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Yesterday we received a few emails about a radio station in Boston that was holding a “Discontinued Ben & Jerry’s Flavor or MySpace Band?” contest. Since we ran that exact quiz in mental_floss magazine and here on the blog in 2007, I wasn’t exactly pleased. But after talking to their program directors, I learned that they borrowed the idea from a sister station in San Diego – who must have stolen it from us (unless they borrowed it from someone else who had stolen it from us) – who absolutely acknowledged where the idea came from.
Here’s the reason I bring this up: we’d love radio stations to use our quizzes. A lot of them would work well on air, and it’s a great (and free) way to get our name out there. If you contact me first and have enough listeners, we might even be willing to furnish some mental_floss prizes.
So if you’re a program director looking to fill airtime, perhaps we can work something out. Here are a few sample quizzes:
Comments (13)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
I occasionally hear stories on the radio that I have read on Mentalfloss.com. No credit is given to Mental Floss. Maybe you need to add a copyright notice to each article so they at least give you credit!
posted by Hyacinth on 6-3-2009 at 11:03 am
A Kansas City radio station also does a contest called “Ben & Jerry’s Flavor or Band We Found on MySpace.”
posted by cdub on 6-3-2009 at 11:21 am
The local trivia night at the coffee shop by me sometimes does mental floss quizzes from the week. I don’t complain because genreally that means I’m going to win.
People thought I was crzy when we were listening to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and I knew all of the answers to their Mr. Rogers quiz, which they cited taking the questions from mental_floss. I guess I just go on mental_floss way too much.
posted by Zach on 6-3-2009 at 11:48 am
RE Hyacinth:
You don’t have to add a copyright notice on anything, it is automatically given and protected, and radio stations no doubt already know that so shame shame on them for stealing ideas without giving credit!
posted by Sarah in CA on 6-3-2009 at 11:55 am
Another thing we’d love:
If bars & coffee shops would use mental_floss quizzes and questions for their trivia nights. We’re going to try to make this easy for them (by putting together a downloadable question/answer sheet or something similar). Stay tuned this summer. And if you run a trivia night and might be interested, let me know.
posted by Jason English on 6-3-2009 at 12:01 pm
A radio station in my area does a quiz for porn or hobby. They come up with some website like beavertrapper.com and have the audience call in to guess if its a porn site.
posted by Dan on 6-3-2009 at 12:09 pm
97.7 HTZ FM in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada has used one or two quizzes from mental_floss during their afternoon “Brain Strain.”
posted by Amanda on 6-3-2009 at 12:49 pm
Call me a mean-old-English teacher, but nothing fires me up more than unabashed plagiarism. I can’t stand it when people pass ideas off as their own.
posted by Gretchen on 6-3-2009 at 2:55 pm
Hi! Aforementioned San Diego radio station here.
Guilty as charged, BUT… For what it’s worth, we always give cite Mental Floss for full credit and top billing. Don’t know about those hessians in Boston, but I buy a copy at my friendly neighborhood newsstand every two months or so.
And for what it’s worth- I too initially got the idea of using your fantastic quizzes from WWDTM.
Thanks for the material that you provide us with, and look on the bright side- there are radio programs that aggregate and share useful and intelligent content like yours, and then there are radio programs that shoot foodstuffs at exotic dancers.
Wouldn’t you rather be associated with the former, rather than the latter?
-Mat Diablo, avowed Mental Floss fan; mornings on 91X San Diego
posted by Mat on 6-3-2009 at 3:49 pm
Mat — I apologize and didn’t mean to sully your good name. Let me know if we can assist your program in any way, whether that means suggesting quizzes or, if you go the other direction, providing trivia tidbits about the foods you shoot at the dancers.
posted by Jason English on 6-3-2009 at 4:08 pm
Thanks, Jason- and sorry about all the typos.
Now I just need to make certain that McSweeny’s knows that we share their excellent content as well, and I should have all of my bases covered.
posted by Mat on 6-3-2009 at 4:15 pm
Call me a mean-old-English teacher, but nothing fires me up more than unabashed plagiarism. I can’t stand it when people pass ideas off as their own.
posted by Tdave on 6-4-2009 at 8:35 am
You see?…UM…. What my joke was…. UM…. Gretchen complained about plagiarism and I…UM…. plagiarized her. I’ll go hit myself with rotten tomatoes now. :/
posted by Tdave on 6-12-2009 at 6:52 am