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Most memorable "stuntings"

I

installLSC

Leading Participant
As we all know, a lot of stations switching to Christmas music are really "stunting" before they switch formats. What "stuntings" do you remember as really creative?
When I was in college in Spokane (mid-90s) a local top 40 switched format. But instead of stunting with just music they'd replay skits. Two I remember:
--A DJ talks about whether the station should switch to all-artist formats and gives short samples of the artists. But they were very unlikely ones like Donald Fagen or Medeski Martin and Wood.
--They'd name fake concerts. One was Def Leppard and Bread. Amazingly enough, a lot of my dormates thought it was a legitimate booking and were really excited that Def Leppard was coming to Spokane!
 
A couple cool ones.

Back in 1999 one AM station in suburban Hartford played "The Game Show Network's Greatest Game Show Theme Songs Volume 1" for more than a day while they were in-between formats. (The previous group that leased the station knocked the station off the air for two weeks after they got evicted. When the station returned to the air they played random music for about 3 weeks before they had another group leasing the station).

For a couple months in 2017 when WRCA 1330/106.1 in Boston returned to the air they simulcast the Irish Programming from their sister FM station's HD2 channel until they leased the station to Bloomberg.
 
Kung Pao 100.5, which became Maxx 100.5 in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach market. There was also a Kung Pao 93.5 in Ontario.
"Get on the rickshaw. Kung Pao 100.5"
 
When CBS Radio bought 107.9 from Family Radio in 2011, they moved the El Zol format to 107.9, which simulcasted for about two weeks until 99.1 began stunting with commercial free Christmas music, which gave me a third Christmas music station for me to listen to along side 97.1 WASH-FM and 101.9 Lite FM (now Today's 101.9). I thought that was a great stunt since I got a commercial free Christmas station to listen to, and I even asked my middle school bus driver to play that station.
 
I don't know if it officially counts as part of the stunt, (or if something like this would even fly these days), but in Philly, when 96.5 the Point (WPTP) flipped to Rhythmic CHR, they were originally called "Wild 96.5" (WLDW). But iHeart (then Clear Channel) sent a Cease & Desist on the Wild name. So, they started by just simply censor bleeping any mention of "Wild" from the imaging, or they made sarcastic as hell imaging like this: https://fmairchecks.com/2017/01/05/wldw-wild-96-5-philadelphia-late-03early-04-jerry-clifton/

But then they had an Asian female voice start saying the name "Wild" but of course pronounced it "Wired" and the station eventually morphed into "Wired 96.5"
 
When 93X in Minneapolis got bought out by ABC/Cap Cities and the hard rock format got dropped they (93X) played "its the end of the world as we know it" over and over and over for 2 days before switching to KEGE "modern rock" (now alternative)

people actually thought the DJ's were being held hostage and called 911
 
unclehonkey said:
people actually thought the DJ's were being held hostage and called 911
Click to expand...
Losers. LOL. Same thing when Entercom bought WILD-FM 97.7 in Boston from Radio One. They were playing an automated countdown to the new format (a simulcast of WAAF) and some other stuff and people called the police telling them Al Queda (sic) had taken over the station and the countdown was a countdown to their next terrorist attack.
 
The station at 95.1 in Charlotte NC tried out numerous satellite formats from what was called SMN in 1991, along with one day of simulcasting the local all-talk station (not the one that aired Rush Limbaugh, which might have switched to talk by that time) and asked listeners to vote on which one they wanted. They even did one day of all comedy, with "Who's on First" and other funny stuff. At noon on the day the new format was revealed, a voice that sounded like Ted Koppel announced the new format would be "None of the Above". What is "None of the above", he asked? One of the choices was CHR, but the new format was sort of like CHR and sort of like alternative rock.
 
MarcB said:
Losers. LOL. Same thing when Entercom bought WILD-FM 97.7 in Boston from Radio One. They were playing an automated countdown to the new format (a simulcast of WAAF) and some other stuff and people called the police telling them Al Queda (sic) had taken over the station and the countdown was a countdown to their next terrorist attack.
Click to expand...
Also on 95.1 in 1990, people called police thinking the recording of Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey" repeated over and over was someone taking over the station.
 
gr8oldies said:
Kung Pao 100.5, which became Maxx 100.5 in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach market. There was also a Kung Pao 93.5 in Ontario.
"Get on the rickshaw. Kung Pao 100.5"
Click to expand...

You're thinking of the one in Sudbury, which was when the station flipped from 790 to 93.5. Kung Pao radio aired on both frequencies for a few weeks until the new format was unveiled. 790 would survive for 2 1/2 months after kung pao ended. To be honest, it was pretty interesting, and I would have been ok if that had stuck around longer.
 
I don't know which of the two was first, but that stunt did happen in Norfolk/Tidewater in addition to Sudbury
 
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