never too early to plan on making your child's Halloween as safe as possible.  This means brightly colored costumes, glow sticks, glow necklaces, glow wristbands, and reflective tape are all good choices.  There is simply too much activity after dark on Halloween to allow your little one to be rendered basically invisible because he insisted on the invisible costume.  Step up and be a parent and make sure your child is easily visible to the drivers not paying as much attention as they should.

Rule 6b: Ensure your child's Halloween costume is easily seen in the dark.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to serving your buying and selling needs next Saturday on the Erwin Pawn Trade-A-Thon!