Much praise and remembrance is being voiced after the death of Dr. Ron Walters, Distinguished Professor of Politics and History at Howard University and the University of Maryland. When I was but a producer at NPR I can remember setting up some interviews where he was one of the in-studio guests. Dr. Walters was widely respected for his honest assessments, research and gentile manner. In today's shout-fest media, he'd be the odd man out. He never shouted but nevertheless made a lot of sense.
I did some digging around and found that he indeed was THE guy when media needed someone of stature who happened to be black to talk about politics and race. I mean, Dr. Walters appeared everywhere: TV, radio, he was quoted in newspaper articles and wrote several that were published, too. This lead me to a question: How'd he do that? How did he become the guy? And how does anyone become "the expert?" Why are the same people always on TV commenting, on the radio talking, in the newspapers composing and now online, posting?
In Dr. Walters' case, I have a theory that is ridiculously simplistic. Dr. Walters answered the phone or even better, he called them back after they left a message. It's very old school today, you know, return a phone call. Dr. Walters returned my calls when I was a show booker and he was either busy or available. It was really that simple. If he couldn't go on the show when we needed him, he encouraged us to call back some other time and he'd work it out.
This is part of my philosophy as well. Call it providing excellent customer/client service. Clearly, we can't answer every telephone immediately each time the call comes in. I think we've gotten to a point in our society that the act of simply acknowledging correspondence is seen as a burden. Yes, some people are rude, impatient, coarse and unjustifiably expectant. Some are overwhelmed with the amount of information flowing these days and there are times when I (!!) have not been at my best. Still, if you're goal is to create community, build a company or find a job, we have to communicate and do so quickly and effectively. Dr. Walters was supreme in understanding that he was the guy and his job was to be available.
At the end of last week, a former colleague from NPR sent me a FB e-mail asking if I had any time to strategize his next career steps. It was a little out of the blue but he's a good guy so I returned his e-mail saying my schedule is jammed through the middle of the following week. But, if he had time around 5pm that day, we can talk.
He called at the appointed time and guess what? I answered the phone.
*Chantal de la Rionda edits this blog
