Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinerator

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Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinerator

Postby 45 RPM » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:46 pm

Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 in cash to the incinerator

Ryan White, CTV Calgary
Published Saturday, March 22, 2014 5:30PM MDT
Last Updated Saturday, March 22, 2014 6:51PM MDT


A number of Calgarians are expressing their outrage over an ongoing radio promotion which has resulted in $5,000 in Canadian currency reduced to a pile of ash instead of being provided to a listener.

AMP Radio’s ‘$15,000 Bank It or Burn It’ campaign is polling the listening audience to decide whether a predetermined amount of cash should be destroyed or provided to a listener as a prize. AMP is encouraging Calgarians to vote either Bank or Burn by text message, Twitter, Facebook or by posting to AMP’s Radio app. Voters who selected Bank were asked to indicate their plans for the cash.

If the number of votes for the bank option exceeded the votes cast for burn, one of the listeners who chose to bank the money would be randomly selected to receive the cash prize.

Former AMP listener Candace Ortiz was shocked to see the initial video in which an employee of her favourite radio station destroyed a five dollar bill as a precursor to the contest.

“At first I thought maybe the five dollar bills were fake and I certainly didn’t think they’d burn $15,000 cash,” said Ortiz. “I think a lot of people thought it was sort of a joke at first but they (the station) insisted it was really happening.”

On Friday, the result of the first vote was released and 54 per cent of the roughly 100,000 respondents chose to burn the $5,000 prize.

“Opening the envelope when it was handed to me on Friday morning was a heartbreaker,” said Ryan Lindsay, co-host of AMP Radio Calgary’s Ryan & Katie morning show. “We knew that the option was out there, but we never really thought that people would side with the burn side.”

The cash was transported to Pet Haven Crematorium and burned in the business’ incinerator. The radio station has posted a video of the burning of the cash on their website.

Candace Ortiz was appalled to see the station followed through with their promise.

“As a person who has had moments in my life where I literally had to scrape change and pennies to buy milk for my son it kind of hit a nerve,” said Ortiz who believed turning the dial was her only recourse. “I was raised to respect the value of money and to appreciate the good that it can do.”

“It hurt me to see someone frivolously wasting something that could go to a better purpose.”

Officials with the Calgary Drop-In Centre were disappointed to hear of the unnecessary destruction of the cash which could have been earmarked for a worthy cause.

“$5,000 is an enormous sum of money,” said Jordan Hamilton, Drop-In Centre communication manager. “For $5,000, we can provide comprehensive services for up to one hundred people. We can give people counselling support, we can give people shelter, we can give people food…we can literally turn people’s lives around.”

“I wish the money was donated to a charity. If it was donated to an organization like the Calgary Drop-In Rehab Centre, lives would have been changed.”

The fate of the remaining $10,000 is in the hands of anyone with a cell phone or internet access.

“The city will have a chance to decide if the money goes into the pockets of one of the people that votes for bank or whether again it ends up being torched,” said Lindsay. “We’re a station of our word. We’re a station that has done some pretty ‘out there’ things but we’ve always gone through with it.”

“Every single media entity in the country, in the world, spends money on promotion,” explains Lindsay. “The $5,000 that we, over the course of two weeks, took and have now unfortunately burnt is a fraction of what almost any other entity in this city spends on their marketing costs alone and it’s garnered a lot of talk.”

“While we do feel horrible about the actual burning of the money, it has garnered a lot more publicity than we could have initially thought.”

AMP Radio has hosted controversial contests in the past including Swap Your Wife for a New Life, in which couples swapped partners to win prizes, and February’s 90.3 Hour Marriage, where two strangers tied the knot during a trip to Vancouver to see Miley Cyrus in concert.


Read more: http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-radio ... z2wkJYHZql
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby Rocky » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:29 pm

What a waste of money. The cash and the underachieving "air talent".

If you work for New Cap and don't get a raise this year, at least you know where the money went.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby jon » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:16 pm

Not sure if it is American or Canadian law that allows burned money to be replaced, which would make this contest a lot less expensive than many people giving Newcap credit for.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:47 am

In the USA, the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing will maybe replace burnt notes if you can supply them with at least a half-portion of the scorched bill. That does not look like the case here from what I saw in the Amp video of the incineration. The 5000.00 was clearly reduced to unidentifiable ash.

