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Animal Protective League, Police Get Involved
POSTED: 4:47 pm EDT April 29,
2003
CLEVELAND -- A local radio station wants you to listen, but the stunt some morning disc jockeys pulled has people outraged.
The Animal Protective League responded, and even Cleveland police showed up at the radio station and asked the disc jockeys to stop. Live On Five Investigator Jodi Brooks reported that 92.3 Extreme Radio said there is an expectation among its listeners to be shocking and to push the envelope, and on Tuesday it started with a contest to win concert tickets. "We had a bunch of different objects (and were) tying helium balloons to the objects and callers had to guess how many balloons (would) lift the objects off the ground," disc jockey "Rover" said. The disc jockeys then told listeners they were tying balloons to a cat. This is what was heard on the radio: "Grab him, grab him! Somebody help me. Oh my God, you guys -- he's flying away! Look out the window. Oh my God, the cat is..." The drama lasted for 3 ½ hours. "Where is it? How far off the ground? It's floating away, higher than the parking garage," the disc jockeys said on air. The APL received more than 100 calls, and police got word, too. 
Here is an excerpt from one call to 911: "Hi, I'm listening to the radio, and there's this radio station that had this girl tie balloons to her cat and it's floating around in the air downtown. Is there anything you can do about it? The cat's going to die." "You want the truth?" Rover said. "No, there was no cat out there. It was all theater of the minds." On the radio, the prank ended with more creativity. "Someone out in Medina shot the balloons down," said "Lunchbox," a 92.3 producer. "The cat came to the ground and we recovered it. The cat's OK." Cleveland police said no charges were filed because the radio station prank did not rise to the level of a crime. Also, as soon as the station was asked to stop, it did. The APL is now demanding a retraction, admitting the incident was a joke. The station said it will not offer any type of apology. The new radio morning team compared themselves to Howard Stern, saying they want a reaction.
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Here is an excerpt from one call to 911: "Hi, I'm listening to the radio, and there's this radio station that had this girl tie balloons to her cat and it's floating around in the air downtown. Is there anything you can do about it? The cat's going to die." "You want the truth?" Rover said. "No, there was no cat out there. It was all theater of the minds." On the radio, the prank ended with more creativity. "Someone out in Medina shot the balloons down," said "Lunchbox," a 92.3 producer. "The cat came to the ground and we recovered it. The cat's OK." Cleveland police said no charges were filed because the radio station prank did not rise to the level of a crime. Also, as soon as the station was asked to stop, it did. The APL is now demanding a retraction, admitting the incident was a joke. The station said it will not offer any type of apology. The new radio morning team compared themselves to Howard Stern, saying they want a reaction. Copyright 2007 by NewsNet5. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
