Phillips Phile: Tell Him Fred

Yesterday on the O&A show, they played audio of a Florida station, WTKS 104.1 in Orlando. The host, Jim Phillips, came up with a great new idea: to have his listeners stand behind live reports during the news. They would then “shadow box” behind the reporter to show that what the reporter is saying is not important.

Guh.

This is what Opie and Anthony have been doing for a LONG time now, even getting national news attention for it. In New York on May 19, 2005, an O&A listener stood behind reporter Arthur Chi’en yelling “Opie and Anthony, XM Satellite Radio” over and over. Finally, Chi’en turned around and yelled “What the F*%$ is your problem, man?” He was then fired by WCBS for violating their “zero tolerance” policy for swearing on air.

Since then there have been several successful assaults on the media. There have been several columnists, such as Richard Huff of the New York Daily news who have written extensively on the Assaults on the Media. In one column, Huff wrote:

There’s a saying in TV circles that the camera is a $50,000 idiot magnet.

Viewers got to see just what an idiot draw a TV camera is a couple of times this week when sycophants of radio jocks Opie and Anthony turned up in the background of live news shots.

The incidents, part of a disruption campaign launched by the XM Radio hosts, has forced local news producers to end live shots early, and take other precautions to keep the knuckleheads off the air.

Here are a few examples:

So back to the Phillips phile. Phillips actually said that he wanted to check with the bosses at his station to make sure they would allow him to do the assaults, and so that he can “own the bit so no one rips me off”.

Unreal.