Essex FM apologises for publicity stunt

Listeners to Essex FM at the start of this week were surprised to hear a message that morning presenter Martin Day, plus studio cohort Su Harrison had been taken off-air after comments about boy scouts in a recent show.

Within a few hours, listeners started springing up on Facebook trying to “Save Martin and Su”, but the whole story was in fact, a publicity stunt, presumably to hide the fact that the pair were taking a few days off, and in the hope of getting some media attention.

Seems Essex FM got what it bargained for – the badly-timed stunt clashed with the Jonathan Ross / Russell Brand / Andrews Sachs controversy, and, according to the Evening Echo, as “an unauthorised publicity stunt”. Parent company Global Radio is apparently launching an internal enquiry, and the pair returned to the station on Thursday.

For more on the story, see the Evening Echo Story, where you’ll find over 40 comments, mostly indicating that Southend Radio’s done rather well out of this.

Also, see the following story: Martin and Su’s jobs are safe