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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Call it Satire and go back to sleep

Star 94 94.9 WMSR Florence Muscle Shoals Stunt Bomb Threat Alien Invasion Format Change
Here we go again.  Another radio haox gone bad.

 A stunt leading into a new format for URBan Radio’s CHR “Star 94” 94.9 WMSR Collinwood, TN/Muscle Shoals, AL has somehow escalated into local law enforcement placing extra security at area schools.
On Monday, WMSR began airing drops from “two aliens” planning on taking over the station later this week. At 9am this morning the station began stunting with a different micro-format every hour which included the aliens commentary on the music. The new format is expected to launch on Friday.
Somehow some of the early drops from the aliens led to listeners to believe that the 9am takeover today were going to lead to bombings at area schools. Despite warnings from local police that it was just a programming stunt, local towns placed extra police officers at schools to placate those who thought the threat was real.
 Alabama Residents Panic After Radio Station's Joke Alien Invasion

When it comes to media, the line between truth and fiction is sometimes hazier than the Milky Way. Just ask Star 94.9, the Alabama radio station that aired a mock warning of an extra-terrestrial invasion on Aug. 27 and subsequently sent the town of Tuscumbia into a spiral of panic about an impending bomb attack.
Apparently, the broadcast, which included an alien reading Goodnight Moon, spiraled into an elaborate rumor of a bomb threat at a local school.
Sorry, but I'm not laughing.  The line between truth and fiction is not hazier than the Milky Way and the public airways shouldn't be used to promote lies and scare people in this hypersensitive post 9/11 world.  The power of the press is awesome, and in this case awful.

Favorite Comments:

Alabama will soon ask congress for border patrol in the sky.

 The stupidity lurking down there just gets creepier...the gene pool down there must surely be shallow.

 "Ain't nobody touching my sheep but me..." (Racks shotgun) ~ Alabama'(ns?)

Oh well, at least Alabama is # 1 in football.  Sigh

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