SHOCK JOCKS: HOW LOW WILL THEY GO?
Cripes! At the risk of sounding like being in the demo for an easy-listening radio station… who took the fun out of the FM breakfast shift?
As a presenter on Sydney’s 2DAY FM “Morning Crew” show with Peter Moon and Paul Holmes for 11 years between 1993-2004, sure we concocted our share of tacky and wacky stunts.
But I can say, hand on heart, that we never, at any time, coerced a member of the team into faking their own death for ratings.
The latest charge against broadcasters Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) comes from Amber Petty (left) – breakfast presenter on SAFM in Adelaide for three years.
She contacted media website Mumbrella and said that when she joined the station in 2007 her death was faked in an on-air prank. Petty says that as a new member of staff, she was pressured into taking part.
She told Mumbrella: “Having worked for SCA, I will say that behind the scenes much of the time it is 100% encouraged to be outrageous and have a sick sense of humour.
“Revolting things are encouraged, and they employ sycophantic people who make dumb mistakes.”
Petty said: “While I was on air, the powers that be decided it would be a good idea to get attention by pretending I had died. So being new on air and feeling the pushiness of ‘don’t carry on about this or you’re not a team player’ I had to leave the studio while an obituary for me was recorded.
“The obituary included our news reader reading out my death news and a sound grab from my brother and father saying how horrendous it was that I’d died, including asking my dad to say: ‘It’s obviously always sad when a parent loses a child’.”
She says her father was pressured into it by her on-air co-host.
How deplorable to exploit both her and her family who wanted her to have a successful career in radio! A career that has so much to offer to women.
No wonder she’s still angry.
Petty says she was prompted to go public after the sacking of Kyle and Jackie O producer, Bruno Bouchet, who was fired this week after making jokes on Twitter about the cinema shootings in Colorado. (Not the first time he’s been in trouble after publicity about his “Bruno Loves Boobs” pornographic website.)
Look, I could go on about the misdemeanours of that particular breakfast show… but I’ve already done so. (See related articles, next page.)
Instead, it might be worth looking back at what passed for fun back in the olden days and some of the stunts I can recall from my time in breakfast radio.
Tacky? Sure. Dishonest? Sometimes. Degrading? Depends if you like cockroaches.
CRUNCH A COCKIE
Yep! Win State of Origin Tickets by eating a live cockroach. Look, these weren’t ordinary cockies. They were those Queensland giant burrowing cockroaches (Macropanesthia rhinoceros). Big, juicy ones. And they had been lovingly, hand-reared on peanut butter for a week before the stunt. All the listener had to do was eat one, live on air, for the best tickets going. There were plenty of takers. The one “lucky” listener chosen bit into the thing and years later I can still recall the sickening “crunch”.
NB: And before any complaints from animal-rights campaigners, I ended up taking the other two cockies home and kept them as pets for years. Everyone who saw them said: “Gross. KILL THEM.”
LIVE IN IT AND WIN!
Cute idea from a rival brekkie show. Put a group of people in a 4WD in the middle of a shopping centre and the last one to vacate it wins the vehicle. More than a month later, there were two holdouts who would not Get. Out. Of. The. Car. (The segment was well on the nose by this time.) After complaints from shopping centre management that the car was stinking up the joint, producers quietly found two cars and sent them on their way.
DASH FOR CASH
This one was simple, but stoopid. We pinned bank notes all over the clothes of our on-street reporter, gave him a head start and listeners were urged to chase him down a suburban mall and grab the cash. Unfortunately, the listeners (who could have all qualified for the Olympics) overtook him in about three seconds, ripped his clothes and left him dazed and incoherent. I ran into him last week. He’s still traumatised and reckons it was the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened to him.
NB: Alliteration is important ( And rhyming. See in comments below). See also “Whirl till you Hurl” where listeners to a Gold Coast FM show were encouraged to stay on a roller coaster till they threw up.
GRAB A MILLION DOLLARS!!!
There was the official management line: “Make every listener a winner.” The unofficial one: “Never give a sucker an even break.” And from the on-air talent: “Let’s see how much stuff we can give away before everyone goes broke.”
You’ve probably seen radio contests that put a million bucks up for grabs – in bags, buried in sand, in wind tunnels – while punters are equipped with golden shovels and butterfly nets. Earlier this year Isabella from Ryde did win that $1,000,000 on the Kyle and Jackie O Show’s “Dawn Dig” (loving that alliteration) when she dug up the bag with the Golden Ticket on Bondi Beach.
I’m told the odds are probably in the range of one in 8,000 to get the lot in these kinds of stunts… better than the one in 50 million for Lotto, and so, insurable. It usually costs stations around $40,000.
NB: When the challenge is to shovel as much actual cash as you can in 60 seconds, the trick from the promotions department is to bulk up the bounty with coins, while the big notes fly off in the breeze. This can lower the take from a mill to around $20,000.
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28 Responses to this article
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Sarah July 26, 2012
God bless Triple J!!!! <3
You're lucky if they even give away a hat lol
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TMT July 26, 2012
But how good were Helen Razer and Mikey Robbins and later, Hamish and Andy doing breakfast on TripleJ? They were hilarious and, dare I say, interesting, without the props.
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Mez July 26, 2012
And this was Kevin Rudd’s target audience for the 07 election. No wonder they mock the likes of Alan Jones, they probably can’t understand a word he says.
