Georgia Cat Chasing Championships

[ryoder 1,590]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/1/11/120212.shtml

Halfway down the page "Cat Chasing – the Payoff".

Anyone know where I can get a copy of the show?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Thanatos340 1]

It is very hard to find now. I have contacted Boortz about getting a copy several times but there are some rights issues with that show now because he was with a different Broadcaster at that time. Someone at the now Defunct Rome DZ used to have a copy of the tape and play it most weekends. It was GREAT!!

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Cat Chasing – the Payoff

Gotta tell you … I had a wonderful time on the air yesterday. One call led me into a resurrection of my 1988 broadcast of the Georgia Cat Chasing Championships.

Let's go back about 14 years. I was working at a much smaller radio station then and wasn't syndicated. I told my listeners that I had learned of an interesting competition that was going to take place "at an airport south of Atlanta." It was the Georgia Cat Chasing Championships. The purpose was to choose a champion to send to the national contest a month later.

Cat chasing, for those of you who don't know, is the sport of cramming about eight skydivers and one cat into an airplane. When you get to 10,000 feet you toss the cat out. The skydivers then pile out and go after the cat. Whoever lands with the cat is the winner.

To make a long story short … we spent about four weeks promoting the show. I had guests come by for quick appearances. Past champions, judges, sponsors and contestants.

On the day of the "competition" we did a "live" remote broadcast. I sat in the studio with a cast of about five people and about 60 sound effects. We had crowd noise, helicopters, the sounds of screaming cats, airplanes, parachutes opening, wind noise … you name it.

We had a chain saw used to get a cat out of a tree. We had the sound of an uncaught cat falling through the air.

Let me tell you, we gave the audience one helluva show. We had county sheriffs all over South Georgia rushing to their local airports afraid that this competition was going on in their jurisdictions. What fun we had!

At the end of the show we told those listeners who hadn't figured things out that it was all a spoof. We then produced a tape of the show and sold it for $10 a hit. The total proceeds went to the Fund for Animals. We raised thousands.

Well – we didn't go to quite the same lengths yesterday. All I did was mention the contest and my participation. Amazingly – many people bought it.

Here's the latest e-mail tally as of 6:00 a.m.:

E-mails telling me they laughed their butts off: 239

E-mails telling me they would never listen to my show again: 67

E-mails telling me they were going to call all my sponsors and organize boycotts: 21

E-mails from affiliate station managers telling me they were getting demands that my show be dropped: 2

E-mails from cat-haters who wished the whole story was true: 5

[BillyVance 35]

So they used the story from the skydivers' book "Bedtime Stories For Skydivers"?

Damn I wish I still had my copy. I loaned it to a friend who then got busted by his wife who caught him with another woman and threw all his stuff in the trash, my book included.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Thanatos340 1]

Boortz did that show in 1988. Not sure which came first.. The Book or Boortz`s show.

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

So they used the story from the skydivers' book "Bedtime Stories For Skydivers"?

Damn I wish I still had my copy. I loaned it to a friend who then got busted by his wife who caught him with another woman and threw all his stuff in the trash, my book included.

I read that story way back in the 80's when it was published in Parachutist, but it was just today I heard about the radio show when a co-worker gave me a photocopied excerpt from a Boortz book about the incident.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

It is very hard to find now. I have contacted Boortz about getting a copy several times but there are some rights issues with that show now because he was with a different Broadcaster at that time.

Crap! I was digging around on Boortz website and although other audio items were available, that wasn't in there so I left him an email asking about it. Sounds like you've just told me what the answer will be.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

Boortz did that show in 1988. Not sure which came first.. The Book or Boortz`s show.

Go here, put your cursor over the photo of the book and use the "Search Inside This Book" feature to search for "Arizona". It will pull up page 211 where he explains how the idea originated with some AZ skydivers.

http://www.amazon.com/Somebodys-Gotta-Say-Neal-Boortz/dp/0060878207/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3099091-3684613

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[jonstark 8]

Ever hear of Phil Canard?

Know Lewis Bottoms?

If you do then you have a wonderful opportunity to investigate "Cat chasing".

jon

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

Ever hear of Phil Canard?

Know Lewis Bottoms?

If you do then you have a wonderful opportunity to investigate "Cat chasing".

jon

Never heard of them. Were they the guys that did the radio interviews with Boortz that were identified as participants?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[skymama 37]

Apparently Neal was just talking about this again today because my Dad called me and asked, "have you ever heard of cat chasing"? He was cracking up and even moreso when I read Jay's post to him.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon