While we're on the subject of Buzz's vices and misspent youth, we note that you can still bid on eBay item #1762222519, your chance to become the sponsor of The Let's Be Drug Free Show on Dallas' KLIF-AM 570. At least you had a chance. If KLIF general manager Lon Bason has his way, the item will be pulled before bidding ends Friday.
What happened is this: Last week the Dallas Observer received an e-mail message from one of the show's hosts announcing that the sponsorship for the half-hour show was for sale on eBay. It was a general press release, sent to several media outlets. It was soon followed by this terse reply from Bason: "I'm tempted to cancel the entire program immediately." That one likewise was sent to several local media outlets; it looked as if Bason goofed in addressing it. He didn't; Bason was pissed and wanted everyone to know. We gather that radio station GMs generally don't like having their airtime resold, particularly in $1 bid increments.
Bason told Buzz that he ordered the item removed from eBay immediately and seemed surprised when we told him it was still there Tuesday afternoon. Hosts Jerry Joyner and Pat Osigian say they haven't had any written communication from KLIF, and at least until they do, the auction is on. Joyner notes that you can buy NASCAR and concert sponsorships on eBay, so he's not sure what KLIF's complaint is. Buzz suspects the fact that the bidding was up to only $3,149 for several weeks of KLIF airtime has something to do with it--not to mention the desperate, garage-sale feel to the whole enterprise.
Still, Joyner and Osigian--Joyner's boss at the local print shop that currently sponsors the show--are hopeful that bidding will pick up in the auction's final hours. Right now, under eBay rules, anyone willing to plunk down $17,500 can walk away with the commercial time on the next 35 weeks of ads and promos for the show, which airs at 7:30 p.m. Sundays. That's not a bad price for a program that offers tips and encouragement to parents for keeping kids drug-free. In fact, if the Texas chapter of NORML--the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws--has any spare change lying around, it might surf on over to eBay for a little cheap counterprogramming.
Joyner and Osigian wouldn't mind. NORML, head shops, pro-pot groups are all welcome to bid, they say. Better those groups spend their money on the program than--ahem--elsewhere.
