Lider Media Holdings

 

Cold weather has come to Baku. Arriving by train to blowing snow and icy winds in the capital city was not part of our expectations when planning our clothing and supplies for the journey to Azerbaijan. We checked average temperatures, weather projections and such but were completely taken by surprise in all of this.

Inspired by watching the zany local television programming, we decided to visit the Lider TV broadcast facilities downtown. We had originally been sent up to a very large and prominent television antenna to find the station, but found only the state run media located there. After much pointing and grunting and walking, we arrived at the actual facilities 2 hours later in a rundown neighborhood of Baku. We had hoped for a tour of the facility or even the opportunity to sit in on a show. Of course we were just walking in off the street, did not have an appointment, and are really not much more than dirty backpackers...but hey, why not?

Our first contact was with a very nice but confused guard at the entrance to the building. He quickly called a production assistant who spoke English to come help. She instructed us to write a letter to the CEO/President of Lider Media Holdings describing our request and assured us she would pass it on as quickly as humanly possible. It was then we started holding our breath? She invited us to wait in the lobby, and told us she would be with us within the hour.

A few words about the lobby may paint a fuller picture here. There appears to be some disconnect between cold weather and shutting windows and doors here. With the door wide open to the reception area, the temperature was probably hovering around 40 degrees F. While that doesn't sound very cold, it becomes downright frigid when doing nothing but sitting bored for hours at a time.

Did I mention hours? We waited for over two hours in the freezing lobby of Lider Media Holdings without hearing a word from our friendly production assistant, the CEO/President or anyone for that matter. It would have been kinder to just turn us away at the door rather than have us wait that long for nothing. Of course, an hour after we left I received a telephone call from Elzar (Lider Media Holdings), informing us he was waiting in the lobby to give us a tour. Keep waiting Elzar, we'll be right there.