Page 10-Friday, May 7, 1982-The Michigan Daily
FIRED FOR MISTAKES ON THE AIR
Disc. jockeys lose in radio games
The memo was designed to avert "collusion" in
SAN DIEGO (AP)- "The phones lit up like a out five full minutes after he goofed at 1:50 a.m. on which a disc jockey might be tempted to help a friend
Christmas tree," Susan Payne recalls, regretfully, April Fool's Day. to the prize, McKay said. However, Miss Payne said
the minute she played two songs on the air and then "THEN A LADY called and asked if I had played Wednesday the rule kept her from sleeping nights,
started talking. two records," recalled Darnell. "knowing I would be out of a job if I didn't play three
Her station, KCBQ-FM, at the time was offering "I said no, that I had played three," he said. "After records in a row."
$10,000 to the first listener who caught a disc jockey all, my job was on the line. The lady hung up, and I Darnell, 32, began his broadcasting career with the
playing fewer than three songs in a row. The disc figured I was home safe. station in 1979 but said he hasn't been able to find
jockeys were warned a mistake would mean their The woman notified the station later in the day, work since being fired because "the market for DJs
jobs. saying she had reported the matter to police. At that in San Diego is not that good."
MISS PAYNE made her mistake on March 11 at point, Darnell admitted his error. He was fired April RUSS WITTBERGER, executive vice president of
8:40 p.m. One day later she was fired. 5. the AM-FM stations owned by Charter Broadcasting
For another of the eight disc jockeys, Larry Dar- IN HIS MEMO of Jan. 21, program director Bob the AMF sath one harer dsting
nell, it-was all over on April 1, when he pressed a but- McKay said "if anyone plays two records for Starting this weekend, he said, free trips and other
ton that was supposed to run the third straight coun whatever reason, you will be terminated im- prizes of varying value will be awarded listeners who
try-music record. Instead, it produced a commercial. mediately. That is the ballgame, if someone through make the "10th or 15th" call after disc jockeys pur-
It took a male listener less than a minute to catch carelessness throws away $10,000. That is non- posely play fewer than three songs straight in a pre-
Miss Payne and win his $10,000. But Darnell sweated negotiable." announced periods, "like 1-3 p.m. today."

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40

Official
questions
Sirhan's
original
parole date
SOLEDAD, Calif. (AP) -- A parole
official who helped set Sirhan Sirhan's
original parole date said yesterday he
probably would make a different
decision now because of new infor-
mation available on the convicted
assassin.
Eugene Luttrell, special hearing
representative ina three-member panel
which decided in 1975 to release Sirhan
in 1986, said neither he nor the other
board members knew Sirhan, convicted
of killing Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-
N.Y.), had written threatening letters
to his own attorney, an author and a
prison official.
"Yes, I think it would," Luttrell said,
when asked if the information would
have changed his decision. "We would
have taken another look at his clear
disciplinary record ... It is a threat on
someone's lire, and this would indicate
he would not be an appropriate con-
didate for release."
THE CURRENT board is considering
a request by the Los Angeles district at-
torney to rescind Sirhan's, parole on
grounds that he is still a danger to
society and that the original board
erred. The release date has since been
moved up to 1984 because of good
behavior.
Luttrell, a member of the current
parole board, recalled a number of
frantic telephone calls made by his
fellow board member; James Hoover,
to state prisons chief Raymond
Procunier during the 1975 proceedings.
At one point Luttrell said he and Hoover
discussed submitting Sirhan's case to
the entire nine-member parold beard.
for a special hearing.
Luttrell said the board's decision on
the maximum time Sirhan would serve
fell within "the top of the suggested
ranges for murder in the first degree"
provided in new guidelines adopted
three months earlier.
If those guidelines had not applied,
Luttrell said, S trhan would not have
been granted parole at that time.

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AP hoto
Electrifying A ht
Miss Ohio, Kim Weeda, flashes for joy after being named winner of the 1982 Miss USA Pageant costume contest. Miss
Weeda represents electricity, while to her right, a smiling Miss Louisiana, Lisa Ann Michael, represents the seafood in-
dustry. West Virginia's Cindy Baniak, the third place winner, holds her own as a rather stately strawberry.
Reagan pushesebudget
cutting social security,

6

WASHINGTON (AP)- His original
budget prescription in shreds,
President Reagan challenged
Democrats yesterday to embrace an
alternative shaped by Senate
Republicans which calls for $95 billion
in new taxes and $40 billion in Social
Security cuts over three years.
At a question-and-answer session
with reporters in the White House Rose
Garden, Reagan insisted that the new
budget outline will "continue to
protect" the basic benefits of Social
Security recipients despite the un-
specified slashes in the Senate plan.
THE REPUBLICAN compromise
was reached after the panel

unanimously scuttled Reagan's
original budget, in which the chief
executive promised virtually no new
taxes.
The new plan would appear to set the
stage for a repeat of last year's par-
tisan battle over spending and taxes.
"It will be rather difficult for them
(Democrats) to explain how.they did
not want to be a party to a plan that was
going to reduce the three-year deficit
by $416 billion.. .." Reagan said.
House Speaker Thomas O'Neill (D-
Mass.) scoffed at the plan saying it
"provides for walloping defense expen-
ditures and fails to correct the
inequities and excesses of the Reagan-
Kemp-Roth tax bill. At the same time,

it proposes deep cuts in Social Security
and other vital programs."
Earlier, Senate Democratic leader
Robert Byrd of West Virginia said the
compromise plan amounted to "mor-
tgaging the economimc future of the
elderly of this country ... to finance the
economic folly of the Kemp-Roth tax
scheme" of across-the-board tax rate
cuts.
Reagan, however, said the new spen-
ding outline would "bring down the
growth in federal spending ... It should
reassure financial markets by sharply
reducing projected deficits in the years
beyond. . . It will -preserve our com-
mitment to a stronger defense."

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