Floating Cat Prank Has Radio Listeners Outraged

newsnet5.com ^ | April 29, 2003 | newsnet5.com

[green team 1999]

Floating Cat Prank Has Radio Listeners Outraged
Animal Protective League, Police Get Involved

POSTED: 4:50 p.m. EDT April 29, 2003

CLEVELAND -- A local radio station wants you to listen, but the stunt some morning disc jockeys pulled has people outraged.

The Animal Protective League responded, and even Cleveland police showed up at the radio station and asked the disc jockeys to stop.

Live On Five Investigator Jodi Brooks reported that 92.3 Extreme Radio said there is an expectation among its listeners to be shocking and to push the envelope, and on Tuesday it started with a contest to win concert tickets.

"We had a bunch of different objects (and were) tying helium balloons to the objects and callers had to guess how many balloons (would) lift the objects off the ground," disc jockey "Rover" said.

The disc jockeys then told listeners they were tying balloons to a cat.

This is what was heard on the radio: "Grab him, grab him! Somebody help me. Oh my God, you guys -- he's flying away! Look out the window. Oh my God, the cat is..."

The drama lasted for 3 ½ hours.

"Where is it? How far off the ground? It's floating away, higher than the parking garage," the disc jockeys said on air.

The APL received more than 100 calls, and police got word, too.

Here is an excerpt from one call to 911: "Hi, I'm listening to the radio, and there's this radio station that had this girl tie balloons to her cat and it's floating around in the air downtown. Is there anything you can do about it? The cat's going to die."

"You want the truth?" Rover said. "No, there was no cat out there. It was all theater of the minds."

On the radio, the prank ended with more creativity.

"Someone out in Medina shot the balloons down," said "Lunchbox," a 92.3 producer. "The cat came to the ground and we recovered it. The cat's OK."

Cleveland police said no charges were filed because the radio station prank did not rise to the level of a crime. Also, as soon as the station was asked to stop, it did.

The APL is now demanding a retraction, admitting the incident was a joke.

The station said it will not offer any type of apology.

The new radio morning team compared themselves to Howard Stern, saying they want a reaction.

for information and discusion only,not for profit etc,etc.

[So Cal Rocket]

LOL!!!!! I don't know why I found this to be so funny, but I did!

Reminds me of the "War of the Worlds" by Orson Wells...

Now, the REAL question is: how many balloons would it take to lift Orson Welles off the ground?

[dark_lord]

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

[Luna]

As a cat lover, I find this absolutely...

HILARIOUS!!!

ROTFLOL!!!!

[green team 1999]

perhaps with the goodyear blimp?

[Darheel]

Bravo!

Not quite War of the Worlds-worthy, but I guess it's the best we could expect these days. Cats from space, cat bombs, i could've done it better lol.

[cinFLA]

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

And they make a heck of a noise when they do.

[ElkGroveDan]

The headline made me think it was a story similar to the one from an SAE frat party I attended at Montana State University in 1983. They found a dead cat and froze it in a block of ice and floated it in a giant punch bowl. It made national news.

[green team 1999]

remember this stunt was performed without harm to animals

[Petronski]

Dear Animal Protection League:

THERE WAS NO CAT!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Should of used a pig, then every Democrat would have suddenly started telling the truth.

Sorta a human induced day of Pentecost.

[unspun]

PLEASE! STOP POSTING SAME CAT ON ALL BOARDS!

[green team 1999]

can you believe it 100 calls

[Allegra]

Cat Humor PING

[unspun]

THERE WAS NO CAT!

Oh sure there wasn't, Cleveland Bob.

[xrp]

Why doesn't President George W Bush do anything about this?

[ican'tbelieveit]

I would have donated a stuffed kitty for them to float just for the reaction... darn.

[green team 1999]

THERE WAS NO CAT! Oh sure there wasn't, Cleveland Bob.

if there was a cat,they are not going to tell.

[discostu]

Are people really that dense? You don't the DJ booth on the exterior of a building and you sure don't open the windows. DJ booths hate noise. Dumb people out there.