Denver Entercom Affiliate Alice105.9 says Bah-Humbug to Charity

kids hulk

HULK says you should donate Alice 105.9!
And you don't want to make him angry ...

When my Christmas lights webcam was getting international publicity during Christmas 2004, the DJ's at Alice105.9 (a major local radio station here in Denver that is an Entercom affilliate) invited me on their Morning Show on December 14th, 2004 and ended up offering me $10,000 if I would put an ad on my christmas web site for them. I turned them down - yea, my wife said I was nuts ... just think how many Christmas Lights I could have bought! ;-)

You can read about it on THEIR web site - scroll down and it is near the bottom. I assume their on air offer was serious and genuine - they claimed it was when they invited me back on the air in January. But who knows with morning radio DJ's ... talk is cheap ... so lets find out!

For Christmas/2005, I'm raising money (over $15,000 so far) for the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research - my kids have this auto-immune disease. Last year, I had 17,000 christmas lights and one (simulated) webcam. This year, I've got 26,000 christmas lights and three (real) webcams. Once again, there has been extensive media coverage. So if Alice105.9 was truly serious about their (non-tax-deductible) $10,000 offer last year (that would go into my pocket), I'd suggest that if they want their name and logo on my web site this year, they pony up $20,000 for Celiac Disease Research - heck, it's for a good cause and it's tax deductible too!

I sent 'em a note in early December/2005 asking if they were going to "Walk the Talk" but have not heard back - send 'em your two cents. You can optionally contact Entercom at 1-610-660-5610 or send them an Email.

2005 Updates on Alice105.9

December 14th 0630: So Rich Stevens, the Alice 105.9 Morning Show producer, woke up my wife and I with an early phone call this morning. He wanted to put me on the air in 15 minutes, but I said my kids were still asleep. So he suggested about 8:30 and I said fine. I said that I'd like to mention the Celiac fund-raising effort - he said no problem.

December 14th 1000: Alice105.9 talked a lot on the air about their Frosty the Snowman this morning, but I never heard from 'em after the early morning wakeup call - maybe they got cold feet?!? ;-)

December 15th 0900: Rich said they got behind yesterday, but said lets do today. So BJ, Howie, and Jennifer had me on their show this morning ... and they implied that they were thinking about stepping up to the plate. They couldn't track down their big-cheese station VP - they said he was MIA from the huge office party they had last night - but maybe that was morning radio DJ talk. They said lets chat again tomorrow, so I said I'd put a blurb on the main page about their upcoming segment which I did.

December 16th 1000: No word from Alice105.9. I had sent 'em a note at 0811 asking if we were still on for 0830 - no response. Ironically, they read some Emails on the air where people wrote them saying they should "walk the talk" - but their on-the-air response was "(AUDIO) we couldn't track anyone down ... that has the authority to sign the checks!" So let me help you guys out if you are serious about donating for charity. The phone number of your parent company Entercom is 1-610-660-5610 and you can send Email to these guys who probably have the authority to sign checks.

Christmas Morning: In the classic Charles Dicken's story A Christmas Carol, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him to change his ways or be doomed to eternal damnation. Then the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future visit to show Scrooge the error of his ways ... and he repents Christmas morning. Dicken's writes at the end of his story "and to Tiny Tim, who did not die" and Dr. Donald Lewis theorized in the America Journal of Diseases of Children that Tiny Tim suffered from a kidney disease due to poverty, but that after Scrooge's new-found generosity, it was treatable. So I was hopeful this would be a modern day rendition as my last Email to Alice105.9 closed with "Lets hope this story has a happy ending ..." But since they never responded, I guess these guys are just talk - Bah Humbug!

Nicholas444 summed it up best - "Donate to Celiac Alice 105.9 or be visited by 3 ghosts"



Christmas/2007: Not surprisingly, there has been no word from Alice105.9. However, a radio station in Galena, Alaska did ante up for charity - read that great Christmas Story!