Ohio Relay calls

Receiving an Ohio Relay Service call always makes for an interesting and yet challenging day!

For those of you who have never received one, it is a call from a disabled person: possibly hearing impaired, deaf, deaf-blind, or speech disabled in some way.

The operator opens the call by saying you are receiving an Ohio Relay Service call, are you familiar with this service?

I know from that moment what I will be doing for the next half hour. However, I embrace this challenge with open arms! (It is quite a task being alone on the desk....it's difficult really answering any other calls, listening to the scanners, or doing anything else pertinent to my craft, but the show must go on and the customer must be satisfied)!

This service allows disabled persons to communicate using high tech electronics or a texting system (I'm sure that is over simplifying the process). The caller relays their message to the operator who in turn verbally relays the message to me. At the end they say 'go ahead' which means I can begin my response. In turn, when I am done, I say 'go ahead.' When the customer listens and understands what you are saying, it is much easier to take. When the customer refuses to take your answers and for instance, does not believe that I can not skip over to the next studio and personally relay a message to Dr. Phil is when it gets to be an exasperating challenge.

I have to be honest, to date I have never gotten, in my estimation, a relay call directed at my particular department or one with breaking news. They are always questions for programming and oftentimes I just don't have the answers for the customer.

Today's relay caller wanted to know why we did not have the US Open finals on our air? I told them the US Open finals had been on WOIO all weekend and that particular station may be better versed at fielding this question. If I would have had the answer, I would have been happy to give it to them. Then they asked me for the number. I did not have a problem giving the caller their # since I could not answer their question.


Lingering unknowns:

1. How did the caller initially get our number?
2. If they had been watching the US Open from the beginning, why did they call us?
3. Why couldn't they get WOIO's # the same way they originally attained ours?