My Call with Lynn Doyle

I called in to the CN8 program "It's your call with Lynn Doyle." I would consider an accurate description of the show to be the small blog that appears when you hit the info button on your remote, which reads, "A viewer call in show dealing with national news issues that impact local residents." I had even watched the show once or twice before when I was flipping through the channels, but never in its entirety. For this episode I had planned several possible questions involving the Clinton-Obama primary and the use of super delegates, who will most likely be deciding the outcome. I figured the election would have to be a topic that was discussed at some point in the hour long show, which runs from 9-10 pm. All my planning was thrown off however, when to celebrate Lynn Doyle's 11th anniversary episode the show decided to run a special entitled "50 and Fabulous." The entire episode was dedicated to viewers 50 years of age and older calling in to receive tips on how to look younger. The special guest of the evening was Charla Krupp, author of the book, "How not to look old." Clearly, my super delegate questions would have to be substituted in order to get my call taken and have a chance to appear on the air, live. My mom happens to be over 50 and she has a birthday coming up in a month, so I decided to try and get some advice on a gift I could give her to make her feel younger and happier. The number to call in is 1-877-CN8-Live. My first 4 calls all received a busy signal, but on the 5th, my call went through, which happened to be exactly when the show went to commercial. The number is displayed on the bottom of the screen during the broadcast and then disappears when the show goes to commercial, which probably means the volume of calls is drastically reduced and thus on my 5th try my call was picked up on the 2nd ring. I talked to a young sounding female who immediately asked me to hold. After only 3 minutes however, she was back and began to ask for my personal information. First she asked for my name, first and last. Next she asked where I was from. Finally she asked for my phone number. After taking down all this information she asked me what my question was. I told her I was looking for some advice on a gift for my mother who is over 50. I specifically wanted to know something I could give her for her birthday which would be unique and probably something she didn't already have that would also help her feel and look younger. The young woman on the phone thanked me for my question and said they had a screening producer who she would run the question by and then they would call me back if they were interested. Now to put the show into perspective, every caller was an older woman, with questions ranging from what to do with thinning hair, to what shoes to wear to not show your age (the woman had arthritis which affected how she walked). Clearly, I was already at a disadvantage, considering I doubt there were very many males calling in with questions about how to be 50 and fabulous. I thought perhaps it could work in my favor and maybe in order to gain some variety in the questions they would take a call from someone other than their base of 50 year old plus women. This was, however, not the case. I instead suffered through the hour listening to call after call about how to lessen the affects of wrinkles or properly pick out an outfit without overmatching, while my cell phone remained silent. I had been snubbed by the screening producer. Although I wasn't overly surprised my question wasn't considered, in the back of my mind I was thinking the producer might give me a shot. If anything just to switch things up, plus it would even demonstrate that their base reaches out to more viewers than just elderly women. Either way, although I was disappointed, I was at least able to gain some great tips to share with my mom, which should have her feeling and looking younger in no time!