Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

 For those of you who don’t know, Child’s Play is the charity organization started by the famous web comic duo of Penny Arcade.  Penny Arcade is one of, if not the single, most well known web comics of all time.  Their topic of choice is video games, but their appeal extends beyond that realm into that of general Geekdom.

Child’s Play is a charity aimed at Penny Arcade’s primary audience… gamers.  Basically, you’re asked to donate by purchasing toys and video games from Amazon.com wish lists which will be donated in your name to Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. 

Last year, Child’s Play raised over $250,000 in toys, games, and cash for the 190,000 or so kids that the Children’s Hospital cares for each year.  I’m proud to say that I contributed to that effort and have done so again this year.

To get an idea of how substantial this movement was (and how substantial the load of work that Gabe and Tycho undertook was), you can check out last year’s photo gallery here.

 

So why am I telling you this?  Because this week, “BJ Shea” on his 100.7 the BUZZ radio show blasted these guys on public radio calling them “video game playing bums who are too lazy to get off their asses to do what they’re supposed to do.” 

This, he says, of people who raised $17,000 for the Children’s Hospital the night before at a charity auction.

You can read the details here.

 

If I lived in Seattle or nearby, I would be calling into 100.7 and giving them a piece of my mind. 


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# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Dr. Zais -


Penny Arcade's "administrative cut" of the donations is far lower than most other charities. As in, there IS NO "administrative cut".

If you knew how the charity worked, you'd understand. Basically... Amazon.com set them up with a bunch of "wish lists" - all of which include toys that the hospitals in question of asked for. There is one wish list for each of the 5 or so hospitals nationwide. You simply go to Amazon's site, select a toy (or some toys) to donate, and Amazon charges them to your card but ships them to the appropriate hospital.

You can donate cash to the effort if you wish, but that's not the primary means by which the charity functions (and only accepted starting this year). They also had set up an alternative means by which you could donate through Child's Play to hospitals not on their list. But I can't speak for the details of how that works either.

Child's Play is entirely a volunteer organization. All necessary funding is done through corporate sponsorship. They certainly don't profit from the endeavor, except for the warm feeling they deservedly feel knowing that they've helped hundreds of thousands of children in need.

BJ Shea directly LIED about his conversations with PA representatives. Yes, Gabe called in about 10 minutes late, as the PR company which had donated its time to the effort made an error (for which they apologized) and did not inform any of the Child's Play representatives that they'd scheduled the interview.

That, however, is no excuse for the DJ to blast the charity, those generously hosting it, those sponsoring it, and those who donate time and money to make it happen. And he did all of those things. 1/2/2005 4:13 AM | Brandon Paddock

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Great job, Dr. Zais; for proving once again that it's far less work to make up facts off the top of your head rather than research them.

It's also way easier to get a following, since there are far more righteous idiots who believe single sources than righteous intelligent people who actually confirm things they here. 1/30/2005 5:03 PM | Mr. Thought

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

*hear

Sorry. Typo. I was busy writing code while I wrote my post. 1/30/2005 5:04 PM | Mr. Thought

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Brandon,

I congratulate and thank you for your efforts on the behalf of sick kids. As the father of a perfectly healthy 10-year-old, I find comfort in the fact that there are people out that would care should she ever become ill to the point that she would require an extended stay in the hospital.

I would also like to mention that B.J. Shea is a scumbag.

Thanks,
Ed 2/24/2005 2:02 PM | Ed Zachary

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

IF you had the mental capacity to notice why exactly B.J. Shae was "dissing" on this organization, then it would be a bit more clear to you why he is not a scumbag. He does not reject the Toys for Tots organizations, or other organizations that actually work. All you'd need to do is open your eyes a bit wider and you could see that he is not a scumbag, but someone who would expect organizations to follow good standards and do what they say. Would you not expect the same? 4/1/2005 2:49 PM | Curtis

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Curtis - then why did he lie on the air? Why did he treat Child's Play volunteers with such disrespect?

This isn't Toys for Tots, this is Child's Play - a reknowned organization that is built entirely on VOLUNTEER efforts.

If you think B.J Shea and the 100.7 crew were right in what they did, perhaps you should walk on down to the Seattle Children's Hospital let them know how you feel about the charity that has brought their patients so much happiness. I bet you'll get an earfull. 4/1/2005 3:51 PM | Brandon Paddock

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Curtis

I stand by my statement, B.J. Shea, or as you prefer, Shae, is a scumbag. Big damn deal if the people from Child's Play missed an appointment, about which they were not informed, on his crappy little radio show. The work they do is solid, which is much more than can be said about him. The man has built his career on half-truths and lies.

But back to the point at hand. Did he have a right to be annoyed that someone missed their time slot? Sure. Was it necessary to demean the entire organization and those who run it without clearly knowing much about Child's Play? Well, I guess if he is a scumbag it probably was. Anybody with any character at all wouldn't have, but in his quest to be the Bad Boy of Seattle radio it made for "good radio" in his mind. The whole incident makes me sick.

And as far as your contention that the people from Child's Play don't actually work, on what do you base your opinion? Some slop out of B.J.'s mouth? If someone needs to open his eyes, open yours and look in the mirror.

Keep up the good work Brandon,
Ed 4/1/2005 6:32 PM | Ed Zachary

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

U Guys Rock
4/11/2005 12:54 PM | Mike Williams

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

u dont have to be near seattle to phone the show stupid, phones work very long distances u know, right on eh
10/1/2005 8:43 PM | JUICEMAKER

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Well, now I do live in Seattle so it's kind of a moot point :) 10/2/2005 2:16 AM | Brandon Paddock

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

I listen to BJ Shea a lot, and i think he is a good DJ. Some topics he does i agree with and disagree with but hes just speaking his mind as are you guys. Maybe he didnt know at the time that his company had a mix up with Childs Play so that made him think that Childs Play was irresponsible, so maybe it was a mishap. 10/24/2005 10:28 PM | Robbie

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

You guys are falling right into his ratings trap. Bring up a topic that is dear to some and unknown to others. Smear it around on the air...and boom..there you are...YOU have ratings. Talk about it a little in a Blog room and you have more ratings. The more you can piss off some and please others fuels the radio ratings dragon. GOOD Job BJ Shea. Now go after that 6.0 rating and show that good old fashion "In your face" radio is still alive. 11/30/2005 8:48 PM | Derek

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

I listened quite attentively Mr Shey's broadcast and he's right.

He was willing to give roughly 100,000 dollars worth of free advertizing.

He was rewarded with rudeness and foolishness 12/2/2005 5:30 PM | Larry

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

Derek, I guess you don't understand how ratings work. Ratings are based on the number of people actively listening to a broadcast, at the time of broadcast. Ratings do not take into account any discussion or "buzz" surrounding a program.

Larry, you sir, are a fool. Two points here. First off, the fellow from Child's Play was informed by the PR agency, several minutes after 12:00, that he was supposed to call at 12:00. Simple mistake. He called the show, appologized, and was treated rudely by the producer. Shea went on to slam the charity which he obviously knew nothing about, other than that it was run by gamers, and that is a pretty good target for hate, I guess. Second off, its not free advertising, its free PR. Yes, there really is a difference. Not to mention that air time on the radio is extraordinarily cheap. 9/15/2006 11:00 PM | Zach

# re: Seattle's BUZZ 100.7 attacks Child's Play

BJ is getting some negative pr:
http://www.bjsucks.com/ 2/12/2007 6:42 PM | BJ Sucks

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