Radio announcer undisturbed by studio fire

When a fire breaks out in a radio station in Greece, the announcer can't be bothered to put it out. (via Arbroath)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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FourFiveFire

Heheheh…reminds me of this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nGjxO_Bfac
consideredopinion

Real or viral, file this under: “what not to do”
Gainclone

Man… way to really have a “the show must go on” mentality. Glad it didn’t turn into Yul Brynner from Westworld.
elk

Stretching the bounds of gullibility you people. A publicity stunt if I ever saw one…but still fun to watch. I especially like the shooshing.
Jake0748

Man, that is one focused dude. Anybody know what was so important that he kept on talking and just blew off the fire?
chromal

That seems like a severe lack of common sense. What starts as a wastebasket fire nearly takes out the studio… o_O
Blackbird

Personally…I like the part where he kicks over the can in a vain attempt to quash the fire…which actually makes it spread…
freshyill

I agree with #2. This is bullshit viral marketing. For what? Who the hell knows. Give it a few days and it’ll be obvious though.
Sekino

Okay, I see that it is probably staged (and it seems #13 knows this for a fact).

But it’s pretty well done and funny! Fooled me the first time, I admit.
zio_donnie

a#3

he’s just reading the news of the day. first he talks about the CERN experiment and the fears that surounded it then he concludes with the weather. the guy that put out the fire says:

“you were on fire, don’t you feel anything?”

btw city 99.5 is a greek radio station in athens but i didn’t hear about this in greece at all(and no follow ups). so either someone leaked this on you tube or a campaign is on the way.
Anonymous

The guy was just reading headline news… but what’s kinda funny is that for the first 30 seconds of the clip he’s talking about the LHC getting fired up and the fears some have that it could have potentially destructive consequences, just as that big flash kicks in at 0:37. At the end, one of the youths gives him some crap along the lines of ‘what’s wrong with you, you’re on fire and you just sit there doing nothing?’
This looks totally staged but it made me laugh, regardless.
kathode

I’m not yet jaded enough to believe every humorous clip on youtube is a viral campaign, so I’m going to believe that really happened, because it’s some funny shit. I especially love the guy who runs in with a little water bottle and puts out a small piece of the fire, then violently throws the bottle in a random direction before running out. Priceless.
KurtMac

My money is also on viral marketing. The deejay’s initial effort to “kick” out the wastebasket fire seemed less-than authentic, and more like he was purposely kicking the fire under the desk where the “accelerant” was.

Speaking of which, does anybody know what material commonly housed in a radio sound booth would ignite like that? I’m not in the biz, but I doubt they keep gun powder sprinkled about the office “just because.”
elk

What’s particularly suspect is the flash that occurs midway. Fires can spread incredibly fast, but very few “fuels” in a studio or office setting ignite that aggressively, with the exception of flash powder (or even match heads). All in all, it’s a relatively easy scenario to stage. And the guy is saying “ssshh! (My broadcast is most important)”?

Uh….
Right.
elk

Wait!
I forgot.
Flash powder is the new Greek payola.
Naturally they had several new arrivals lining the desktop.

My bad!
Ambivalent

It’s an ad about how important the news is to City 99.5 fm.

That’s my guess.
David Carroll

At any TV station I have ever worked at we had a simple rule:

If the fire alarm goes off, wait for building instructions over the PA/alarm system. I they tell you to evacuate (or you see/smell smoke): Throw on a 3 hour filler tape created just for this purpose. Yes kids TV stations used to use tape. Get it to fall-over (using EE mode) to a tech difficulties graphic when done and get the hell out of Dodge.

Of course now that virtually 100% of stations are automated, there isn’t anybody there to get barbecued anyway.
zio_donnie

ok i was curious and i did a little research in greek blogs. and it seems it is a viral video after all at least according to this blog: http://radiourgies.blogspot.com/. the idea isn’t even original as apparently was used by an american station first (not named though)
Adam Chernow

If the fire alarm goes off, wait for building instructions over the PA/alarm system. I they tell you to evacuate (or you see/smell smoke): Throw on a 3 hour filler tape created just for this purpose. Yes kids TV stations used to use tape. Get it to fall-over (using EE mode) to a tech difficulties graphic when done and get the hell out of Dodge.

Wow… We never had anything like that when I was an MCO. We’d of just thrown the trouble slate up, bailed, and called someone from engineering to remote sign-off the transmitters (co-located @ the studio at that particular station).

At my current station I’m sure we’d all just leave the building since we’re 95% run from a sister station. (The 5% local being the newscasts.)
Daemon

For the record – there are quite a lot of materials that can flash burn. Assorted fabrics for example.