Daly, longtime host of the talk radio show, announced while on-air recently that it was his last day with VOCM

About a year or so ago, I contacted VOCM seeking a spot on Paddy Daly’s open line show to promote a recently published book containing a collection of my Telegram columns, a request for what amounted to an unabashed “plug” — a rather cheap way to garner some publicity and, of course, increase sales for And Then Some.

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VOCM agreed, and after being informed by the show’s producer that I would be the first guest on a particular morning, I expected Paddy to toss me a softball question off the top, a general, easy query along the lines of: “So, Bob, can you tell us a bit about your new book?”

Instead, Paddy threw me an unexpected curve ball, and asked for my thoughts on the rapidly changing information landscape — social media and the like — and the impact such developments were having on the dissemination of information (or words to that effect).

As I recall, I did a decent job answering the question, even as I was thinking to myself, “Paddy, you…, I’m here to talk about my book, and not engage in some esoteric exchange on journalism that would take invaluable airtime away from my self-serving spot.”

But, having conducted thousands of interviews myself since entering the media trenches way back in 1972, and having attained a certain know-how in having several thought processes spinning at the same time, I was able to also say to myself: “Well, good on ya, Paddy, for not letting this turn into the proverbial sales pitch, or........

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