January 3, 2003 PITTSBURGH (AP) -- If Joe Camel encouraged some youngsters to start smoking, a producer at a western Pennsylvania radio station figures a sickly Joe Chemo will inspire teenagers to stop.
Joe Chemo -- a cancer-stricken, disgruntled satire of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s now-extinct Joe Camel advertising campaign -- is one of radio station WLER-FM's weapons in its war against teen tobacco use. The program also uses alternative music, local bands and money from Pennsylvania's share of a settlement between states and the tobacco industry.
WLER's "Dead Air" program hit the airwaves Dec. 2. For two hours, four nights a week, the program plays music aimed at teens and young adults. But unlike other alternative rock programs, the music is peppered with 20 minutes of commercials bought by the Butler County Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and the Butler County Tobacco Coalition.
Dead Air producer John Walchesky said the anti-tobacco groups are paying WLER $5,000 a month, or $75 per half hour, to exclusively sponsor Dead Air. Typically, the radio station charges companies $150 per half hour to sponsor a program.
Some commercials use humor to reach teenagers, while others use straight-talk from peers to get a message across, said Butler County Drug and Alcohol Program Director Kimberly Clark, who helped Walchesky create the program.
"We don't throw statistics at them. The ads kind of sound like conversations on the school bus," Clark said.
One ad features an aspiring dancer telling the audience how cigarette smoking sapped her energy. In another commercial, a narrator encourages listeners to "let big tobacco companies know that we're on to them."
Radio programs are good ways to reach teenagers because they are drawn to music, said Cheryl Healton, president and chief executive of the American Legacy Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation that works to decrease tobacco use.
The foundation created and distributed a similar radio program -- one that featured edgy music and commentary -- about two years ago, Healton said.
Since 80 percent of all smokers had their first cigarette before the age of 18, it's important to convey that "young people are in the driver's seat," Healton said.
"It's an approach that helps young people see themselves as wary consumers," she said.
Walchesky and Clark hatched the idea for the latest radio program about a year ago when organizers of the county's tobacco programs were trying to find new ways to use their share of the state's $11 billion portion of the tobacco settlement.
A lawsuit brought against the industry by the states was settled in 1998 for $246 billion. The settlement included restrictions on advertising that might attract teenagers, including billboards and cartoon characters such as R.J. Reynolds' Joe Camel.
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