Taking Responsibility
By Steve Young, Director of Pop and Rock Programming and Consulting, Jones Radio Networks/Seattle
The recent tragedy that took the life of a listener to a Sacramento radio station has jarred stations from coast to coast. Over the years, radio stations have relied on stunts to publicize themselves and to raise awareness of their existence. "Hold your wee for a Wii" was a contest dreamt up by the morning show of radio station KZND. We don't currently know just who knew all the details or what exactly management knew, but one thing is for sure: Somehow, a contest got on the air that placed the health and safety of listeners in jeopardy. At time of publication, all the ramifications of this tragedy have yet to play themselves out. It is now a matter for the courts and the FCC to decide. However, this case clearly underscores the need for radio stations to take responsibility for what we ask listeners to do.
I've been part of many radio station stunts in the past. In almost all of them, it was our staff that was involved, and not our listeners. We took every precaution to ensure the health and welfare of our employees in the performance of their duties. We never dreamt of doing a promotion that would involve our listeners signing waivers absolving us in case of their sickness or death! The only time we needed listeners to sign waivers was when they won a trip or something of that nature, absolving the station of any damages should an injury or even more seriously a death result from the taking of that trip. Nowhere in that waiver was a clause indicating that we would ask the listener to go wing walking or jump from the airplane.
I remember one instance where a listener performed dangerous stunts, but it was of his own conception and execution. The man, Dean Gunnarson, was a stunt performer in Winnipeg, Canada. He approached us at CITI-FM to sponsor a show he was doing where he would be performing several stunts including some of Harry Houdini's most dangerous ones. Before we would engage him, we wanted it clearly laid out in writing that our sponsorship in no way endorsed what Dean was about to do and that we take no responsibility for any harm which might come to him through the performance of these stunts. Gunnarson was going to perform this show with or without our support. We did not encourage or dare him in any way, and we had him acknowledge that in the waiver we had him sign. We never would have approached him to place his life or health in jeopardy first. This was his profession. Like Houdini, he understood the risks involved. We sponsored the show, and thankfully everything went off without a hitch.
We ran into a similar instance years later in Seattle when KISW sponsored the Jim Rose Circus. For those of you unfamiliar with Jim, he ran what could be called a "freak show". Members of his entourage would do stunts like swallow swords and lie on beds of nails. You get the idea. In this case, our attorneys determined that this was their way of making a living, and that if they acknowledged in writing that they understood the risks involved in their livelihood, then KISW would be absolved of any responsibility in case of any unforeseen accident.
Another contest which caused some issues for us was the "Most Outrageous" contest. What would you do for some fantastic prizes? Of course, listeners submitted ideas for stunts that would clearly have put them in harm's way. One man wanted to strap himself to the top of his station wagon and run himself through a car wash!! Can you imagine what the hot wax would have done to this guy? We had to disqualify anything that would have jeopardized life and limb and settle on more conventional ideas that resembled Fear Factor rather than Stunt Man Extra. Even back in the mid-1970s, corporate attorneys understood the jeopardy stations could be placed in should harm come to a listener because of something the station demanded of them. This brings us back to the way things have been done more recently. Somewhere along the way, oversight of promotions and stunts at radio stations has become shoddy. It would have been unthinkable for the radio station I programmed for Nationwide Communications to even consider a promotion like "hold your wee for a Wii." After all, Nationwide is an insurance company. Who better to understand liability than them? Our industry has become so manpower-challenged that many things begin to slip through the cracks. At KZND, I can only imagine how quickly this promotion was put together. I doubt it was run through any kind of filters, and now the station is going to pay the consequences. I don't have first-hand knowledge of this, but I strongly wonder just how high up the awareness went for this particular contest.
Not only do we risk legal liability when we ask our listeners to endanger themselves, we give our business a cheap and shoddy reputation. This is something we certainly don't need right now as we fight to remain credible with segments of listeners that don't consider us as important as previous generations did.
We are trying to remain relevant and entertaining for our listeners. The temptation may be there to be more outrageous than the competition. Teach your staff to be responsible when asking listeners to participate in anything we do. Just remember that there are better ways to stand out and entertain audiences that end in better results than "hold your wee for a Wii."