Another thought; it was obvious that they had no hope of getting a legitimate funeral company crematorium to participate in the promotion so instead managed to talk a pet cemetery business into putting their name on it.
I'd like to hear what sort of outraged and infuriated calls and emails Pet Heaven is receiving in the wake of this publicity.
If I had brought my grief to them in the past expecting respectful gravitas and compassion I would feel betrayed.
Unless they are the only company of this sort in Calgary, they are going to likely lose a lot of business.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby pave » Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:11 am

Suck-holing for social media participation is one thing. Mind numbing contests and promos are another.
But, somehow, they both show up at the same times.
Screw this. I'm joining those other jokers and going up on the ferris wheel for, like, forever.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sun Mar 23, 2014 12:42 pm

This is just f**king stupid!
No wonder radio is such a cesspool these days.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby pave » Sun Mar 23, 2014 12:54 pm

What he said.
I sometimes wonder what the folks who run these joints are going to do when they grow up - should that - on the off chance - ever happen.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby Rich Elwood » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:20 pm

This is another example of unfunny from a generation that finds brainlessness interesting. Not to label the entire millenial generation to be out to lunch, but it seems when they are - they're way out.

There is a rule in comedy that says don't victimize - there's no glory in it. This attempt at funny reaps absolutley no dividend. While they got press, it won't draw and hold listener interest. In this case they victimized themselves proving that they are skilless, wasteful and unimaginative. In a world where so much good could have been done with the money it's a shame. What they did was the equivolent of eating a turkey dinner in front of a homeless person. Why would you advertise heartless insensitivity? Because; obviously you're a fu*#ing moron!

Isn't there a law about detroying currency willfully? If so, go get them RCMP.

$5k could have bought the show and station a lot of positive impact had it been used creativley. And shame on the stupid GM & PD that let them pull that crap?

50 - $100 bills given away randomly on the street downtown at lunchtime, somewhere unannounced and recorded for later playback would have garnered as much press and created a dividend paying buzz for the station. Especially, since they're planning on destroying $10k next time.

I think they should call the dipsh*ts in Austrailia (who called the hospital in London) and exchange mutual cudos on what it's like being the biggest, least respected jag-offs ever to wear cans!

And, talk about not knowing your audience. Calgarians are very intelligent, generous, compassinate people. Luckily, they won't sop this muck up as entertainment content.

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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby czarcasm » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:44 pm

I hope New Cap isn't planning any of these idiotic stunts when they move into Vancouver in the next week or two.

As many have said, had they done something positve, the attention would all be positive.

This 5k could have become 15k in buying power for the Calgary Food Bank.

When this gig is up, I hope the idiotic Morning Man Ryan Whatshisname enjoys selling used cars in some skuzzy car lot on 17rth Avenue SE.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby Tom Jeffries » Sun Mar 23, 2014 6:32 pm

Rich said it all.

The nadir. This is a ‘jump the shark’ moment for the maroons at this place.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby groundskeeper willy » Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:42 pm

While the outcome of this section of the promotion makes the whole station sound stupid, you've gotta hand it to Paul Kaye, the imported UK PD running the joint. There was a promo like this about a decade ago in England which caused a furor when they also burned the money, so it would appear that Paul reached back into his memory banks for it. While the thing is far from original, it's definitely working for AMP. And by working, I mean it's getting people talking. You may not agree with the concept or execution of the promotion, but the thing will surely help Paul get a raise during his next performance review. The amount of national/international coverage the station has gotten since last week is worth 100-times the value of those now-incinerated bills.

That said, I think the whole concept is stupid, but I don't fit the target demo the station is designed for. If their key millennial listeners think this is risky and exciting radio, who am I to say they're wrong?

Excuse me, I have to go shake my cane at some kids playing on the lawn.
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby 45 RPM » Mon Mar 24, 2014 2:35 pm

Wasn't this the same classy station that ran a contest a few years ago that gave away a boob job as grand prize?
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Re: Calgary radio listeners send $5,000 cash to the incinera

Postby pave » Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:04 pm

So. An imported PD reaches back for a nasty and credibility-wrecking promo-from-the-past.
There has to be an assumption here that "there is no such thing as bad press".
This would be flat-out wrong.
Short-term awareness doesn't amount to a small hill of bad beans.
Juvenile pranks are what has been killing stations for large segments of potential audiences and advertisers for decades.
This is so bush.
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