It took me more than an hour to get to work this morning, thanks to the efforts of a local radio station a local television station, and a dorky CTV sitcom.
Here's the text of an email I fired off to those who decided to give away gas at one of the busiest intersections in Ottawa...
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Subject: don't ever do that again
From: Mcallister, Mike
To:
'sbroderick@thebear.net';
'rcrow@thebear.net';
'ericstaf@thebear.net';
'cjoh@ctv.ca';
'sales@cjoh.com'
This morning's free gas giveaway has resulted in far more people who are unhappy with your radio station, with CJOH, with Corner Gas, and CTV than people who have benefited from your well intentioned generosity.
Congratulations on creating the longest commute of my working life. My regular 20 minute pleasant commute from Kanata to the Auriga industrial park turned into a 65 minute slow-moving parking lot.
Well done.
If your goal was to infuriate thousands of commuters while pleasing a couple of hundred, you have successfully achieved your goal.
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Can you say damage control? The Bear / CTV Responds...
RE: don't ever do that again
From: Maggie Ker [mker@ctv.ca] (I also received this stock response from Rebecca Crow [rcrow@thebear.fm])
On behalf of 106.9 The BEAR and all of us at CTV's Ottawa affiliate CJOH Television, we would like to extend apologies to those whose morning commute was affected by today's free gas giveaway at Hunt Club Road and Riverside Drive during morning rush hour. The free gas promotion to support the upcoming Corner Gas series on CTV was met with overwhelming success, so much more so than even could have been anticipated.
Even with the hiring of double the amount of paid officers to control the surging line-up the traffic jam managed to still affect the morning commute. For this, we apologize.
All week, Corner Gas has been travelling the country giving away free gas in Vancouver, Regina, Calgary and Winnipeg, and in those markets, there was no such problem.
CTV Network's Communications Department who has been handling the event, concedes in hindsight that a more suitable location may have prevented this morning's traffic mess. However, it was never our intention to cause grief for people, but rather to reward hundreds of commuters with free gas.
We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to morning commuters today, and we appreciate the positive feedback from the hundreds of motorists who benefitted from the fill up from the stars of CORNER GAS.
For those who still have concerns or wish to send their thoughts, CTV has initiated a special email address to listen to your feedback. Here it is:
programming@ctv.ca.
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Monday - Please Play Again
About six months ago, Martine and I were ready to build a new house. Turns out, we decided not to. Something like this however, tends to make one want to think about doing it again... believe it or not, this thing is modular.
