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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. |
#2
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A sick radio station hoax
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 |
#3
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A sick radio station hoax
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. |
#4
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A sick radio station hoax
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 |
#5
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A sick radio station hoax
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) |
#6
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A sick radio station hoax
"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 |
#7
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A sick radio station hoax
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 |
#8
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A sick radio station hoax
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 |
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