My Name Is Not Merv Griffin

...With all due respect to Gary Muller, and the late great Dr. Demento. 

For the record, Merv is no stage name. He was born Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr., so that much is wholly true.  After founding Merv Griffin Enterprises in 1964 he began buying up small and medium market radio stations. At different times the total list included WPOP-AM Hartford, CT and WIOF-FM in Waterbury, CT; WMID-AM in Atlantic City and WGRF-FM in Pleasantville, NJ and in upstate New York WENE-AM and WMRV-FM in Endicott and WBAX-FM in Wilkes Barre. They also had WARD-AM in Pittston and two in Rhode Island WHJJ and WHJY. I count ten stations there but in their own accounting the Merv Griffin Radio Group  "bought, managed and sold 17 radio stations."  I'm still trying to find the balance of 7. 

Only one of those stations bore his name: WMRV-FM.  Originally on 105.5 as WENE-FM the station was a simulcast of WENE-AM. The call signs and programming changed in 1971 with the change in ownership. In march of 2013 it became WBNW under the ownership of Clear Channel. It remains a top 40 station even today.

Just two years after he picked up WBAX in 1971 Griffin and his wife, Julann, divorced just two years later in 1973. She retained ownership of many of the stations as part of the settlement.  There were negotations but in the end Julann got 4 of his then seven stations.  In 1986, following his retirement, Griffin sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Columbia Pictures for $250 million.  Merv Griffin then founded Griffin Group in the months following that sale. The WMRV calls now reside on 93.9 in Danville, NY on a stick that was formerly WDNY and WACZ.

Stupid DJ Tricks: Part 14

My two least favorite genres of Stupid DJ tricks are fake contests and fake celebrities. Firstly they are numerous, which both makes them pathetic, but also it makes the catastrophes foreseeable. But we're talking about DJs here not normal human beings who are able to learn things. In that regard they are like small poorly trained yippy dogs. But, yippy little dogs rarely get sued.

In the year 2000 Susan Santodonato, wife of Paul Santodonato died during a promotional event staged by WMRV in Binghamton, New York. She hit her head on a garage door a during a human stampede and died from the injuries she sustained. Susan fell and hit her head in a crowd of about 100 people chasing a limo that was supposed to to have Britney Spears riding in it.  But the limo did not have Britney Spears riding in it. The blond in the limo was a celebrity impersonator hired by Clear channel for a hoax by WMRV.

As a part of the hoax, the station aired a pre-recorded interview that was made by splicing together pre-recorded answers with live questions. The station made every indication that it was live and that Britney herself was live in the studio at WMRV. The impersonator arrived at WMRV by limo with staffers wearing Britney Spears record label: Jive Records. As they had hoped, this attracted a large crowd. I'll quote the case file on the particulars

"Decedent and her 10-year-old daughter were among those present. At some point during the interview, the limousine moved from the front of the station to a side entrance, causing the crowd to shift in that direction. It was at that time that decedent fell to the ground and sustained a head injury."

Interestingly the legal liability of WMRV wasn't exacerbated much by by the Britney Spears impersonator. The real Britney would have generated the exact same situation.  It's a question of negligence. Paul Santodonato accused WMRV of inadequate crowd control. In 2006 a New York circuit Appellate court dismissed his $1.2 billion lawsuit.  The ruling is here.