• 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

WHY DO RADIO STATIONS AND JOCKS DO STUPID STUNTS?

When radio was exciting. Dumpster dives at multiple stations. Station wars. Entertainment and variety. I agree - X gets the square and win.
 
We collected Green Stamps because they had value. So did radio stunts and promotions. Green Stamps morphed into numbers inside your Coke bottle cap. Radio pormotions and stunts just went away with most of the the rest of the creativity and passion that we can no longer afford.
 
It's tough to have some of the competitive high jinx of the past when you now own the competition.
 
Some of my favorite stunts on Z-93:
Wilbur Wright plays Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" 16 times in a row in March, 1992, while PD Kevin Kenney is "Out of town". Kenney was actually on the hotline instructing Wright to continue with the stunt. This was at a time when "Wayne's World" was blowing up the box office.
Jeff Wicker and Kim Faris, along with Producer Dave, flip Z-93 to "Z-Country" for an hour on April Fool's Day, 1993. I remember being a teenager and huge fan of Z and being royally ticked about this. The first song under the format was "Rhinestone Cowboy". An hour later, after several callers call in and berate the hosts over the flip, which were aired on Z, Wicker and Kim announce about Z-Country "NOT! Rock N Roll!". First song after the stunt was "Do You Believe In Us" by Jon Secada. They actually played this joke up on the air throughout the preceding week, even having imaging produced for the stunt.
 
alans613 said:
Some of my favorite stunts on Z-93:
Wilbur Wright plays Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" 16 times in a row in March, 1992, while PD Kevin Kenney is "Out of town". Kenney was actually on the hotline instructing Wright to continue with the stunt. This was at a time when "Wayne's World" was blowing up the box office.
Jeff Wicker and Kim Faris, along with Producer Dave, flip Z-93 to "Z-Country" for an hour on April Fool's Day, 1993. I remember being a teenager and huge fan of Z and being royally ticked about this. The first song under the format was "Rhinestone Cowboy". An hour later, after several callers call in and berate the hosts over the flip, which were aired on Z, Wicker and Kim announce about Z-Country "NOT! Rock N Roll!". First song after the stunt was "Do You Believe In Us" by Jon Secada. They actually played this joke up on the air throughout the preceding week, even having imaging produced for the stunt.
Click to expand...

A stunt that Z did in 1988 at night with Don Shannon and myself. And, I believe the station also did it a year or two before.
 
Does anyone remember all the promotion for a fake underground mall in downtown?
 
Plummet Mall was a great ad campaign. Very creative. Something that is missing in today's endless local radio commercials, which all sound the same.
 
radioboymark said:
In a thread about Bill Cunningham, an unnamed poster said...
it is a stunt like the Mark Sebastian/Billy Squire sit in and firing
Click to expand...
Thirty years later, and people are still talking about this. For the win..
Click to expand...


Exactly, Mark. The reason that they do it is ratings and publicity.
 
Plummet Mall was not a stupid stunt. It was an ingenious method of getting advertisers to notice radio stations... Jerry Galvin was one of the most creative people I've ever met and helped me pull off a similar stunt in Detroit years ago...

As an industry, radio's creativity is certainly at a low point, but it's not gone. Just check out things Paige N's stations do.
 
They do stupid stunts for ratings. Ratings = money and money rules the business world.
 
The question is, Why do stunts have to be stupid at all? Creativity should be the key to good ratings and not having to dumb down your listeners in order to pull it off.
 
microbob said:
The question is, Why do stunts have to be stupid at all? Creativity should be the key to good ratings and not having to dumb down your listeners in order to pull it off.
Click to expand...

I agree. The "Christmas Trimmings" stunts on the Kidd Chris show on WEBN wasn't stupid. It was pure genius!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom