A young woman was standing at a North Side “L” station on a recent Friday morning when a man identifying himself as “Turd” came up and offered her $103 if she would take off her blouse and ride the train topless.
“It was very demeaning and humiliating,” said the woman.
In fact, it was just another so-called wacky stunt by Mancow Muller’s WRCX-FM 103.5 morning team as it attempts to gain a foothold in the Chicago radio wars after six weeks.
“It’s a morning show that’s doing everything it can to get known as quickly as possible in this market,” said WRCX program director Dave Richards.
In this case, Muller had announced on the air that any woman willing to ride public transit topless-since it was now legal in New York City-the station would pay for it.
“The city loves radio personalities who don’t play by the rules,” said Richards, rattling off the names of Jonathon Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews and Eddie and JoBo. “And those have been the bigger personalities in the city.”
The problem of not playing by the rules, however, is drawing the line when it comes to taste.
“It’s a very big gray area,” Richards said.
A little over a week ago, for instance, Frankfort officials were upset when “Roadkill Tuesday” left village workers about a half-dozen dead animals to clean up in a shopping center parking lot.
“I didn’t know there was a problem in Frankfort,” Richards said. “I’ve spoken to everybody there regarding the stunt, and there were no problems on their side.”
(According to village documents collected by Muller, the problems went away after the station received a $500 fine for “dumping dead animal carcasses” and paid $505 in cleanup costs.)
As for the woman on the “L” platform, she was angry enough to report the incident to the police, who informed her “it was more of a civil suit,” she said, because the Muller aide wasn’t technically soliciting for prostitution.
“I understand that she’d be upset,” Richards said. But, he added, “there were women who took their tops off that day.”
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Bottom line?
“With a morning show of this nature, you’re going to get people who (question a stunt),” Richards said. “But you’re also going to get people who say that’s great. We’ve seen the audience size in the morning grow.”
Nice gesture: A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in Holy Name Cathedral for Joe Duffy, the 28-year-old advertising account executive at WLUP-FM 97.9 who died in the Sept. 8 USAir crash. Immediately afterward, friends and family will adjourn to the Cubby Bear Lounge for a wake/celebration. Also, Duffy’s family has set up a scholarship fund in lieu of flowers. Contributions can be sent to: The Joe Duffy Fund, in care of St. Joseph Regional High School, 30 Chestnut Ridge Rd., Montvale, N.J. 07645.
Bad taste award: After a news update Wednesday on the USAir crash, WYSY-FM 107.9 began its next music segment with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Travelin’ Band.” First line? “737 comin’ out of the sky …”
Personnel moves: Scott Loftus, a Chicago radio veteran, joins WRCX-FM for the late-night shift, while Johnathon Cook, a former WLUP-FM weekend host, takes over WRCX’s overnight shift. … The Chicago-based Peace and Justice Radio Project airs 25 commentaries by Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Pennsylvania Death Row inmate whose tapes about prison life were banned by National Public Radio last year, starting Sunday on four local stations: WHPK-FM (88.5), WLUW-FM (88.7), WZRD-FM (88.3) and WXAV-FM (88.3).