It wasn’t a professional media critic that had a problem with Clear Channel’s WHEB-FM in the Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester NH market. It wasn’t a mass-uprising of listeners either. But the one local resident went above-and-beyond the norm to express his distaste for the station.
According to a report from WMUR News, a 59-year-old local was “unhappy with the programming” of the station, which bills itself as 100.3 WHEB The ROCK Station. He no doubt was able to make sure his displeasure was unmistakable by showing up at the station with a pair of loaded pistols.
Staffers were able to coax the individual out of that station – and it appears that he did not bring the pistols in with him – but he was discovered not far away by local police with the two loaded Glock .45s in his vehicle.
He was arrested and pleaded guilty to carrying loaded weapons without a license, receiving a 90-day suspended sentence and a $500 fine. The lenient sentence was no doubt tied to radio station employee testimony that he did not use the weapons to actually threaten anybody.
RBR-TVBR observation: Any person in a business that deals with the public should strive to take the high road when dealing with a disgruntled customer. That’s just good business practice.
This underscores the worthiness of the practice, since you never know which disgruntled customers is suffering from off-the-charts disgruntledness and has the means to do something about it.
