What do you do when your station promotion attracts 20,000 attendees, generates incredible buzz and brings in serious revenue? You cancel it, of course. Here’s why Entercom ending the event was exactly the right thing to do.
For 26 years, WIP in Philadelphia has been hosting the WING Bowl, a chicken-wing eating contest with big cash prizes, celebrity appearances, and sponsorhips galore. On Tuesday morning, WIP morning man Angelo Cataldi, who hosted WING Bowl with his co-host Al Morganti, announced the station was canceling the event.
The official reason given by Program Director Spike Eskin was that the event was created as a lead up to the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. Well, in 2018 the Eagles won the Super Bowl. But you certainly can understand if Entercom decided other circumstances played a role in canceling the event.
You may recall back in February of 2017, as Entercom started working on divesting stations following the announcement it was merging with CBS, the company voluntarily turned in its license to operate KDND in Sacramento. That followed the announcement that the FCC would hold a hearing regarding license renewal of KDND. Back in 2007, the station held a contest called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” in which the contestant who was able to drink water at regular intervals for the longest time without urinating or vomiting won a Nintendo Wii. Contestant Jennifer Strange died after the contest and it was determined she died of water intoxication. The family later won a wrongful death suit against Entercom and a jury awarded the family $16.5 million.
A WIP website history of Wing Bowl states that “Entry can be gained in two ways, the first of which is successfully performing an ‘eating stunt’ on air during The Angelo Cataldi Show at the WIP studios, with Al Morganti as judge. Stunts have included eating 20 cups of cooked oatmeal, eating 60 ounces of creamed spinach with 60 ounces of hot sauce, and eating five Big Macs.”
The other way to gain entry to Wing Bowl was to win a “Wingoff.” A “Wingoff” is a 10-minute eating contest held at an area retail location. The winner of these “Wingoffs” gains automatic entry into the Wing Bowl.
There’s no way downing 20 bowls of oatmeal, 60 ounces of hot sauce or wings in a timed event made anyone at the Entercom corporate office stand up and cheer.
There are also women called Wingette’s (mostly strippers and exotic dancers according to Pennlive.com) that played a very big role in the event. And, as many pictures on the WING Bowl website show, outfits covering an entire body were not in abundance. That may be another reason Entercom wanted to steer clear of this event.
Not to mention the amount of work the staff has to put in leading up to such a huge event, organizing it year after year as it continues to grow.
About 150 people attended Wing Bowl I in 1993 to see a competition between two contestants in a hotel ballroom. By Wing Bowl 26, over 20,000 witnessed 29 contestants do battle in the city’s largest sports arena. For the record, at Wing Bowl 26, Molly Schuyker won the event by eating 501 chicken wings.
On Tuesday of this week, Entercom decided the event had a great run and it was time to end it.
No need to go to the videotape to review this one. It was the right call.
The Fun Police win again.