Art ©1996 Burton W. Schlatter and Ben Jackson
In honor of the Super Bowl last January, a Los Angeles radio station ran a “Super Bowl Crazy Stunt” contest. One of the finalists was Mike Garcia, 25, whose practiced stunt consisted of swallowing
his glass eye, regurgitating it
and then reinserting it. But once swallowed, the pressure
of the limelight kept the eyeball down, despite a huge
meal and 15 minutes of self-induced vomiting, much of
which was broadcast live. Rather than winning a new Ford
Escort, Garcia left the station’s studios with an
empty left eye socket, soiled clothing and the prospect
of spending $1,500 for a new eye. In Wanganui,
New Zealand, a 21 year-old man armed with a bomb
took a radio station manager hostage and demanded that
the station play “The Rainbow Connection” by
The Muppets repeatedly for twelve hours to “tell
people how he felt.” The 
station
complied, and nobody was hurt.
Back in 1973, the California Highway Patrol
announced that the number of people flinging
themselves off the Golden Gate bridge was approaching
500. A rash of attempted suicides followed, including one
jumper who was wearing a shirt reading “500.”
In 1995, as the magic number approached 1000, a Bay Area
radio station went one step further, offering prizes to
the 1000th jumper. Of course, there was a catch. 
The winner would have to pick up his goods
at the station in person.
In Argentina, one of the country’s most
popular radio programs is Radio La Colifita, or Loony
Radio, which originates from the Borda
Psychiatric Hospital in Buenos Aires. The program
broadcasts live interviews, commentary and songs from the
courtyard of the hospital, and features patients like
Garces, the Emperor of Paranoia and Pujo, the
Correspondent from Mars. In May, Radio La Colifita
garnered one of Argentina’a top broadcasting awards
in recognition of the show’s social contribution and
popularity.
Translation Mutilations
When Perdue Chickens ran TV ads in Latin America, the tag line “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” was overdubbed in Spanish as “It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate.”
Coors beer slogan “Turn it Loose” translated
into Spanish as “Suffer From Diarrhea.”