Pat Sajak: A common criminal

[Adam Nedeff]

I'm taking Introduction to Audio Production this semester at Marshall University, and that combined with the fact that I've been on the Marshall radio staff for a year and a half means I'm required to become very familiar with the station's operations manual...

We turn to page 39, the Professionalism Policy with a list of 15 examples of unprofessional behavior (10 have been violated by yours truly in the past 18 months). One of the examples of unprofessional behavior given is stated as follows:

#12: Using WMUL-FM to broadcast personal messages to a specific listener. When Pat Sajak invites "Wheel of Fortune" players to say "Hi!" to someone at home, he is breaking a federal law against using a mass medium for individual messages. That's why it's called broadcasting.

So with more than 3,000 shows under his belt now, and with three contestants per show, being conservative, it is safe to estimate that Pat has violated a federal alw at least 2,500 times. And with that kind of record, it suddenly becomes easy to believe that he injured that poor man's back with intended malice and had it edited in post-production. Mister Sajak, if that IS your real name, while I cannot speak for the other members of this board, I can say without uncertainty that I personally will no longer tolerate your disdain for the laws that are meant to protect ordinary folks like us.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 11:02 PM\'] I'm taking Introduction to Audio Production this semester at Marshall University, and that combined with the fact that I've been on the Marshall radio staff for a year and a half means I'm required to become very familiar with the station's operations manual...
 [/quote]
 I'm sure if the FCC thought this was an actual problem, they would have stepped in long ago.

[Matt Ottinger]

I think somebody's sarcasm detector (or at least the humor attachment) is on the fritz.

[Fedya]

Adam Nedeff wrote:

We turn to page 39, the Professionalism Policy with a list of 15 examples of unprofessional behavior (10 have been violated by yours truly in the past 18 months).

18 months, and you've only violated 10 of the 15?  You need to get cracking on violating the other five.  :-)

[JasonA1]

I remember a thread about this earlier here or at ezBoard. Was this a result of red scare and so forth because it was thought TV could be used to transmit messages of ill content?

-Jason

[pianogeek]

Well could Bob Barker be in violation, too?  With 32 seasons under his belt, he has indeed be letting his contestants say "hi"...DON'T YOU THINK???   lol!

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'pianogeek\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 09:20 PM\'] Well could Bob Barker be in violation, too?  With 32 seasons under his belt, he has indeed be letting his contestants say "hi"...DON'T YOU THINK???   lol! [/quote]
 Wow.

[rugrats1]

#12: Using WMUL-FM to broadcast personal messages to a specific listener. When Pat Sajak invites "Wheel of Fortune" players to say "Hi!" to someone at home, he is breaking a federal law against using a mass medium for individual messages. That's why it's called broadcasting.

Is that bit about Pat Sajak actually in the manual?

In my opinion, if it's still federal law, the FCC probably thinks that it's not worth the effort to crack down on such violations -- apparently, the use of the "seven words" and the discussion of adult topics before dark are much more serious to them (as we have learned recently in the radio industry).

Also, on sitcoms and dramas that feature a Tv program, there are a few instances where the star / anchor / contestant, etc. say hello to someone at home, yet there was absolutely no mention that this is illegal.

In my opinion, the law is just as old hat as McCarthy.

[Jimmy Owen]

There is a rule against using the airwaves for point-to-point communcations.  Innocuous stuff like saying hi to the folks at home probably doesn't cause concern, since everyone knows what is going on.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 11:02 PM\']

#12: Using WMUL-FM to broadcast personal messages to a specific listener. When Pat Sajak invites "Wheel of Fortune" players to say "Hi!" to someone at home, he is breaking a federal law against using a mass medium for individual messages. That's why it's called broadcasting.

So with more than 3,000 shows under his belt now, and with three contestants per show, being conservative, it is safe to estimate that Pat has violated a federal alw at least 2,500 times. [/quote]
 One thing that was discontinued on WOF in the mid 80s(according to a TV Guide article on WOF at the time): Contestants used to call a letter in this or a similar fashion: N as in Nancy. That would allow an indirect reference to a player's friend or family member. The TVG article said that Merv disallowed this practice by the mid 80s.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 06:55 AM\'] [quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 11:02 PM\']

#12: Using WMUL-FM to broadcast personal messages to a specific listener. When Pat Sajak invites "Wheel of Fortune" players to say "Hi!" to someone at home, he is breaking a federal law against using a mass medium for individual messages. That's why it's called broadcasting.

So with more than 3,000 shows under his belt now, and with three contestants per show, being conservative, it is safe to estimate that Pat has violated a federal alw at least 2,500 times. [/quote]
One thing that was discontinued on WOF in the mid 80s(according to a TV Guide article on WOF at the time): Contestants used to call a letter in this or a similar fashion: N as in Nancy. That would allow an indirect reference to a player's friend or family member. The TVG article said that Merv disallowed this practice by the mid 80s. [/quote]
 I would've thought that it was more out of necessity, given that a less discerning ear could conceivably confuse "N" for "M" (as one example).  But I've been wrong before.

Doug

[Matt Ottinger]

Word on the street is that Sajak has also been smuggling vowels out of the studio and selling them on the black market for $200.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 10:36 AM\'][quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 06:55 AM\'] [quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Jan 18 2004, 11:02 PM\']

#12: Using WMUL-FM to broadcast personal messages to a specific listener. When Pat Sajak invites "Wheel of Fortune" players to say "Hi!" to someone at home, he is breaking a federal law against using a mass medium for individual messages. That's why it's called broadcasting.

So with more than 3,000 shows under his belt now, and with three contestants per show, being conservative, it is safe to estimate that Pat has violated a federal alw at least 2,500 times. [/quote]
One thing that was discontinued on WOF in the mid 80s(according to a TV Guide article on WOF at the time): Contestants used to call a letter in this or a similar fashion: N as in Nancy. That would allow an indirect reference to a player's friend or family member. The TVG article said that Merv disallowed this practice by the mid 80s. [/quote]
I would've thought that it was more out of necessity, given that a less discerning ear could conceivably confuse "N" for "M" (as one example).  But I've been wrong before.

Doug[/quote]
My reading on that change had always been that Merv was just tired of it and wanted them to cut it out.

Perhaps that was something else that Lin Bolen had forced on Merv, besides shopping?

[ChuckNet]

There is a rule against using the airwaves for point-to-point communcations.

That explains why, whenever a contestant on MG '7X wanted to say hi to someone watching at home, Gene would jump in and say "No personal messages, please."

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[jalman]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jan 19 2004, 11:28 AM\'] Word on the street is that Sajak has also been smuggling vowels out of the studio and selling them on the black market for $200. [/quote]
 C'mon that's crazy.

There are only five vowels, so wouldn't charging people, say $500, be more profitable?

;-P