Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
riggs
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:04 am

Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by riggs » Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:09 pm

Anyone remember this radio stunt in Detroit? Took place on 96.3, I think. The afternoon DJ was sticking up for another DJ who got in trouble for something and he "allegedly" locked himself in the studio and kept playing Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin'" Someone in Detroit radio HAS to remember that one...........Maybe the early 90s, late 80s. Who was the DJ that did it. (song for some reason climbed in my ears today).

Anyone ??????????

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CmKhxu ... w1PGaLs3fU


Sidney sit down, relax, have a sandwich, drink a glass of milk, do some fucking thing

stopnswop2
Posts: 3106
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:08 pm
Location: Novi, MI
Contact:

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by stopnswop2 » Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:01 pm

This is hilarious. I want the details !


Music is my life.

BKRPDM
Posts: 212
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:40 pm

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by BKRPDM » Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:21 pm

It was early in 1985. JJ Walker at WHYT was the DJ that locked himself in the studio, ‘protesting’ then morning host Bobby Mitchell’s comments about King Boots (some dog), which purportedly got Bobby suspended. I don’t know the King Boots story, though.
Last edited by BKRPDM on Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.



onstage555
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:57 am
Location: rochester, michigan

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by onstage555 » Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:24 pm

This was 96WHYT with J.J. Walker locking himself in the studio in support of the morning guy, who I believe was Bobby Mitchell at the time.



riggs
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:04 am

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by riggs » Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:34 pm

King Boots was a show dog who mauled an old lady to death and there was a big deal about the trial and the dog getting a lethal injection or having some of it's teeth removed and being confined to a cage.


Sidney sit down, relax, have a sandwich, drink a glass of milk, do some fucking thing

Bobbert
Posts: 3933
Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2018 11:13 pm

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by Bobbert » Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:26 pm

From the Detroit Free Press of January 24, 1985 (via Newspapers.com):

Listeners collared
Boots ditty lands deejay in doghouse

By GARY GRAFF and CATHY COLLISON Free Press Staff Writers

King Boots might have been just what WHYT-FM (96.3) needed to toss a bone to its listeners, at least for one day.

Bobby Mitchell, morning disc jockey for the Detroit Top 40 radio station which finished ninth in the most recent Arbitron ratings, was first susnended and then reinstated Wednesday. He will be back on the air today.

The settlement came after a fellow disc jockey barricaded himself in the station's Fisher Building studio and refused to leave the air until Mitchell was reinstated.

Mitchell, disc jockey from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., had improvised a ditty about King Boots, the Birmingham sheepdog that mauled its owner's elderly mother after she apparently suffered a fatal heart attack and fell on the sleeping animal. Bloomfield Hills District Judge Edward Sosnick on Tuesday ordered the 8-year-old show dog castrated and defanged, or it will be killed.

To the tune of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," Mitchell sang "King Boots Got Castrated by Judge Sosnick" with lines like, "He gave her the fatal blow. Now he has a chance to get that Hypo-glow."

BUT THE STUNT landed Mitchell in the doghouse.



Bobbert
Posts: 3933
Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2018 11:13 pm

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by Bobbert » Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:33 pm

From the Detroit Free Press of January 30, 1985 (via Newspapers.com)

WHYT-FM hoaxers get the heave-ho

Two WHYT-FM (96.3) officials were disciplined this week for a publicity stunt that backfired last week.

Station vice-president and general manager Ron Pancratz was dismissed from his duties at WHYT so he could spend full-time running top-rated sister station WJR-AM (760). Pancratz who last week said "I don't understand FM radio" has been serving as vice-president and general manager for both stations.

WHYT program director Gary Berkowitz, who orchestrated last week's hoax, was suspended for 30 days without pay. Evening disc jockey Mike Waite is his temporary replacement.

The publicity stunt began last Wednesday morning when Berkowitz suspended disc jockey Bobby Mitchell for playing a parody song about King Boots, the Birmingham Old English sheepdog accused of killing its owner's mother.

Berkowitz told other WHYT disc jockeys to start an on-air drive to support Mitchell, and then had evening disc jockey J.J. Walker barricade himself in the studio for several hours.

The next day, however, Pancratz confessed it was a publicity stunt and publicly apologized.

Current station manager Maureen Hathaway and station sales manager Buzz Van Houten are among the top candidates to replace Pancratz, according to Detroit radio watchers.

- Gary Graff



stopnswop2
Posts: 3106
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:08 pm
Location: Novi, MI
Contact:

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by stopnswop2 » Tue Dec 04, 2018 12:23 am

That's a pretty cruel but hilarious af stunt there.

That definitely would never happen in 2018, lol


Music is my life.

riggs
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:04 am

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by riggs » Wed Dec 05, 2018 8:43 am

I just can't believe Gary Berkowitz would ever be behind a stunt like that. Dude's been sucking the joy out of radio ever since.


Sidney sit down, relax, have a sandwich, drink a glass of milk, do some fucking thing

stopnswop2
Posts: 3106
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:08 pm
Location: Novi, MI
Contact:

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by stopnswop2 » Thu Dec 06, 2018 2:13 am

I wonder, maybe he was covering for them ?


Music is my life.

User avatar
bjmcdevitt
Posts: 81
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:54 pm
Location: Hartland, MI

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by bjmcdevitt » Sun Dec 09, 2018 12:10 am

Didn't Pat & Wags do something similar on WRIF? They stopped playing commercials and locked the studio?


Please look at my signature.

riggs
Posts: 94
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:04 am

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by riggs » Sun Dec 09, 2018 12:17 am

I believe one of them was signing the logs that they had played commercials that they never played.................


Sidney sit down, relax, have a sandwich, drink a glass of milk, do some fucking thing

Mega Hertz
Posts: 4265
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:09 pm
Location: Brighton

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by Mega Hertz » Tue Dec 11, 2018 5:48 pm

That's nothing. One time I played a song not on the playlist. During the day. During the Dream Cruise. That takes REAL balls.


"Internet is no more like radio than intravenous feeding is like fine dining."
-TurkeyTop

Deleted User 8570

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by Deleted User 8570 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:11 am

Mega Hertz wrote:
Tue Dec 11, 2018 5:48 pm
That's nothing. One time I played a song not on the playlist. During the day. During the Dream Cruise. That takes REAL balls.
Did it involve boots the dog and castration?



Mega Hertz
Posts: 4265
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:09 pm
Location: Brighton

Re: Detroit Radio Stunt from maybe 30 years ago......

Post by Mega Hertz » Wed Dec 12, 2018 9:22 am

NS8401 wrote:
Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:11 am
Mega Hertz wrote:
Tue Dec 11, 2018 5:48 pm
That's nothing. One time I played a song not on the playlist. During the day. During the Dream Cruise. That takes REAL balls.
Did it involve boots the dog and castration?
No. That one didn't test well.


"Internet is no more like radio than intravenous feeding is like fine dining."
-TurkeyTop

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic