A sick radio station hoax

First, let me state right off that this article is about a HOAX - as sick
as it was, no real cat was endangered.

However, it was a sick prank, and I sincerely hope the city sues these
folks for as much as they can get. Good thing I didn't hear it (though I
never listen to that station anyway); I would have been in my car driving
around Devore looking for the balloon.

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3812035

Radio prank sparks listeners' outrage
Kelly Rush, Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - It was the kitten that launched a thousand phone calls.

Listeners tuning in Thursday morning to alternative radio station X103.9-FM
were regaled with a horrific story of fun gone wrong.

A 4-month-old kitten, which happened to be in the studio at the wrong time,
apparently was placed in a basket and was lifted 300 feet in the air by
attached helium balloons.

The basket, the disc jockeys said, was last seen flying somewhere over Devore.

The announcement spurred hundreds of phone calls to the station from dismayed
listeners some of whom jumped in their vehicles and took off in search of
the basket and just as many phone calls to animal-control agencies around
the county.

Turns out it was all a big hoax. The kitten in the basket was a plush toy,
and by 10:30 a.m., the basket, which was about 300 feet up in the air
briefly, was back in the station office, sans the cat, said morning show
co-host Jen Carr.

"We were trying to find a way to show the bad things that could happen (
with animals) if you're careless. It got out of hand obviously," she said.
"It was meant to be a joke; it was never meant to be something taken so
seriously."

But Sue Hoak, San Bernardino animal control operations manager, wasn't
laughing. Her agency's emergency hot line was tied up for hours with calls
from listeners and from other animal-control agencies wondering how the
situation was being handled.

An agency staffer called the radio station and was assured the cat really
was in a basket floating somewhere high above the greater San Bernardino
area.

It wasn't until a San Bernardino police officer and an animal-control
officer showed up at the station that the joke was revealed.
"I have an inclination to send them a bill for all the time
involved and for tying up our phone lines," Hoak said. "It's very
irresponsible of the radio station and the disc jockeys to put on a stunt
like this like it's funny."

Martin Mersereau, who manages the domestic animal abuse department
for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said morning radio
personalities are stooping to new lows in "their desperate bid for
listeners."

"We hope the city, on behalf of hardworking citizens, will waste no time
in suing their eyeballs out," he said.

The idea for the prank began with a real kitten, Mr. Tinkles, belonging
to station engineer Fred Fullmer. He started bringing the cat to work
about a week ago, Carr said.

The Thursday morning shtick is billed as a test gone wrong: The DJs are
sucking on helium balloons and talking in squeaky voices. Carr already
loves playing with the cat, which is in the studio.

They start attaching balloons to a basket to see how many are needed to
float a rubber chicken. Enter the cat.

They go outside to see how much helium it would take to get the kitten
airborne. And then the basket with the newest addition to Fullmer's
household floats off, out of reach.

"We absolutely did not expect the outpouring of anger and total chaos that
ensued with people being really irate about it," Carr said. "I don't
believe we'll be doing this again."

The cat, so to speak, is out of the basket.

Dan M wrote:
First, let me state right off that this article is about a HOAX - as
sick
as it was, no real cat was endangered.

Why am I reminded of that WKRP in Cinncinnati prank where Les Nessman
thought turkeys could fly?

Sorry, you're absolutely right... this wasn't a funny thing to do. There is
a reason the FCC proclaimed anything that isn't *real* be announced before,
during and after radio programs following the Orson Wells 1938 broadcast of
'War of the Worlds'.

Jill

Why am I reminded of that WKRP in Cinncinnati prank where Les Nessman
thought turkeys could fly?

I remember that. One of the few lines I remember from that series is Frank
Carlson saying "with God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly".

Actually, some of them can. The ones raised in captivity (usually
broad-brested bronze) can't, but wild ones can. I had one almost fly
into my windshield out in Nebraska.

Dan M wrote:
Why am I reminded of that WKRP in Cinncinnati prank where Les Nessman
thought turkeys could fly?

I remember that. One of the few lines I remember from that series is
Frank Carlson saying "with God as my witness, I thought turkeys could
fly".

