#10 - When Good Radio Contests Go Bad
(Thursday April 17, 2008)
You generally assume your local radio station is on being honest and trustworthy when running contests. After all, it's sort of the law. But, there's been a problem in Seattle. According to seattlepi.com: "A former Fisher Communications employee rigged a KVI-AM promotion so her friends would win $1,000 prizes with her taking part of the winnings...The suspected employee, in her mid-20s, had her friends register as listeners and then told them when to listen..."
Involved at this point are the local police and the Federal Communications Commission. The former employee is now working at a coffee stand (true) but that's not the reason there still "grounds" for an arrest.
#9 - Radio Distracts Truck Driver in Crash
(Monday October 6, 2008)
We often hear criticism that cell phones are distracting and lead to more automobile accidents. Thank goodness radios are safe...right? From Kennewick, Washington comes a story of a truck driver who was listening to a college football game.
According to kndo.com: "Kennewick police officers say a 60-year-old man was trying to make a left turn when he didn't yield to an oncoming semi traveling eastbound. The man admitted he was distracted by the football game."
The unidentified and unhurt man was ticketed for failing to yield.
#8 - Former KGO Talker Bernie Ward Sentenced to 7 Years
(Thursday August 28, 2008)
Former KGO-AM/San Francisco radio personality, Bernie Ward, was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in prison today by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.
Howard Mintz from Mercury News summed up Ward's fate as a "...tumble from one of the Bay Area's most popular liberal voices on the local airwaves to a pariah caught up in the world of online child pornography."
Ward has to turn himself over to U.S. Marshals by noon this Friday. His sentence is the result of a guilty plea earlier this year to one count of distributing child pornography.
