Bob Lassiter - Dead Air Olympics - Part 02

If you had tuned to talk station WFLA-AM Friday, August 2, you might have heard nothing, for ten minutes. It wasn't a mistake, or a power outage. It was a showdown.

Normally, more than a second or two of dead air would be disaster-- the surest way to lose listeners. But on the Bob Lassiter Show, which isoften a little more, or a little less, than a call-in radio show-- the silence was riveting.

Lassiter has built a career on pushing the limits of radio, and his mischief has made him more successful, and more disliked, than most talk show hosts. His nightly call-in show garners a larger audience share than any other on Tampa Bay radio.

And sometimes it ain't pretty. When he decides to pick a fight with a caller, and he does quite often, he can be vicious, sarcastic, or hang up with great gusto. Yet, if he deems a caller especially annoying or lame, he might just clam up and let the person make a fool of himself, and hang up in surrender.

This time a caller turned the silence into a dare.

"I can outwait you, Bobby."

Lassiter lit a cigarette.

"I've got a 120 minutes on this cell phone."

All listeners could hear was a five thousand watt transmitter broadcasting the ambient rustle and whir of a man driving his car and a talk host lightly tapping his fingers on the console.

"Come on, Bob," the guy pleaded after three desolate minutes.

Four minutes later, Lassiter lit another Winston and exhaled. The man had been ignored for over eight and a half minutes when he capitulated: "All right Bob, I'm not worthy. I'm pulling into my house."

No reaction.

"I've gotta drop. You win . . . You're the king."

No answer.

Then after remaining mute for 9 minutes and 52 seconds, Lassiter did what he had to do-- he pushed two buttons, one to hang up the phone, and another to start the recorded station ID/news intro. It was 8:00 after all. On the other side of the headlines, weather, and some commercials, Lassiter explained: "What the hell could I do? He challenged my manhood. . . Don't call up and play games like that with me!"

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• bob
• lassiter
• wfla
• am
• radio
• tampa
• florida

[darrenmuse]

It was late 1990s...probably close to 1999.

[everyonewantsmedead]

When did this take place?

[HaloLvl43Legit]

Ohh lawdy