I heard something kind of bizarre on the radio the other night.  I was leaving work after the 11PM news,  turned on 96.5TIC in the car, and heard two familiar voices:  Damon Scott (the bizarre aspect of him we’ll discuss another day!) and Jeannine Jersey.   They are usually on in the afternoon,  not at the witching hour.

Anyway, they were reading rules of a contest.   They went back and forth with lines like “CBS radio reserves the right….” yada, yada, yada, and “all entrants must be..”  This went on for quite a while.  In fact, Damon and Jeannine were going through the rules when I left Rocky Hill and were still reading them by the time I crossed into Hartford, some 8 miles away. 

All the while, they remained upbeat, while a strange background music played.  It was sort of a soundtrack from “I Dream of Jeannie.”  Disturbing, yet I wanted to hear more of it…the music is.

We have contests on Channel now and then, and we just throw a list of the rules on the screen and you’re expected to read all one thousand words in 7 seconds.  I guess that gets WFSB off the hook legally.  Our friends in radio don’t have that option and have to read every word of every rule, and they Jeannine and Damon kept listeners captivated for the seemingly endless litany of rules without sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher!

Another bizarre thing I caught this weekend that shows the power of the immediacy of radio: callers.  

Scotty McDonnell

On Saturday TIC deejay Scotty McDonnell took a call from a bride getting married and she requested a song for the wedding.  How cool is that?   To call in and request a song live for your nuptials and you get it!   Scotty threatened to play the “chicken dance”  and wisely decided to go with Guns and Roses.    That would have violated the rules of good taste!