Woman Sues Over Radio Station's Toy Hummer April Fool's Prank

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A listener is suing a radio station she said promised her a new Hummer H2 and instead gave her a remote-controlled model as an April Fools' Day prank.

Shannon Castillo, 25, sued Taft radio station KBDS "The Play" 103.9 after it presented her the toy car for winning a weeklong "contest" in which listeners were supposed to track the number of miles two H2s traveled around town. DJs at the station gave regular updates on the vehicles' supposed travels.

She said she hired a baby sitter for her two children so she could arrive at the station at 6 a.m. on the day of the giveaway, April 1. After she waited for two hours, she said, a DJ pulled up in the back of a truck and handed her and another listener remote-controlled toy cars.

"They put us on the radio all week long, just portraying how they couldn't believe that we believed they were actually giving away real cars," said Castillo, a Bakersfield housewife. "I just couldn't believe that they would actually humiliate someone like that."


http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.17662.html

woman may well have a case. Misrepresenting a contest is not unheard of in radio, however.

KIIS in LA routinely humiliates people in a bit Ryan Seacrest does in the morning that my daughter listens to on the way to school. Women who suspect that their boyfriend/husband is cheating on them call in and give Seacrest permission to call the guy pretending to be a representative of an online flower service doing a free promotion. The aim is to get the guy to order a dozen roses for someone other than the wife/girlfriend so he can be caught red-handed on the air. I cringe every time this comes on. Who knows what's really going on in these relationships. Inevitably the guy comes off looking like a jerk, and when he tries to explain, is harrassed by Seacrest until he hangs up.

If one of these guys decided to sue, this unfunny crap would stop in a hurry.

full well that their guy is on the up-and-up, they just want to get a laugh at his expense or revenge on an ex.

What is with this rampant radio mean-spiritedness?

It's only funny for toatl dolts, IMHO.