92 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
92 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
|
By PETER S. HAWES
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- For almost three years a team of comedians has
|
|||
|
|
spiced up morning drive-time radio shows from Massachusetts to Guam, with a
|
|||
|
|
simple philosophy: "If it has air in it, we'll let it out."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
True, there are ground rules, but almost anything goes as members of the
|
|||
|
|
American Comedy Network try to make their names as great American humorists.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
There have been complaints from the McDonald's Corp., and listeners in the
|
|||
|
|
Bible Belt still beef about a fake advertisement for a perfume called "Nympho."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
However, ACN's business is irreverent comedy and it's found 128 radio
|
|||
|
|
stations in the United States and Canada willing to take the heat in exchange
|
|||
|
|
for the wacky group's potshots at everything.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The group was formed in 1983 by Katz Broadcasting Co. Each week, Katz sends
|
|||
|
|
its affiliates a tape containing at least five 30-second to two-minute bits,
|
|||
|
|
plus scripts for any interactive segments. Local deejays "drop" the bits into
|
|||
|
|
their show whenever they want.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
ACN keeps its humor topical and considers few instititions sacred. Its
|
|||
|
|
commercial for "Greedies" cereal knocks Olympic Gold Medal gymnast Mary Lou
|
|||
|
|
Retton: "Four-foot-nine Mary Lou. She's selling out the way the big boys do."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
McDonald's complained to several stations about the ACN's takeoff on
|
|||
|
|
commercials for its McDLT sandwiches, in which an announcer says: "If you want
|
|||
|
|
to win the burger wars, you've got to rap and clap and flap your trap. ... We
|
|||
|
|
make a great big deal over nothing."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Elvis Presley fans complained over a few bits they thought to be demeaning to
|
|||
|
|
the late singer. One was a parody of TV record ads hawking a tape of "Elvis'
|
|||
|
|
Most Intimate Moments" in which the rock 'n' roll king was heard ordering six
|
|||
|
|
pizzas, jelly donuts and a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Other commercials have hawked Slam-Dunkin Donuts ("Do you want a small one, a
|
|||
|
|
medium one or Olajuwon?" -- playing on the name of the Houston Rockets'
|
|||
|
|
basketball star); FasterCard ("for people who live beyond their means"); and
|
|||
|
|
Krapco's Surgery City ("save money by diagnosing yourself. We'll take your
|
|||
|
|
word for it").
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Katz orginal idea for the company was to create timely takeoffs -- song
|
|||
|
|
parodies, fake commercials and sketches -- to be used by the company's 11 radio
|
|||
|
|
stations.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Katz president Dick Ferguson lured ACN president Andy Goodman and his
|
|||
|
|
colleague Bob James to Bridgeport from Orlando, Fla., where the two had
|
|||
|
|
collaborated on a morning show that featured taped and live humorous bits.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dale Reeves, a New York disc jockey who had performed hundreds of voices by
|
|||
|
|
telephone for Goodman and James, later joined the team along with former
|
|||
|
|
actress Mechele George, who does female voices and serves as director of
|
|||
|
|
marketing and sales, and David Lawrence, executive producer.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
ACN's business plan, according to Goodman, was to produce national and
|
|||
|
|
localized material first for one radio station and gradually add one station at
|
|||
|
|
a time until it was supplying all 11 Katz outlets.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But five months after it started, one of its bits -- a parody of the American
|
|||
|
|
Telephone & Telegraph Co. breakup, called "Breakin' Up Is Hard on You" and
|
|||
|
|
sung to the tune of Neil Sedaka's "Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do" -- caught on at
|
|||
|
|
the four Katz stations to which it was sent.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The song received tremendous airplay, and within weeks a Boston record
|
|||
|
|
company had pressed it into a single that soon was heard on thousands of radio
|
|||
|
|
stations. It sold nearly 200,000 copies and climbed into the Top 80 on
|
|||
|
|
Billboard magazine's record chart.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"I was sitting here telling everyone not to get excited, that this is a
|
|||
|
|
nonevent. It will fizzle out," Goodman said. "But we had this unwitting demo
|
|||
|
|
out there and we started getting calls. We looked at our business plan and
|
|||
|
|
threw it out the window."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The ACN began lining up radio stations across the country and now supplies
|
|||
|
|
128 of them with at least seven short, 30-to-90-second bits a week for use
|
|||
|
|
during morning shows. The team spends three hours a day writing, at least
|
|||
|
|
another day producing and every Wednesday ships its material -- tapes, scripts,
|
|||
|
|
a newsletter and evaluation form -- to its subscribers.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Its fees range from $1,600 to $11,900 a year based on market size. Goodman
|
|||
|
|
would not reveal financial data for ACN, which is owned by Katz, a private
|
|||
|
|
company.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"People don't know who we are and that's the way it's supposed to be,"
|
|||
|
|
Goodman said. "We're trying to make announcers funny without stealing their
|
|||
|
|
thunder."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The only rules to the ACN's humor, Goodman said, are "no space shuttle stuff,
|
|||
|
|
no AIDS, no ethnic jokes, no national tragedies and no incurable diseases --
|
|||
|
|
except idiocy."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|