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Amber Petty July 26, 2012
Hi Wendy, just wanted to say like you no doubt I do love a really stupid joke at the best of times, and there were lots of those and really fond memories about my time at SAFM, but I do feel constantly a bit sad………and this is not directed at SCA, it’s radio in general, that women with an opinion are often seen as party poopers, bullies, bitches, feminists…and all that other things that just right us off as wet, or too angry and damaged. There are still too many old school boys club types that do not understand where to position a vocal woman…………we seem to be celebrated for so many things most other parts of the media, but radio is still SO far behind. With fabulous sites like The Hoopla, which demonstrate quite clearly you can have a laugh but an opinion all in the same breath…..let’s hope that the boys CLUB start reading this stuff……..instead of fearing it….US from afar. Keep up the great work.x
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samantha power July 26, 2012
they wanted me to MARRY my gay co host (not outed on air) for publicity..i said well you might have given up on love, but I havent.. mabye i should have cos im single in my forties with cats….
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Julie July 26, 2012
Shockjocks and idiot morning radio are like out-of-control toddlers. They continue to push the envelope further and further with their on air tanties and rants about the government, or Leisel Jone’s weight. It is appalling, but it’s also dangerous. The culture of negativity that has encompassed Australia in the last few years can be laid firmly at the feet of these idiots who inflame hatred, bigotry and paranoia- and think they are funny. They’re not. Whatever happened to our terrific sense of humour?
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suzan July 26, 2012
What happened to Uncle Doug Mulray?
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res July 27, 2012
Uncle Doug and Andrew the Boy Wonder – what a great team. And look how far Andrew Denton has come!
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Jane July 26, 2012
It’s good to laugh esp. when heading to the job that may not necessarily be the one we want. Laughing at others expense and trying to come up with the most outrageous stunt does wear thin… as does expecting our audience to provide all the entertainment. There is plenty of engagement without resorting to rubbish. Radio is such an intimate medium of communication and enjoyment. More and more tuning into community radio and we welcome them with open ears.
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Pauline B July 26, 2012
Reading your article I was surprised at how many of those “stunts” I remembered! Those were the days – I wouldn’t listen to commercial radio now if you paid me. I love the little surprise I get when I discover you (and/or Ange Catterns) filling in for someone on ABC – it makes my day!
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Kate July 26, 2012
Mez, Alan Jones is every bit as lowest-common-denominator as the FM morning shows. Just a different style of it. You can sit in your tower and think you’re cleverer than most if you want, but the fact you’re taken in by his shrill rants says differently. Each to their own.
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Helen July 26, 2012
I like the cockroach story – that was a nice thing to do, especially because cockroaches have symbolic status as the Other – remember the Rwandan atrocities? That was a great stand to take.
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suzan July 26, 2012
Yes, I also love the Early Girlies. When will someone sign you two? You’re the best thing on morning radio. Please, please someone hire these funny women permanently!
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suzan July 26, 2012
Hear, hear Kate. Well said.
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Catherine July 26, 2012
I loved the original concept of Vega when you were on board Wendy. It was smart, it was funny, but didn’t “rate”! I am now a classic radio flicker – I just move from station to station every time someone says something stupid, inflammatory, sexist or racist! I listen the most to the ABC now, but I am afraid I don’t care much what most politicians have to say – and so, on I flick!
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RobynMarie July 26, 2012
Catherine, I too loved the original concept of vega, it was interesting and intelligent, unlike anything on the fm band at the moment. I have also wondered why no one has signed Wendy and Ange – they are so wonderful together or separate, either/or. It would be so nice to have fm radio with out smut, I’m no prude but what the current lot of women do on radio ( especially Jackie O ) puts women back in the dark ages- thankfully she dosen’t identify herself as a feminist else we’d all be done for.
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Jackie July 26, 2012
My daughter was one of the lucky one who won a trip to LA for two with Wendy and Peter back in the day….She had a ball and still looks back on it fondly….only thing that pissed me off was she took her best friend and not her mother!
So for every..WOW that really sucked moment….there are plenty of good ones
My own secret radio comp was a Living on the Net competition back in 1999 run by the then Andrew Denton Breakfast show….We started in our undies and had a credit card with $2000 loaded on it.
After 3 weeks I had an airconditioned cubicle with a microwave, kettle, brass bed and heaps of clothes…I got to keep it all….including a laptop oh and a bucket of prawns….I can honestly say whilst it may sound ridiculous I had the time of my life and it was my last hurrah before I turned 40
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Pedantic July 26, 2012
That’s not alliteration. It’s just rhyming. FYI.
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Alice Shaw July 26, 2012
I just laughed my head off reading about that poor guy covered in money then running away from listeners.. of course he was going to be taken over quickly… oh, how funny.. that’s the kind of silly stuff that amuses me. Job well done
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Bianca Dye July 27, 2012
jesus one day im gonna WRITE A BOOK about all the sexist bullying bullshit ‘boysclub’ unfair wanky crap Ive seen/dealt with in my 15 years in radio!! GO WENDY & AMBER for having the BALLS to say something… i sit back & watch with a cocked eyebrow & a HUGE wry smile….
xxx hugs to all the radio babes that are BALLSY!!!!!!! -
Michael July 30, 2012
As a guy in radio I agree that a lot of what you hear on, especially, breakfast radio is absolute rubbish and designed for the lowest common denominator. I get very mad when PDs and management punish their “stars” over some of the atrocious things that happen on-air nowadays because everyone in the industry knows that they are encouraged to do these things by their PDs and management. What was done to Amber Petty was reprehensible and someone should’ve been sacked over it. I have never met the guy but I’m told that Kyle Sandilands is actually a really nice person. It’s a shame that the format the station has designed for him is what it is. However, I suppose they say it’s making money and that’s all that counts. Unfortunately, at this point in time, it is working – and that’s the problem. I can see Kyle in a few years time doing a Stan Zemanek style program on GB. Except Stan did it with so much tongue in cheek it wasn’t funny. By the way, I’m not just singly out Kyle – as I said most of the brekky stuff is rubbish. Bring back good old fashioned humour with Mick and Tony or the D Generation team. Both teams were great radio, without the smut.
