Man dies while taking part in radio phone-in

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A LATE-night radio talkshow host spoke of his shock today after a listener died live on air while taking part in a phone-in.
The caller, known only as “Terry”, was taking part in a debate on Liverpool-based Magic FM 1548 when the line suddenly went silent.
DJ Pete Price was so concerned he abandoned his show and raced around to the man’s house.
He said: “It was awful, when I got there the ambulance was already outside his house.
“Apparently he was found in his chair with the phone by his side. I was flabbergasted.
“Terry was a regular caller to the show and I knew something was wrong when the line went silent, I just had a gut instinct.
“He told me before the show that he was looking forward to taking part in the phone-in so I’m just glad he died doing something he enjoyed. We all heard his last words.”
The drama unfolded shortly after 10.30 last night as Terry and two other callers took part in the open debate show.
When the line went dead the show’s producer called the police but was told it was not a priority matter.
So Mr Price took matters into his own hands and appealed to his listeners for help.

A neighbour, who was listening to the show, broke into Terry’s house in the Old Swan area of Liverpool and found him dead in a chair. It is thought he suffered a heart attack.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:09 (twenty years ago)

What were they debating?

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:13 (twenty years ago)

Dunno. But maybe Magic FM has been taken over by a spooky Japanese girl, and if you listen to it you die within a week.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:14 (twenty years ago)

Unless you get someone else to listen to it too?

What a way to boost ratings.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:17 (twenty years ago)

I was hoping they might have been having a debate about religion and the affterlife.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:17 (twenty years ago)

"Is there an afterlife?"
"I think so, I'll just check"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:34 (twenty years ago)

The phone-in continues on medium-wave.

I'll get me coat...

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:48 (twenty years ago)

" died live"

instead of "died dead?"

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 6 January 2006 14:19 (twenty years ago)

Dunno. But maybe Magic FM has been taken over by a spooky Japanese girl, and if you listen to it you die within a week.
-- Hello Sunshine (fiver_the_bunn...), January 6th, 2006.

― excelsior syndrome, Friday, 6 January 2006 14:29 (twenty years ago)

-- excelsior syndrome (...) (webmail), January 6th, 2006 9:29 AM.

― asshole syndrome (laurah), Friday, 6 January 2006 15:12 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

This is probably the wrong thread to revive for this, but it seemed appropriate.

I work at a radio station. Over the weekend, one of my co-workers died of a heart-attack. The people in my office are mourning in different ways, and that's fine. However, my production director just came in and asked that if I hear any commercial or spot with my dead co-worker's voice on it, to pull it off the air.

I think that it's a bit weird. I mean, I still hear Wilson Pickett songs on the radio. I told my P.D. that if I die, to leave my voice on the air, and he called me "morbid".

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:23 (twenty years ago)

That's really weird. What's the idea, that hearing the voice will make people sad? I assume that for most people it'd be really nice, somewhat comforting.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:28 (twenty years ago)

I don't know, but whenever I saw those Sprite commercials with Jam Master Jay in them, it creeped me out... especially after they slapped a "RIP JMJ" screen on the end of the thing.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:30 (twenty years ago)

Well, that was kind of because they read as "RIP JMJ (PS Drink Sprite and you will DIE!)"

― Dan (Urban Legend 3) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:32 (twenty years ago)

But this is, like, the person's job! (When Bush dies can we go back through history and tastefully remove all of his laws, appointments, and results thereof?)

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:34 (twenty years ago)

I think it's only if you drink Sprite mixed with Pop Rocks, you die.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:34 (twenty years ago)

It seems strange and kind of dismissive to pull this guy's work off the air. But - I will admit to being weirded out when phoning an acquaintance many many months after the death of his wife and he hadn't changed the answering machine so it was still her voice answering the phone.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

you're going to have to get rid of them eventually, might as well do it now.

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

See, that's the kind of stuff that wouldn't bother me. My grandmother changed her answering machine a day after my grandfather passed, so I never got to hear his voice again.

It's not like anyone's going to be lying across their bed, replaying his tag for McDonald's ala Naomi Watts in 28 Grams.

When I was in Australia, an Aborigine leader died, and the newspapers wouldn't publish his picture or his name, according to native tradition. It seems weird to me, this whole "Joe who?" attitude toward the recently passed.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

Well, in some cultures, mentioning the name of the dead aloud calls their (generally pissed off) spirit over so people want to avoid that.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Don't tell the Danish freedom of speech activists.

― Mitya (mitya), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 04:53 (twenty years ago)

Pleasant, my best friend's voice was on the air for almost a year after she died. One of her clients even *renewed the contract* for a spot Carol had done.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 06:07 (twenty years ago)

I like that, Rickey.

It's like how they edited all of the shots of the World Trade Center out of Zoolander and Glitter. I mean, Glitter takes place in the eighties, right? Which makes me wonder, we've seen the movies where the WTC has been taken out. What will be the first movie to edit it back in?

Before I left last night, I looked on our station's programming software, and all of his spots were shaded blue, meaning that they had all been deleted. It was a really weird thing. We run spots that have former employees who have long since moved on, but we can't continue to use my dead co-worker.

Anyway. The station ran a montage of his sports reports as his tribute yesterday, which suddenly made me mortally aware that should anything ever happen to me, the world will remember me for my delightful take on Razorback quarterback, Casey Dick.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

I'd probably take his spots out of rotation for the first week or so. It'd be a bit jarring to go from somber accounts of his passing straight into "Hey, everyone! If you're like me, you love the taste of a thick, juicy ribeye...."

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 15:42 (twenty years ago)

That's a pretty good compromise, I guess. He did go a bit over the top in the "I'm Lovin' It!" part of those McDonald's tags (and his passing due to a massive heart-attack would cast the spot in a bad light.)

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 18:51 (twenty years ago)

What will be the first movie to edit it back in?

Winner - Munich!

― phil d. (Phil D.), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Really? I haven't seen that film. Was it edited back in, or did they use file footage?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Edited back in.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:22 (twenty years ago)

And the camera lingers on it, as if to nudge the viewer, like, "Eh? See that? Right?"

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Maybe I can get Anthony Hopkins to re-dub all those spots next weeks.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

Miracle, the movie made about the 1980 US Men's Hockey team over USSR, was apparently the first to digitally use the WTC.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 22:56 (twenty years ago)

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