Radio stunt involving drowning dog causes quite a stir(Update, Grand Rapids, August 12, 2005, 4:34 p.m.) A controversial stunt to raise awareness about recent drownings in West Michigan has caused quite a stir in the Grand Rapids area.
24 Hour News 8 was contacted Thursday night by Grand Rapids police after Justice and Jim, DJ's from WKLQ's morning show in Grand Rapids, threatened to drown a dog. Residents jammed 911 phone lines at the Grand Rapids Police Department and flooded 24 Hour News 8 with emails and phone calls Thursday night.
According to a posting by Justice on the morning show's blog , the entire stunt was completely made up, done in an effort to draw attention to the danger of water related deaths to children.
Justice and Jim went to the extreme of never telling people, including 24 Hour News 8 when we asked them, that it was a stunt until after hundreds heard the sounds effects of the dog drowning over the airwaves Friday morning. They then told listeners it was fake.
There is no surprise that this stunt, before and after, caused an overflow of response from people who thought Justice and Jim went way too far, and from people who say they understood their point.
"Hopefully next time somebody's at a place where there's kids, if they have kids or they don't, Millennium Park, or the lake, or a pool, they'll look around and be a little bit more aware and they'll think back to what we did today, whether they agreed with it or not, and maybe we can do some good," Justice told 24 Hour News 8.
"It worked. It got everybody's attention. Everybody's talking about it. So in essence, it all worked. Whether you agree or not, it worked," added his morning show sidekick, Jim.
Even though it was fake, many are not laughing.
Many viewers that contacted 24 Hour News 8 wanted us to save the dog. One viewer summed it up saying, "This was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard."
"I thought it was reprehensible," adds Stephanie Warden, another concerned citizen.
The Kent County Humane Society has had several calls and is encouraging people like Warden to call WKLQ's advertisers and the Federal Communications Commission.
"It was really done in poor taste. I think there are better ways to bring awareness to water safety. I don't think anybody really made a correlation between water safety and this stunt," Warden says.
Justice and Jim say they are sorry for causing the public panic. But they say they are not sorry for the stunt itself.
There are also many people who still believe this was just a publicity stunt because the station is in a ratings period. The station lost the controversial, but popular, Howard Stern years ago and switched formats and even frequencies on the dial to get more listeners.
The fallout of this stunt, it seems, is just beginning. Businesses, including Pet Supplies Plus, have now pulled its advertising on all Citadel radio stations, the company that owns WKLQ.
Plus, the Safe Kids Coalition, which was interviewed on that radio program about water safety, says it does not want to be associated with this stunt.
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