There's an old unwritten rule in broadcasting that you never mention the competition or its hosts for any reason. 

Which is why I had to laugh when Mike Stafford made two allusions this week to the other guys down the dial. The first took place during one of his noon hour shows when he hit upon a topic that he even had to admit to his listeners wasn't going anywhere. After trying to get decent calls for several agonizing segments and coming up empty, Stafford sighed, admitted no one was on the line and then said, "Bullard, I gave you this hour!"

A few days later, after the Jays had officially clinched the AL East, Stafford came on and congratulated "the crew at 680 News" for singlehandedly helping the team win, noting all the drunken louts who screamed "Blue Jays!" into their mics, and subtly chastizing the place for the endless shilling of a Rogers property by leading every newscast with the Jays for weeks, regardless of whether they actually did anything or not (a complaint also noted on this board recently.)

It was all pretty funny to hear that "third wall" being broken. But Stafford takes a back seat to some of the things I've heard over the years that broke the unwritten rule.

A long time ago, a guy named Jay Marvin was doing overnights at WLS-AM in Chicago. He was on opposite Steve & Johnnie, a program that had been airing forever over at rival WGN-AM and a duo that the Big 89 host hated with a passion. Marvin, who was a bizarre individual in his own right (although he leaned heavily to the left) used to get so worked up about political topics on his show his doctor actually warned him to stop or he risked having a stroke.

He used to delight in calling Steve & Johnnie's producer live on air and taunting the poor guy with ridiculous topic suggestions or outright insults. And while he didn't even try to get on air on the other station, he wouldn't be satisfied until the person manning the phones finally hung up on him in disgust, resulting in Marvin roaring with laughter on his own show. This went on for months and years, until he finally left Chicago for Denver.

Still, the all time greatest mention of the competition to me happened during the mid 1970s in the media capital of the world, New York City. AM was still king and there was a fierce rivalry going on at the time between two Top 40 50K powerhouses, WABC and WNBC. The former had the great Dan Ingram getting people home, while the latter had the equally wonderful but far lesser known Bob Vernon (aka "Vernon with a V") pumping out the hits.

I happen to be listening one day in winter when, around 5:20 PM, right in the middle of afternoon drive, WNBC came out of a song, Vernon did an extro and then they played that famous "Dan Ingram!" singing ID, followed immediately by a WABC Pams jingle in its entirety. When it ended, the deep voiced Vernon came on and in his best official announcer voice, intoned. "Dan Ingram is not here. Nor do we know where you can find him. Thank you." And with that, it was into another tune.

I laughed like crazy when it was over, not believing the chutzpah it took to do that when the two were such fierce competitors. It's been over 40 years, but I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. And that's why I loved WNBC in that era, a place that would constantly do the unexpected, including reporting on fake parades down Broadway, and in one memorable instance, saying they'd been taken over by some backwater small town Russian radio network, and then throwing to a traffic report about the one bridge out of town being blocked because the yak had died. That incarnation of the Great 66 remains the most creative and strange radio station I've ever heard. But man, was it entertaining. And I miss it to this day, because I can honestly say I've never heard any radio quite like it since.