• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Remembering stunting

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

Recall a few?

-- I think for 102.1 and 105.3 in NH which was to become the Shark--a loop with theme from Jaws; Gene Wilder singing "There's no way of knowing where on Earth we will be going" (from Willy Wonka; Wonka was on a boat at the time) etc.

--Forget the station but one had a computerized voice counting down ("Two days three hours six minutes and forty seconds and counting") with the comp. voice inserting such things as song lyrics in ("If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me")

--The debut of Star 93.7--maybe in 1999--continual playing of Prince's "1999" followed by The Gap Band's
"You Dropped the Bomb on Me"

--Clear Channel introduced progressive talk on 1200 and 1430 with a loop just before launch on 10/4/04.
It included snippets of Neil Young's "Rockin' in a Free World", maybe the Beatles "Revolution", and parts of the audiobook version of Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them ("Chapter 37. What is a Liar.")

--A loop on 890 and 1400, which were "ESPN Boston", ran for a few hours simply saying that ESPN was done and thanking the listeners. What made this stunt (or simply, announcement looped) different was that
at the end it went not into a new format but...they stations turned off the transmitters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunting_(broadcasting)
>>"It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" was also played in a 12-hour loop by the former WKDN/Camden, NJ on April 16, 2012 after it dropped Family Radio programming to become WWIQ. The song choice was a play on Family Radio founder Harold Camping's failed 2011 end times prediction, the ensuing fallout of which forced the ministry to sell the station off to Merlin Media.

---

A station on the Cape (forget which one) had a loop with the same 5 songs--including a country tune
and also Amy Winehouse's Rehab
 
raccoonradio said:
Recall a few?

-- I think for 102.1 and 105.3 in NH which was to become the Shark--a loop with theme from Jaws; Gene Wilder singing "There's no way of knowing where on Earth we will be going" (from Willy Wonka; Wonka was on a boat at the time) etc.

--Forget the station but one had a computerized voice counting down ("Two days three hours six minutes and forty seconds and counting") with the comp. voice inserting such things as song lyrics in ("If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me")
Click to expand...

Back in the mid to late 80s when 105.3 changed to classic rock and became the "Arrow" (long before it became the Shark), it had the computerized voice countdown like you described. It ran for several days. I can also remember other messages inserted like, "In space no one can hear you scream." I can also remember sitting at the beach in York Maine listening on my Sony Walkman to that countdown, just for the messages.
 
That was probably the one! So going into the shark with a loop with various sound bites but going into the Arrow, earlier, was the computer-voice countdown. I think WKAF 97.7 (going from WBOT R&B to the WAAF
simulcast) was another computer voice countdown
 
How about that time when big Clear Channel bought that independent station WFNX? It prompted hours, days, weeks, months of speculation on what the new format will be? Remember when we thought that the internet simulcast would never end?

...Oh wait....
 
I love reading this board over the last few days. Can't wait for cheap channel just to drop one of their lame channels here. Oh wait-- How bout Scott Shannon's true oldies-- you know the one that plays on every small town 250 wt graveyard am station.......

"The Harba"
 
Or...
WHBA 1200 and 101.7 (apply for call letter change for the AM) conservative talk. Not that the "harbor"
nickname would necessarily apply. The Patriot or something/

Prob not though. but you never know
 
When 100.3/Middletown, RI (now WKKB, then WOTB to WHKK) transitioned from 100.3 the Beat to 100 FM "The Hawk" in around 1997, they had the computerized voice thing as well. They probably got their best ratings during that two day stretch.

In 2000, when 102.3/Stonington, CT shifted from active to heritage rock, they played BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" on a continuous loop.

Just a couple that I remember...

Jacko
 
Unfortunately, Yes...but on a smaller scale when 'AAF was actually a music station back in the 80s. Our PDs (nameless for obvious reasons) had encouraged the on air jocks to "stunt" on the air, whatever that meant. I believe it grew out of lucid dream that the clinically insane Lee Abrams may have had and pushed forward, but I can't be sure. All I know is, that it was L A M E ! But typical for those days !
 
WBOS was rock before they went country (maybe 83 or so was the flip?) I still remember Boston Rock magazine calling it "The Day The Boss Became The Hoss"
 
raccoonradio said:
That was probably the one! So going into the shark with a loop with various sound bites but going into the Arrow, earlier, was the computer-voice countdown. I think WKAF 97.7 (going from WBOT R&B to the WAAF
simulcast) was another computer voice countdown
Click to expand...

And also, 97.7 WBOT before it, changing from long time country WCAV, playing Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" on loop before changing to urban.
 
I remember the WBOS stunt in 1989...first they played Johnny Paycheck once an hour, then the next day they went to every other song, and on the last day before the switch to AAA, the did play it continuously...

Alas, I also remember the 1983 (July) flip TO country....that was a classic 'no advance notice' flip where (I think Bob Slavin??) was the DJ on duty and he played Lou Reed "Rock n Roll" as the last song, then the first "Country" song was "Ghost Riders in the Sky" by the Outlaws before going into the (then) twangy country music..

With the possible exception of the Fall 1978 Disco days, WBOS is enjoying its best ever success in its current format (and for the 6 or 7 non-computer literate FNX listeners, most likely new home...)
 
CatCall said:
raccoonradio said:
Recall a few?

-- I think for 102.1 and 105.3 in NH which was to become the Shark--a loop with theme from Jaws; Gene Wilder singing "There's no way of knowing where on Earth we will be going" (from Willy Wonka; Wonka was on a boat at the time) etc.

