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Snow closings prank
- Thread starter nomadcowatbk
- Start date
Been there, done that... Dateline, Kirksville, Missouri:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB94WN1m_OE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB94WN1m_OE
I'm surprised one of the messages wasn't "Coke, catch the wave!".
M.J. said:
As a prank or an actual sponsor? When staying in Massena, New York during a road trip to Quebec in 2004, WWNY and WNYF ran a school closing ticker at the bottom of the screen -- which was sponsored by a tire dealer, whose logo appeared at the bottom after each go around of the list was completed.
I was taking school closings for a small station. No Internet posting yet, closings had to be phoned in. Before the start of the school year, the station sent out forms to schools and other organizations to register. They had to provide contact info and a password. There was a small group of non-profit social service agencies who apparently believed they were doing the Lord's work and didn't have to bother with all that. And each time it snowed, they would call in without being on the list and with no password and get irate that we were inconveniencing their clients (seniors, disabled). They refused to let me off the phone (the lines were jammed) and I'd have to hang up on them. I'd always tell them to call in later in the day and we'd get them set for next time but they never did.
Then there were those listeners who insisted on calling because they didn't want wait to hear their closing and demanded to have me give it to them on the phone - while I was trying to take down all the closings coming in. I'd explain quickly we could only give out closings on the air. One guy said, "but I don't have a radio."
Then there were those listeners who insisted on calling because they didn't want wait to hear their closing and demanded to have me give it to them on the phone - while I was trying to take down all the closings coming in. I'd explain quickly we could only give out closings on the air. One guy said, "but I don't have a radio."
This is an old video. This is from 2004. This version was just uploaded a few days ago, but other videos have been out for a while. News 14 Carolina in Raleigh was pranked by several North Carolina State University students who exploited the flaw. That is what happens when college students are snowed in and they apparently have nothing to do...only they could have been studying!
Fortunately, I never had to work a station during a snow "emergency," but I remember working my first station on a rainy, stormy, Friday afternoon, constantly fielding calls from people wondering if the football game was going to be played that night. I had announced over and over and over again about that damn football game, but people kept calling the station because they were either too lazy to listen, or they thought that the world revolved around them! 
Years ago I was working for a local FM that was the station to tune into locally for snow closings and delays. We'd make announcements for area schools plus businesses who paid in advance to be on our list as well as area civic groups, non-profits, etc.
During one big storm, I got a call from the head of a local Institute for Spiritual Development wanting us to announce the cancellation of their Psychic Fair. I said to the caller "but didn't you know it was going to snow?" She didn't get the joke, so then I asked her "and if the Psychic Fair is canceled, wouldn't all the members know anyway"?
I won't repeat what the caller said to me but I can tell you that some people have NO sense of humor!
During one big storm, I got a call from the head of a local Institute for Spiritual Development wanting us to announce the cancellation of their Psychic Fair. I said to the caller "but didn't you know it was going to snow?" She didn't get the joke, so then I asked her "and if the Psychic Fair is canceled, wouldn't all the members know anyway"?
I won't repeat what the caller said to me but I can tell you that some people have NO sense of humor!
MattParker said:
Don't get me started .... okay, too late, I'm starting.
My favorite line was always: "My radio's broke." Yes, said exactly like that.
A station where I worked (in an area where winter weather was infrequent) was notorious for having local residents jamming their lines in spite of being told in the newspaper, station PSAs, take-home school memos, you name it, to LISTEN, DON'T CALL. And many were aggressive about it. Never mind, in those days before e-mail became commonplace, it was darn near impossible for the ACTUAL officials to get through (this station, alas, had no hotline ... so it was impossible to clamp down the regular incoming lines for the duration).
ANYway, there was one time when, after my stock answer - "Sir, please listen to the radio, I cannot give out that information over the phone" - the caller said to me "I'm at work, and cannot listen to a radio, I NEED TO KNOW IF (CITY) SCHOOLS WILL BE OPEN TOMORROW!!!!!" By golly, he was entitled to his information, and NOW.
Calmly, I replied, "Well, obviously you can use the phone while at work. So why not call a friend who CAN listen to the radio, and have them tell you. Thanks for calling, bye-bye." And I had to get him off the line; my record was about to end and I had to do something unimportant like, ohhhh, keep the station on the air!!
I heard the next day he complained a big storm about "my attitude." :
--Russell
My favorites:
* The local broadcasting schools that cancel classes in bad weather. Will their graduates call off during storms?
* The puny companies and groups that demand bad weather closing announcements. I'm sorry if the Local Bridge Club or Diane's Day Care are affected, but if the bridge club has 5 members and Diane takes care of 4 kids, don't waste broadcast time...CALL EVERYONE YOURSELF.
* The local broadcasting schools that cancel classes in bad weather. Will their graduates call off during storms?
* The puny companies and groups that demand bad weather closing announcements. I'm sorry if the Local Bridge Club or Diane's Day Care are affected, but if the bridge club has 5 members and Diane takes care of 4 kids, don't waste broadcast time...CALL EVERYONE YOURSELF.
jal41 said:
Colleges hardly ever cancel classes, Mizzou has only canceled classes once in the last 100 years
How many stations will air closings for businesses? Most stations only closings for non profits like schools, churches, government etc?
Most groups like that tie their fate to that of the local school system, and tell their members that ahead of time. "If the schools are closed, then we also don't meet."OhioMediaWatch said:
nomadcowatbk said:
Some general exceptions include: Large local indoor shopping malls, factories with large numbers of workers in multiple shifts (i.e. the nearby GM and Ford plants, etc.), or anything else that affects a large number of people.
Anything smaller, and the station is likely saying "call our sales department".
firepoint525 said:
An excellent idea, but I still see tiny day care operations and the like on the local school closing lists.
OhioMediaWatch said:
Stations need to have a policy in place to prevent such superfluous organizations from listing.
WBZ Boston's makes the most sense:
- public schools; private primary (K-12) schools; accredited degree-granting colleges
- religious listings on weekends only
Anything else (daycare, trade schools, community organizations, etc.) is not listed. Businesses may be listed but that goes through sales (pay and you're listed, otherwise tough luck).
My church has a machine that does that, though the last time Sunday services were not held the pastor was spending Christmas with her daughter. I got a call from the organist, and I have yet to ask who called her.OhioMediaWatch said:My favorites:
* The local broadcasting schools that cancel classes in bad weather. Will their graduates call off during storms?
* The puny companies and groups that demand bad weather closing announcements. I'm sorry if the Local Bridge Club or Diane's Day Care are affected, but if the bridge club has 5 members and Diane takes care of 4 kids, don't waste broadcast time...CALL EVERYONE YOURSELF.
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