“Ducking” the caller

The other day while testing, I stumbled on a station that was accidentally streaming a conversation between the host and the engineer (or producer… not sure).   They were setting up a new device for the station called a “Telos” and adjusting the “Ducking” control.

Not having worked in Radio and having only limited interest in the technical details, this was a new term for me.   You’ve all heard it, but now you have the name for it.   A Telos is a device specifically helpful for doing talk radio.   It allows things like conferencing multiple people on the air at the same time so they can all hear each other (which turns out to be non-trivial).

“Ducking” is a feature automatically built into the Telos that reduces the volume of the caller any time the host says something.   Shows (particularly with hosts who feel their show is a contest of wills) will also “POT down” callers when the host is having trouble handing the call – but that is done manually by the producer – sometimes the host is not aware their producer has turned off the caller which creates awkward problems when the host asks the caller a question and they’ve been cut off by the producer.    Sometimes the host will deliberately “ask the caller” a question knowing that the caller is POTted down or has been hung up on – and then say something smarmy like “See, I knew you didn’t have an answer for that”