WEEK’s Mark DeSantis responded to my email:
Mr. Dennis,I have been out of town for the last several days and just picked up your e-mail this morning. I have checked into this with our engineering department and there was no transmission problem on our end. Further, we received no other phone calls or e-mail from anyone else reporting a similar problem as yours. We can only conclude the problem was on your end.
I am not sure how you receive us, whether over the air, via cable or DSS satellite but I would look to your reception system if you continue to have problems.
Thanks for watching The Medium on WEEK.
I simply fail to understand why everyone thinks I can have a problem hearing ONE show, with the commercials sounding fine, and with other people telling me they have the same problem, and it’s supposed to be MY equipment. It’s like he didn’t even read my letter.
All the knobs and levers were in the right place — or where they think is the right place — so I must be havign a technical problem.
Geeze. Mark DeSantis has essentially told me to take my complaints and shove ‘em. Because it’s NOT a technical problem on my end. So I guess I just won’t be watching that show anymore.
I’ve heard from other people with thre exact same complaint. I woduld appreciate it these folks would just sent Mr. DeSantis an email and tell him what you told me.
Tags: mark desantis, medium, sound quality, volume, WEEK
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
I thought the same thing about an episode of Medium a couple of weeks ago (actually, it was a repeat of the season finale which I was forced into watching when no better option presented itself). I think the volume is low on purpose — from a creative standpoint — and I doubt there is anything the local affiliate can do about it (nor would if it is a decision of creativity). That said, the one hour of Medium I have watched was about the worst hour of TV I’d seen in a while. The true topper was that it was a cliffhanger. I looked at my wife, said “there’s an hour of my life I’m not getting back” and then told her we would not be watching part two, even if Patricia Arquette got naked.
Good luck in your fight. My guess is that WEEK has little to do with it, but won’t care enough to give you a real answer.
The best thing is just to watch porn.
Anyone else who has had this happen should be calling the station to complain. Their electronic means of complaining may leave something to be desired, but all phone calls are descriptively logged and distributed to the department heads every day. If more than a few people complain about the same thing, they take it pretty seriously and do something about it. It’s no longer just coincidence if it’s more than 3 or 4.
So if Mark says nobody has complained about it, what do you expect them to do? How do they know there’s a reception problem if nobody complains? I just can’t believe that if there are thousands of viewers watching that show that NOBODY would call in a complaint either while it’s going on or the next day during business hours.
Blogging and e-mail is an easy way to report stuff. You can craft your replies and say exactly what you want to. It’s also non-confrontational, which means you can really rile people up without having someone get mad at you in your face or in your ear. But sometimes there is just no substitute for a phone call. It’s immediate and direct, and you have your response right away.
I might just have to watch Medium next week to see what happens.
Aha! This is all just a sneaky ploy by Bill to get us to all watch Medium. I bet he’s getting a kickback. The show still sucks.
The Medium? Guy at WEEK doesn’t even know the name of the show. duh.
Don’t call at 9:45 at night…call during business hours…please
I believe Dave said he USED to be at WEEK. He’s not anymore, but he knows his stuff.
And the funny thing is that show sucks anyway. Oh well, par for the course.
Thank you. But I think he meant that Mark DeSantis (WEEK’s GM) referred to the show as “The Medium,” which amusingly enough he did in his e-mail reply to Bill.
I must confess that my wife still works there, but she has nothing to do with this show or the particular inner workings of the station that we’ve discussed here.
[...] if I know WEEK boss Mark DeSantis — and I do — these complaints will be written off as problems on the user end and not treated as [...]