Actually, some of them can. The ones raised in captivity (usually
broad-brested bronze) can't, but wild ones can. I had one almost fly
into my windshield out in Nebraska.

I always thought it was funny because of the way they borrowed the bit from
the crash of The Hindenburgh (which occurred in my former front yard in
Lakehurst, NJ.) "Oh, the humanity!" It's odd to see old newsreel footage
taking place in the front yard where you used to play.

Jill

Dan M wrote in
news
Why am I reminded of that WKRP in Cinncinnati prank where Les Nessman
thought turkeys could fly?

I remember that. One of the few lines I remember from that series is
Frank Carlson saying "with God as my witness, I thought turkeys could
fly".

It was Arthur Carlson (Frank was real name of the sleazy salesguy, Herb
Tarlek). And Les didn't release the turkeys, Mr. Carlson did. Les was
on the ground, bemoaning the turkeys' fate with 'Oh, the humanity'.

I can't help it - I loved that show. I wish some local station would run
it.

Chak


--
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion.
Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom
they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less
easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
--Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)

"Dan M" wrote in message
news
First, let me state right off that this article is about a HOAX - as sick
as it was, no real cat was endangered.

However, it was a sick prank, and I sincerely hope the city sues these
folks for as much as they can get. Good thing I didn't hear it (though I
never listen to that station anyway); I would have been in my car driving
around Devore looking for the balloon.

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3812035

Radio prank sparks listeners' outrage
Kelly Rush, Staff Writer

Radio station announcers can be *idiots*. One very popular radio statio of
my youth has comedians as their breakfast announcers, and often has 'special
guests'. Usually, its quite funny, but then again, most guests are
Australian people who know the comedians doing the show. But one guest was
David Suzuki, the internationally renown environmental scientist (and IMHO,
David Attenborough's logical successor in terms of steward of 'popular
science'). He thought he was on the show to discuss global warming, the
massive extinction that seems to be going on, the missing frogs etc. But the
radio announcers just made fun of him, pretending to minsterpret 'missing
whales' as 'the Country of Wales has gone mising' etc etc. David Suzuki
walked out in disgust, and I changed the channel in disgust. They accused
him of having no sense of humour, I accused them of offending an extremely
respected man who - lets face it - was brought onto the show under false
pretenses and would have no concept that he was about to be made fun of. It
*wasn't* funny, and I stopped listening to that breakfast show because every
*good* comedian should know when they've crossed the line from funny to
obeing offensive and obnoxious.

But the worst thing I have ever heard a radio station do is make a prank
call. Every day they made a prank call to some poor unsuspecting person. Now
sometimes it was funny, as they usually rang someone at work, and it was
effectively listening to someone in their work capacity dealing with an
idiot of a customer in a polite and proffessional way. You know... I"d like
to order a pizza but I'm allergic to chese. Can I have a pizza with the lot
but with no cheese? Sure. And I don't like pepporoni, can you take off the
pepporoni too. Sure. Oh, and peppers, can you make one without peppers?
Sure.... until there's no pizza left at all. Pretty harmless, and not at all
personal. Except that this time, a guy had been having a dispute between the
local council about his dog. And hte radio station rang up the guy whilst he
was at work pretending to be the council to say tha thtey'd captured the dog
and put it down. The guy, quite understandably, went nuts, burst into tears,
at first begging the voice on the phone that it wasn't true, and then after
the voice on the phone said it was, threatening to kill said voice on the
phone, all while this was being broadcast live (and Australian men do *NOT*
cry like he did in public). He also didn't start laughing once the voice on
the phone admitted it was a prank, and didnt apologise for threatening to
kill the person on the other end of the phone - and the radio announcer (the
voice on the phone) had the audacity to be *offended* by the guy for
threatenign to hurt him and was threatening to sue!. I assume it was
resolved amicably, but it was that event that turned me of commercial
breakfast radio forever.

