Country radio powerhouse WSIX-FM really knows how to get noticed. Last week, when everyone was consumed with the tragic story of an American's decapitation in Iraq, the station began a high-profile ad campaign whose theme was, of all things, the simulated decapitation of popular morning show host Gerry House.
The top-rated station has been running a series of billboards all over Nashville featuring House's goofily grinning severed head accompanied by thigh-slapper captions such as "No BODY does it better!"
Naturally, in a heated political atmosphere, even something as apparently innocent as the simulated beheading of a local media celebrity can generate controversy. Sources say the billboards have become the object of numerous phone calls and e-mails sent both to WSIX and its parent company, radio giant Clear Channel Communications.
But that public notice apparently hasn't swayed WSIX from its next billboard campaign, which will probably generate even more controversy—and listeners. Over the caption "Yank Gerry's chain mornings on WSIX," the billboard will feature a naked House on all fours, wearing a leash being held by sidekick Devon O'Day.
Clear Channel Communications has come under fire in other media markets for advertising campaigns that seem to make light of tragic news events. A Clear Channel station in Dallas showed its morning team riding in the back of a convertible through Dealey Plaza with the line, "Our music is number one with a bullet!" while another station in Los Angeles depicts its on-air staff in an earthquake ("Shaking up L.A. radio!").
Tom Schurr, general manager for all Clear Channel stations in Nashville, says some people are overreacting to the latest advertising campaign.
"This is not a true decapitation," he says. "It's more like a floating-head kind of magic thing. Gerry's head hasn't been chopped off—it's more like it's floating separately from his body, like something Penn and Teller might do."
(The Fabricator is satire. Don't believe everything you read.)
