WABG AM 960 will ring in 2015 with a little drinking as part of its fifth annual New Year’s Eve “Drunk Driver’s Special.”
The program is designed to discourage drinking and driving in the new year, Station Manager James Poe said.
“Each year, we try to do our part to appeal to the reasonable side of people before they go out to their parties on New Year’s Eve,” Poe said. “So from 7 p.m. Wednesday until midnight we do a live radio show with our announcers drinking on the air to demonstrate how alcohol will dull their reflexes, impair their motor skills and affect their ability to operate radio equipment professionally.”
“By demonstrating this,” he said, “hopefully it will save a life or at least encourage our listeners to choose a designated driver.”
Poe and guest disc jockey Floyd Bankhead will be the guinea pigs for the on-air experiment.
Bankhead, a tractor driver with the Whittington Plantation Co., said he looks forward to the event.
“I’m not a real DJ, but I enjoy working at the radio station in my spare time. I love the music, and this special program makes me feel like I’m making a difference in my community,” he said.
Poe said the station contacted the Greenwood Police Department’s DUI Enforcement Unit the first year they held the special program.
That interview is rebroadcast as part of the station’s “News, Blues and Interviews” segment, and the station periodically plays the interview along with other updates throughout the year to discourage drinking and driving.
“We just want to make a difference in our own way, and this Drunk Driver’s Special is one of those ways,” Poe said.
