KSAS hits it out of the park with sleepless stunt
Don Day | April 5, 2008
Never let it be said I don’t change my mind.
When KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM announced it would have DJ Steve Kicklighter stay live for 175 straight hours… I rolled my eyes and went “oh brother.” When I found out it was supposedly to help prevent child abuse awareness — I thought it could border on taking advantage of a touchy cause.
I was wrong. Kickligher – aka KeKe Luv has been going strong for 77 hours as of this writing (and I had 72 hours in the pool… so I lose). Have you been listening? It has really been incredible radio. Kickligher has been funny – energetic, and the stories and information about child abuse have been poignant and touching. I was at breakfast with some friends today – several who don’t know about my work on this site. One friend noted that “I bet it gets people to listen for longer than usual.” I agree — look for KSAS’ TSL to jump. Listeners want to hear how this goes – they want to hear him mess up, and they want to follow along on the web cam.
The voyeurism of seeing Kicklighter shave or night DJ Lucky play hangman or just seeing the folks in the studio is fascinating. KeKe’s thrown out the usual rules – he’s stopped songs mid-way through — he’ll describe what’s going on on the webcam — he’s even played a number of songs well outside the normal KSAS playlist (Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ is #46 on the station’s chart this week according to YES.com).
No one gets hurt – no one gets fooled – no one even wins any money. But the listener wins by being entertained by something unexpected, and awareness for child abuse prevention goes up, and maybe a few dollars are even raised. KSAS is outclassing its competition in the market by trying something new and daring – and the station should be proud of the effort.
Kicklighter is going from “who?” to a big star in this market with a very very tough stunt.
If you can convince me – you can convince anyone.
I have historically been critical of Peak Broadcasting since entering this blog a few months ago. However, Peak needs to be given kudos for allowing Steve Kicklighter to do what he is doing for the sake of child abuse awareness.
If all Kicklighter does is offer hope to those impacted by child abuse, he offers them an opportunity to realize the their ground cannot shake any longer out of fear because they have a reasonable expectation that, no matter how bad things are, things will change in a very positive way.
Peak & Mr. Kicklighter, I raise my can of Coors in salute.
I have been w/ Keke since the start being his support during the overnights as well as many other Peak employees. As a kinda vet “I have seen it all and done it better than the next guy”. But this is incredible. If you could be a fly on the wall when these calls come in. Of course he does not air most of them, but victims and abusers are opening up to him. The stories range from what I feel minor to those of horrifying. Keke treats each one unique and most end in everyone in the control room crying. I have heard testimony from people that is worse than any internet or crime novelist could dream of. This has gone so far from radio for me, it’s a whole new way of thinking, like when you heard that one Beatles song or kissed that girl you never dreamed of kissing. I believe God created time so that we could bury and forgive the past and begin to thrive, then prosper in the moment. That’s exactly what people are doing now on Kiss. I would love to invite every jock in the valley to come in after midnight but Kevin may get skeptical. I’m a lucky jock to be part of this team at this time. Now be caller nine so I can lose your information and tell you your qualified for U2 on the moon!
Ummm…
“…it was supposedly to help prevent child abuse awareness…”
Gee, I hope that’s a typo. :)
I’ve been wondering why he’s been talking about “child prevention” since the first hour.
screw the haters…keke has survived and has done awesome….and its awesome to make people aware….instead of looking away on child abuse. I have been watching him and chatting in the shoutbox since the first night…..I give thanks to those at Kiss FM recognizing people are in the shoutbox and everywhere else supporting KeKe during this time.