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MAJOR SCREW-UP's!

  • Thread starter motherscratcher
  • Start date

M

motherscratcher

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Since a lot of us would rather talk about the stupid side of radio rather than the positives, why don't we start a thread about the biggest mistakes that have ever happened? I'm talking about format flips that turned out to be huge financial and/or ratings errors, air talent that got themselves into bad messes (either on or off the air) and just plain stupidity (that's always fun)!

Let's try and keep it limited to North Florida. I don't think most of us are too interested in what happened in Boise 18 years ago. Also, we all know about some of the dumb things that have happened lately, so let's leave that alone!

Who's first?
 
> Since a lot of us would rather talk about the stupid side of
> radio rather than the positives, why don't we start a thread
> about the biggest mistakes that have ever happened? I'm
> talking about format flips that turned out to be huge
> financial and/or ratings errors, air talent that got
> themselves into bad messes (either on or off the air) and
> just plain stupidity (that's always fun)!
>
> Let's try and keep it limited to North Florida. I don't
> think most of us are too interested in what happened in
> Boise 18 years ago. Also, we all know about some of the dumb
> things that have happened lately, so let's leave that alone!
>
>
> Who's first?
>

I'll go...I recall two really freaky-bad ones while I worked for SFX/Capstar/AMFM/Cox:

1. Scott Irvine - remember his little escapade with an underage girl on a westside baseball field?

2. George Madara (aka "Lee Roberts" on voicetracked COOL overnights) - child molester. We were having a meeting celebrating good ratings at River City Brewing Co. the day he was arrested for something that had happened YEARS prior.

Another dumb one was Ross Jackson - he just vanished for almost a week on us - no calls, didn't answer e-mail. Then he had the unmitigated gall to show up as if nothing had happened. Kind of like that Seinfeld episode.

Of course, I could be remembering that one wrong...I had to do all his work while he was gone, so my recollection may be clouded with distraction... :p
Brian V.
 
Re: burglar story

> Since a lot of us would rather talk about the stupid side of
> radio rather than the positives, why don't we start a thread
> about the biggest mistakes that have ever happened? I'm
> talking about format flips that turned out to be huge
> financial and/or ratings errors, air talent that got
> themselves into bad messes (either on or off the air) and
> just plain stupidity (that's always fun)!
>
> Let's try and keep it limited to North Florida. I don't
> think most of us are too interested in what happened in
> Boise 18 years ago. Also, we all know about some of the dumb
> things that have happened lately, so let's leave that alone!
>
>
> Not too long ago, I installed some new CD/DVD machines in a little AM
station in Tallahassee. I took out the "dead" CD players and just stored them in a corner of the back room, near the equipment rack.

Two weeks ago the station manager called me and said that the station had been broken into during the night. The vandals came in through the bathroom window. The wiring to the CD/DVD players was hidden behind the board so they didn't get anything out of the control room. They did get a $25 microwave
and the two broken CD players!

They tried to take an Optimod, however, it was part of Cumulus' AM
station, which is co-located with this station. They only got as far as knocking the Cumulus' station off the air, at which point the Cumulus' engineer's pager went off. So their take: one cheap microwave..

"Couldn't have been professionals," I told the manager. "A real pro would have looked around at the station and left YOU something." LOL
<P ID="signature">______________
Memories Radio..
www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall</P>
 
One of my favorite screw up stories was by an old WAPE jock. For you historians, he replaced a guy nicknamed after a car and the PD told him to just use the same name.

He'd just finished doing the weather and fired off the first spot of his break. Only, the cart was misfiring...

"S--t, pi$$, motherf---er, godd--n sucker of c--k!"

He looked closer at the board and saw the VU meters moving, but no sound was coming out of the board. Then he looked at the board and saw his mic was still on and he'd just cussed up a storm over a car dealership commercial! The PD called him over to his office and when he got in there he just knew:

"I'm fired, aren't I?"

Poor guy! He went on to bigger and brighter things but the lesson was learned, mics are always on.

-Samich
 
This morning around 10:00 I turned on The Point in my car, and heard one of my Point favorites, "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record Baby)." Then there was a legal ID, followed by the same song!

I thought I was listening to Cox blowing up The Point...but nope, just an error. Van Halen played after that, and all was normal again.

Just shows the state of mind of ONE radio nut out there! ;-)

More screw-ups from said mind...

--Steve Fox on Big 106.5 coming out of a song: "Rock 1 oh...Big 1-0-6 point 5..."

--Big 106.5 in network mode one Christmas: all the jock voices were out of place and often of the wrong gender, mandatory breaks were not filled, optional breaks were filled halfway, and ID's and sweepers disappeared.

--Tommy Charles backselling "Oye Como Va" on Groovin' Oldies as "Oy Como Vaya" numerous times.

--A female on Arrow proudly playing "Glen FRAY."

--Arrow one Sunday morning many years ago: Red Hot Chili Peppers (not on the playlist then), followed by a spot, followed by an out of place and out of date VT by Arf, then back to normal.

--Numerous jocks leaving their mics open: Rick Tracy on Rock 105 and Ashley West on Rooster come to mind, because the last thing you heard was a caller telling them their mics were still on!

--Charlie Logan trying at least 3 times to play "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," and each time the CD skipped in the first minute. (I have this one on tape somewhere, back from my radio mixtape days.)

--Valentine's first VT morning show on Kiss, with several bits/breaks missing or out of sequence. (Damn that guy, using teasers and trying to tie his show together. haha) But I can excuse that one since things smoothed out.

--Dr. C and Linda Marie on WVOJ getting into intimate conversations with crank callers on more than one occasion. When the "ailment" is a combination of not one, but TWO names for male genitalia, it should be obvious.

--Watch Hound's fill-in (me) coming on 10 minutes late because the board-op was sick and I didn't have a key on me!

--WJXR. Uh, I don't need to open that file.

A few from my pro wrestling days...

--A drunk board-op at WZNZ causing so many errors on Between The Ropes that one of the three co-hosts walked out of the studio, declaring, "I can't take this $#1+!" I was one of the remaining co-hosts, and I found myself at a loss for words for the first time in my life.

--Two wrestlers getting into a fight at Talk Radio 970 and busting a hole in the studio door, which was never repaired. But it sounded great on the air!

--A local host being tricked into reporting that Terry Funk wrestled right after having a colostomy. (OK, that was an inside one.)
 
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