PHONE NUMBERS QUESTION: I work at a CHR/Urban that has not been blessed with the most user friendly phone numbers in the world. To put it as painlessly as possible, there are four exchanges, all ending in FM-105 as in: "From Oxnard, 48-FM-105, in Ventura, 64-FM-105, etc." It is a mouthful to mention them all and I have a suspicion that nobody remembers them anyway. Does it matter? The phone numbers have been established for years. Should I still grind through them at a moderate pace for the benefit of new listeners? It's beginning to affect the content of the show. As I have backed off the phone numbers, listener calls are decreasing. I am going to other material which is just as entertaining, but I'm beginning to miss talking with people. I'm creatively in "lock up" over the phone number situation because I despise them so much. DAN REPLIES: You've provided the answer to your own question ("Does it still matter?"). You say you've backed off the phone numbers and as you've done so, you've noticed a decrease in listener phone calls. It sounds like when you give the numbers - despite your disdain for them - listeners are encouraged to call in. In other words, giving those numbers WORKS for you. Perhaps not as smoothly as a single phone number would. But unless you can convince management to replace them with a single, all-area phone number (not a bad idea), it's a lot better than not telling your listeners how they can reach you and thereby depriving both them and you of that direct contact. Look, I don't like flossing my teeth every night. I really don't. It's a repetitive, time-consuming, mindless activity that takes up time I'd rather devote to other, more creative endeavors. But I also want to continue to chew with my own teeth and not with a set that requires cleaning in a glass on the sink. So I floss every night, to insure the health of my teeth and gums. If you want to insure a steady of flow of listener phone calls, I suggest you continue to give out the phone numbers - all four of them - on a regular basis - "grinding through them at a moderate pace for the benefit of new listeners"...and for the benefit of old users who still have not committed them to memory.