--Forget the station but one had a computerized voice counting down ("Two days three hours six minutes and forty seconds and counting") with the comp. voice inserting such things as song lyrics in ("If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me")
Click to expand...

Back in the mid to late 80s when 105.3 changed to classic rock and became the "Arrow" (long before it became the Shark), it had the computerized voice countdown like you described. It ran for several days. I can also remember other messages inserted like, "In space no one can hear you scream." I can also remember sitting at the beach in York Maine listening on my Sony Walkman to that countdown, just for the messages.
Click to expand...

You guys are bringing back some nice memories. I lived in Portsmouth NH from 95-98. My fave station was WZEA/Seacost 102. Loved the music, the on air people, even the summer beach patrol reports. I think it was some time in late 97 (or was it 1996?) that Seacoast 102 suddenly became The Stage playing big band music or something godawful like that. That lasted a relatively short period of time before they started simulcasting The Arrow. Meanwhile, I had already settled on 107.1 WERZ which, by the way, picked up the summer beach patrol reports the following summer.
 
Good memories, Granite Guy

When WBCS and WKLB merged into one station at 96.9 I think the first song was Alan Jackson Gone Country, or am I thinking of when 105.7 started up as WCLB?
When WKLB 99.5 switched freqs with WCRB 102.5:
CRB played the song "Rodeo" then the Hallelujah Chorus (on new freq)
KLB ended at 99.5 with Richochet doing national anthem. It debuted on 102.5 with Life is a Highway by
Rascal Flatts from the Cars movie soundtrack

http://formatchange.com/102-5-wcrb-becomes-country-wklb/
"Country music...102.5 FM...102.5 FM..and now a more powerful bigger WKLB...Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and his name is Greater Media" (12/1/06)
(jingle, then--Life is a Highway)
 
It seems for the most part stations in Connecticut don't stunt.

March 2001 - When WZMX 93.7 flipped from Jammin' Oldies to Hip-Hop they played Donna Summer's "Last Dance" did a last "Z-93.7 Dancin' Oldies" ID and then at 5PM they launched HOT 93.7

May 2001 - When JAMZ 910 flipped from Urban Contemporary to Spanish Tropical there was no stunt. The engineers just pulled the plug mid-song and patched in a simulcast of their sister station MEGA 1230.

February 2002 - When Classic Rocker 105.9 WHCN flipped to The River 105.9 there was no stunt.

I only remember 2 stunts in the Hartford area.

January 1997 - When WPOP 1410 flipped from Talk to Sports (originally using OneOne Sports later ESPN and now FOX Sports) they stunted for 3 days with music.

October 2009? - When new owners took over a translator in Bolton to simulcast 104.1 HD 2 they stunted by playing "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano on a loop for a while before launching Spanish Tropical BOMBA 97.5 (now BOMBA 97.1)


Does playing music on a loop to keep the station on their air after an LMA ends while looking for a new LMA partner count as a stunt? October 2000 - In September 2000 after being evicted from the airwaves of AM 990 El Principe Broadcasting damaged the transmitter leaving the station in-operable for 2 weeks. When the owners of the station ADD Radio got the station back on the air they were playing a loop of R&B, R&B Olides, and Regaee music (outside of the brokered programs on Sunday) for about 3 weeks before the station was LMA'd to Blaze Communications who programmed a Hip-Hop/Regaee format on the station. (At one point during the weeks before Blaze Communications took over the station they actually played a CD - "The Game Show Network Greatest TV Game Shows Theme Songs Volume 1".) That was cool.
 
MarcB said:
It seems for the most part stations in Connecticut don't stunt.

March 2001 - When WZMX 93.7 flipped from Jammin' Oldies to Hip-Hop they played Donna Summer's "Last Dance" did a last "Z-93.7 Dancin' Oldies" ID and then at 5PM they launched HOT 93.7
Click to expand...

How about those long months of nonstop NOAA Weather Radio that aired on 93.7 when the ownership of WLVH went belly-up?
 
Granite Guy said:
I remember the WBOS stunt in 1989...first they played Johnny Paycheck once an hour, then the next day they went to every other song, and on the last day before the switch to AAA, the did play it continuously...

Alas, I also remember the 1983 (July) flip TO country....that was a classic 'no advance notice' flip where (I think Bob Slavin??) was the DJ on duty and he played Lou Reed "Rock n Roll" as the last song, then the first "Country" song was "Ghost Riders in the Sky" by the Outlaws before going into the (then) twangy country music..
Click to expand...

I was there. It started out as an ordinary Thursday, and then the freight elevator behind the AM control room opened up and hordes of strange people came out with arms full of country music records. The GM, Barry Skidelsky, and PD, Maxanne Satori, were abruptly fired, and Mr. Hoffman, the owner, went about tearing punk rock posters off the walls in the sales offices while AE's scurried about in tears. Bob Slavin, the last rock jock, saw all of this through the huge picture window in the studio looking into the sales offices.

At 3 PM the new PD, Dean James, walked into the studio and started "Ghost Riders". The station ran jockless for about a month until the new jocks made their debut. Some of them were holdovers; one rock jock changed his name to "Jack Daniels".
 
I remember Dave Maynard playing "Puttin' on the Ritz" over and over again one morning. This was when he had Gil Santos, Don Kent, Joe Green and Gary Lapierre all giving their reports. He acted like he wasn't doing anything unusual. This went on for the entire show.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom