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It's probably not the "best" time to tell this story with the Virus and the serious discussions going on about racism in this country.
However, the mind does not care what memory pops into its mind and, well, the story must be told. 1/x
However, the mind does not care what memory pops into its mind and, well, the story must be told. 1/x
A nearly 26 year old memory popped into my mind. It popped in because @WeAreMinistry The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste shuffled into my car. As I'm explaining the samples of dot matrix printers and drills to my son...poof there's the memory. 2/x
It's exactly as inappropriate as you would expect for something that happened when I was 20, and I couldn't tell him this story because he's a teenager. He needs to have his own degenerate stories. 3/x
At the time, alternative rock had gone mainstream. Old album rock stations were flipping formats to compete with the stations that started up in the turn of the 90s. In order to compete with the @CD1025FM or the WENZs or the WDREs, they tried to be edgy. 4/x
In Cleveland, @wmms flipped formats from album rock. One day, we were hanging out, doing what college kids do. @wmms runs a promo saying they would play requests if you faxed in a naked photo of yourself....edgy! It had been running for maybe a week 5/x
We were like...why the hell does no one play any @WeAreMinistry? Especially if you're trying to be more edgy and a little heavier than what WENZ was playing, which leaned more on 80s alternative to fill in the Top 40ish alt rock format at the time. @wmms should play them!
I know what you're thinking. Mike, why would you take that picture of yourself and who did you know that had a dark room to develop it? We were smart, like Geordi in TNG. I said, hey...let's go get a pic from usenet to make our request. 8/x
So we fired up the handy dandy 14.4 baud modem, dialed into the Cleveland Freenet (thank you @cwru), and made our way to http://alt.sex.pictures . There we found a picture of @ChristyCanyon11 in a very Christy Canyon pose. 9/x
Using the power of Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, I pulled the picture down off of usenet and opened it in paint. Newsflash, Paint hasn't changed much in 25 yeats.
We created the equivalent of a meme. Above Christy's head it said:
We created the equivalent of a meme. Above Christy's head it said:
I'M SO HOT AND I NEED TO HEAR BURNING INSIDE BY MINISTRY
Then, using the power of the fax capabilities of the modem in the same computer, dialed up @wmms fax machine and sent it off.
We expected nothing
Except....
Then, using the power of the fax capabilities of the modem in the same computer, dialed up @wmms fax machine and sent it off.
We expected nothing
Except....
About a half hour later, I'm helping clean up in the kitchen, and we're listening to the Buzzard. One of their jocks comes on the air and is like...
UMMMM, I KNOW WE ARE SAYING THAT YOU CAN SEND IN A NUDE FOR A REQUEST, BUT UM SOMEONE JUST DID THAT AND UHH DON'T DO THAT UMMM THIS LISTENER IS UMM, WELL I MEAN WE DIDN'T THINK WE'D SEE THAT!
The lesson here is, if you're marketing something outlandish to be edgy and you don't think anyone will ever do it, never underestimate the power and creativity of beer.
That was the last time that promo was run.
They never did play Burning Inside.
That was the last time that promo was run.
They never did play Burning Inside.
And that's the story of how we got @wmms to pull their promo telling people to fax in pictures of their breasts for requests.
