There are technical reasons radio hosts (and especially their engineers) dislike speakerphones. The sound quality is lousy and there’s a tendency for godawful feedback. There’s also background noise from the caller’s end, and that sort of thing.
That said, my mother has multiple sclerosis and occasionally uses a telephone headset like operators use. Problem solved.
Robin
I have a corner cubicle in the cube farm at work. The people who used to work in adjacent cubicles were all pretty quiet, but they have all left for other jobs in the last year. We have one employee who has a VERY LOUD voice that carries halfway across the building (and also spends a good deal of time on the phone), and he used to have a cubicle near the hallway but got irritated by people standing in the hall chatting outside his cubicle, making it difficult to do his work. I’ll never forget the day my boss came to me and informed me that this guy asked to be moved to one of the empty cubicles adjacent to me, because it was a “quiet corner”. The first thing that popped out of my mouth was “Not anymore!”
But at least he uses a headset. We had a contractor working for us for a while and this guy took *every freaking phone call *on speakerphone. Most of the time it was tech support for the software he was using on his project, but even personal calls (like calling the credit card company to dispute a charge on his bill) were on speaker. And this guy had no respect for anyone else, he talked down to everyone. What an asshole. I was so glad when his contract was up.
Anyone who puts a caller on speakerphone without first telling them that is exactly what they are doing deserves to be bitch slapped by Miss Manners.
I can’t help but think he somehow deserved it and she’s not a rude bitch at all. 
My ex does this crap. He makes sure he has an audience and then while on the phone with me says things like “Why are you acting so crazy?” “You don’t have to yell about it.” And I’ll be sitting there speaking in a normal tone. He puts on a great show for whoever, and makes me look like a lunatic in the process. It’s only when people get to know him that they realize he’s the asshole.
That guy is probably the same way, which is why his wife wasn’t at all embarassed by her comments.
Of course, I know nothing about this couple, but when I relate it to my situation, I completely see her side. 
I laughed SO hard when I read this. I think that it’s just silly and mean enough to get the job done. As for the others, I’m too shy to call someone up and tell them that they’re a piece of shit for being so obnoxious. But the above statement is easily done by people like me
[QUOTE=Kyla]
I’ve heard radio hosts do this a lot, and once the caller responded that he was disabled and couldn’t hold the phone. The host sounded like he was dying of embarrassment.
QUOTE]
In this particular case, I’d tell them “ok, sorry about that.” and move on (with the call). One should never be embarrassed to ask someone to use technology in the proper manner to make that person more understandable. If a physical disability is obvious, another means should be used. If it isn’t, then the question was proper, as would the use of the speaker phone.
There are a few exceptions to this rule (speaker phones in general) of course, meetings (in which you are in a room with multiple participants, sharing one phone), and perhaps a few others. For regular conversations, they should not be used, or if the non-speaker party has trouble understanding/hearing, then the person using the speakerphone should be courteous enough to pick up the dang handset.
Yes. The formula is: 1) say something offensive, to make sure you have everyone in the office’s attention, 2) make it clear that he’s a jackass because he’s using the speakerphone. Everyone around will be delighted, and he’ll know how to avoid it in the future.
I’m sure any kid hanging around outside a 7-11 would be happy to yell “Hey fuckface! Everyone in the office doesn’t want to hear your speakerphone conversation!” for $5.