6ABC's Lies

Philadelphia Daily News
Thu, Feb. 12, 2004
By DAN GROSS

EXCERPT:

Sunday live, sorta...

Thanks to Howard Stern and Janet Jackson, Wally Kennedy's wish for a
five-second delay on his Channel 6 "Sunday Live" show comes true this
weekend.

The decision follows a Stern-obsessed prankster who called in during
last Sunday's show and mentioned her hero, interrupting a segment
about the Florida slaying of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia.

Kennedy didn't acknowledge the call until the next segment, which
dealt with Jackson's Super Nipple fiasco, at which point he said he
hoped to no longer take live calls.

The station will consider placing delays on future live broadcasts on
a case-by-case basis.

***********

Curses foiled

Dan Gross/ Philadelphia Daily News/ Tue, Mar. 09, 2004

A newly installed five second-delay foiled Howard Stern devotee Capt. Janks from voicing his four-letter
greeting for the Federal Communications Commission on 6ABC's "Sunday Live."

Janks called to tell us his stunt had hit air, but the delay in fact prevailed, according to a station rep.

Sunday's call, which came during a segment about Delimar Vera, was fielded by Amy Wilen-Buckman, subbing
for Wally Kennedy, who gracefully moved on to the next caller once Janks was cut from the line.

Janks, aka Tom Cipriano, is a North Wales shipping clerk, whose Feb 8. name-drop of his hero on the program
led to it beginning a delay.

"We have First Amendment rights and we are out to protect them," Janks told us yesterday.

Janks' outrage is caused in part by the giant fine expected to be levied on the shock jock innovator, recently
yanked off Clear Channel airwaves in six markets.

On Stern's Friday show, he called himself a "dead man walking" and predicted the FCC's indecency crackdown
will boot him from the airwaves sometime this week.

"There's a cultural war going on. The religious right is winning. We're losing," Stern said.

 

***********

Someone $#%!ed up

Dan Gross/ Philadelphia Daily News/ Wed, Mar. 10, 2004

As we understand it, the whole idea behind a five-second delay for live programming is to cut out profanity, not
highlight it.

Despite 6ABC's claim to the contrary, reported here yesterday, Capt. Janks' polite greeting to the Federal
Communications Commission was aired on "Sunday Live."

The delay was activated a little too soon, which only made Janks' "F--- the FCC" remark stand out more after a
brief period of silence.

Without flinching, fill-in host Amy Buckman quickly moved to another call.

Janks, 37, for the record, is North Wales' Tom Cipriano, who works as a gas station attendant, no longer as a
shipping clerk, as we said yesterday.

But his true passion is for Howard Stern, more specifically name-dropping his hero on live TV, often
pretending to be an eyewitness or some kind of official, calling in during a breaking news story.

Janks brought a videotape of the program to People Paper offices, after reading of 6ABC's denial that the remark
had hit the air.

Yesterday, he mailed a copy and a complaint letter to the FCC, but he says he doesn't expect any action because
"it's Howard Stern they're targeting."

Janks says he's never heard the F-word on Stern's show and is "outraged that it happened on Channel 6's
airwaves, independent of whether I did it or not."

6ABC had no immediate comment.*

*Of course not! Thanks to MS for the help on this one!

 

NEXT