Bad Publicity for a TV Host Might be Good for a Certain Radio Station

Melanie Martinez was the host of a TV show on the PBS Sprout channel. I have Dish Network, which doesn't offer this channel, but I gather it's a channel for young children. Martinez let her bosses know that a few years back she acted in a short video with an adult theme. It wasn't porn, but the video dealt with a topic that was sexual. Her bosses rewarded her honesty by immediately firing her and taking her show off the air.

You can watch the video here. Like I mentioned, nothing pornographic, so it's relatively safe for work. But, you might want to make sure your speakers aren't cranked.

The thing that stood out for me was the radio station logo that appears at the beginning of the video. A Google search for "Rock 103" turns up several stations with that nickname, and none of them seem to have the same logo as the one in the video. I can't decide wether or not this was a TV spot. My first thought was "no way." It's too dirty, first of all. And the only way it promotes the station is by, maybe, buliding image. What station has the money to spend on such an indirect way to build image, though? The website mentioned in the video doesn't exist anymore, but maybe at one time it redirected people to the station's website. That would actually be kind of brilliant, especially if they were running a big promotion at the time. And, if this was produced before Nipplegate, maybe it could have aired late at night in a blue state.

By the way, I can't say I blame PBS. Even though Sprout is a commercial free cable channel, and therefore isn't subject to the one-two punch of FCC and advertiser pressure, they still have to cover their asses. I can just imagine some election-year attacks on PBS over funding. "PBS employs adult video stars to host programs for children!! Children!! I'm for protecting the children, and therefore say funding for public broadcasting must be cut!"

I hope whichever Rock 103 created the video is capitalizing somehow. At the very least, they should be putting it on their website. Some phone calls to the local newspaper and TV stations might not hurt either. But, in this day and age of radio, they'd have to be real careful not cross that indecency line...wherever that is.

UPDATE: If you've already tried the above link to the video, then you know that the video had been removed from that link. However, do a search at YouTube for "Melanie Martinez" and you can find it. But, the version on there at last check does not have the radio station logo. Sigh. One of the pitfalls of linking to YouTube stuff, I guess. Here one minute, gone the next.