“We’re not robots.” A shout out to radio’s PR peeps

Journalists and PR people are catapulted together, whether they like it or not.

At the end of the day, we both have jobs to do. And we need each other to make that happen.

On the surface, our dealings are mostly professional and pleasant. But when deadlines are tight and nerves are frayed, tensions (and the odd profanity-laden sentence) can simmer underneath.

Which brings me to Tahlia Crinis, Founder and Director of Boss Media PR.

Last week, Crinis posted to LinkedIn about a disturbing shift she’s noticed recently.

“There has been a trend on LinkedIn lately of journalists, quite frankly, sh*tting on PRs,” she said.

Crinis (pictured above) reminds us that there are two sides to every PR story.

She herself was just 22 years old and forging a path in PR when she made a mistake that left her crying in the toilets and, to this day, still makes her anxious whenever she has to speak to a journalist on the phone.

Crinis inadvertently sent a completely irrelevant pitch about the launch of a doggy café to a journalist, then followed it up with a phone call.

“The journalist said ‘Don’t ever call me again,’” Crinis revealed.

Another mistake was not letting a radio producer know that her client was cancelling their interview because they were sick.

“My client let me know at 5:30am – the interview was at 6am – and I was driving with zero phone service at the time,” says Crinis.

It’s a pressure-cooker environment.

“PRs are not robots,” says Crinis. “We make mistakes.”

Imagine survey day in any radio station PR department.

The carefully worded pre-ratings release all looks tickety-boo … right up until the actual results come out and somebody’s breakfast show has died in the bum. Oh, and look – the drive show’s ratings have gone up!

Instead of the ratings song being Still the One, suddenly it’s a case of Torn between Two Lovers.

And, as the PR department scours the cumes and TSIs for shreds of light, the journos are devouring those same figures in search of the big, juicy radio stories.

Crinis is right. PR people are not robots, and neither are journalists.

I’m the first to admit that when I get a whiff of a possible radio story it’s the PR teams at ARN, NOVA Entertainment, Nine Radio, SCA and the ABC – among others – who bear the brunt of my (sometimes misguided) enthusiasm.

But – whether it’s confirming new radio appointments, sourcing quotes or even chasing high-res photos of a Kyle & Jackie O-branded Lamborghini – these PRs always acknowledge my request and do their best to deliver, in what can often end up being a thankless task.

Or a wild goose chase.

At the end of the day, when we’ve all run out cliches, spin and energy and everybody needs a good lie down, it’s a timely reminder that sometimes there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than you might think.