I no wlisten to 'Radio National' on the way to work, which doesn't need
ratings to survive. I get an update about the latest issues in health, law,
religion, the media, and sport depending on the day of hte week, and if I'm
running late, I get to listen to "life matters" which is a hard show to
describe, but it discusses 'personal and social issues' which I find
fascinting. These days, i have a brain stimulating experience when i drive,
rather than a brain numbing one, and if I want to listen to music, I put on
a CD in!

Yowie

Yowie wrote:

Except that this time, a guy had been having a dispute between the
local council about his dog. And hte radio station rang up the guy
whilst he was at work pretending to be the council to say tha thtey'd
captured the dog and put it down. The guy, quite understandably, went
nuts, burst into tears, at first begging the voice on the phone that
it wasn't true

Oh, that poor guy!! What a cruel prank. I'm getting upset just thinking
about it.

The people who produce these shows seem to think that they have to keep
getting more and more shocking, to out-do what other "shock jocks" are
doing on competing stations. So the pranks get more and more edgy and a
whole lot meaner.

I just hope that, embarrassed as he might have been about crying and
making mortal threats on the radio, that it would be outweighed by his
joy at the fact that his dog was still alive and well.

But that really is horrible. I hope the announcers got in heaps of
trouble for that! And I'm glad you've found better morning fare.

Joyce

On 2006-05-12, Yowie penned:

Radio station announcers can be *idiots*. One very popular radio statio of
my youth has comedians as their breakfast announcers, and often has 'special
guests'. Usually, its quite funny, but then again, most guests are
Australian people who know the comedians doing the show. But one guest was
David Suzuki, the internationally renown environmental scientist (and IMHO,
David Attenborough's logical successor in terms of steward of 'popular
science'). He thought he was on the show to discuss global warming, the
massive extinction that seems to be going on, the missing frogs etc. But the
radio announcers just made fun of him, pretending to minsterpret 'missing
whales' as 'the Country of Wales has gone mising' etc etc. David Suzuki
walked out in disgust, and I changed the channel in disgust.

This is bad, but reminds me of a somewhat reversed situation that was
quite entertaining.

A few years ago, a political TV show invited Jon Stewart, host of The
Daily Show on Comedy Central, to their show. Now, The Daily Show
makes jokes about politics, but it also invites influential
politicians, authors, and reporters and has somewhat serious
conversations with them.

Ahh -- yay for google -- the show was Crossfire.

Point being, Jon Stewart's no dummy, and the show is a favorite among
people who are disenchanted with the current US administration.

And Crossfire invited Jon Stewart, thinking they would have an
easy-going laughs-a-minute kind of guy, and discovered that he was
taking them to task for being horrible reporters.

Crossfire subsequently was cancelled.

They got all p*ssed that he wasn't "acting like a comedian." Heh.
Joke's on them -- some comedians have bite!

(Added historical note -- he went to the same college I did.)

Here's the summary from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Stewart

Stewart attracted media attention as a result of a television exchange
with former CNN personality Tucker Carlson on Crossfire in October
2004. Stewart decried the state of television journalism and pleaded
with the show's hosts to "stop hurting America", and referred to both
Carlson and co-host Paul Begala as "partisan hacks". In response to
prods from Carlson to "Be funny", he quipped, "No. I'm not going to be
your monkey." He also asserted that Crossfire had failed in its
responsibility to inform and educate viewers about politics as a
serious topic. Carlson began to point out the fact that Stewart hosts
a news program, and that if CNN isn't doing things right, maybe
Stewart should. Stewart pointed out that he's on a "fake news" show,
and replied by saying, "You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is
puppets making crank phone calls. What is wrong with you?" When
Carlson told Stewart he was not as funny in person as he was on his
show, Stewart retorted, "You're as big a dick on your show as you are
on any show" (transcript). This exchange became one of the most widely
viewed Internet videos to date[6][7][8], and a topic of much media
discussion. In January 2005, CNN announced that it was cancelling
Crossfire. When asked about the cancellations, CNN/U.S.'s incoming
President, Jonathan Klein, said about Stewart's appearance on the
show, "I think he made a good point about the noise level of these
types of shows, which does nothing to illuminate the issues of the
day." [9] Soon after Stewart quipped on The Daily Show that "I fought
the law, and the law lost!"


--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca