As Part of Radio Stunt, 10 To Spend 5 Days on ‘Island’ in Mall

Adding a suburban twist to the reality-programming trend, 10 contestants will spend five days living on an “island” in the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, N.J., as part of a radio stunt next week.Contestants must survive a series of daily physical and mental challenges and spend most of a week on a manmade sand spit measuring 15 feet by 20 feet in the Nordstrom section of the 170-store mall. Each morning, WPLJ will broadcast live from the shopping center, and contestants will be broadcast on a Webcam 24 hours a day. The winner of the “Lost in Menlo Park” contest will win a vacation in an “exotic” locale, worth $3,000, and a $5,000 shopping spree.“We are trying to be as mainstream as possible and cover what’s hot in popular culture,” the executive producer of WPLJ’s “The Big Show With Scott and Todd,” Joseph Pardavila, said. “I’ve been in radio so long, nothing really surprises me.”The promotional contest is a takeoff on the popular ABC television program “Lost,” a fictional show about a group marooned on a deserted island.Last spring, the radio station sponsored another “Lost” promotion at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall in Rockaway, N.J. Contestants were placed on a mall “island” and were forced to eat only beans for five days.An on-air radio personality for WPLJ, Brad Blanks, stayed alongside the contestants in the last contest and participated in one of the physical challenges: Contestants were asked to flick meatballs at him. The winner, who hit Mr. Blanks with the most meatballs, was given a “normal” dinner from the mall’s food court. The loser, a physically fit man who had a hard time striking Mr. Blanks, was cast off the island.“Last time, I was a bit nervous. It was like an experiment in human behavior,” Mr. Blanks said. “You look at the people and say, ‘Why would they choose to do this?'”Mr. Blanks said the contestants became the mall’s mini-celebrities, popular among mall rats, “young kids who just sit around the mall all day.”He said the contestants “will talk to 500 people a day. They hold their own press conferences. People come along to look at them like animals at the zoo. They ask, ‘How have they been treating you?’ and ‘How do you go to the bathroom?’“Day one, two, and three they love being newfound celebrities,” Mr. Blanks said.”Day four they get fed up with those kind of questions.”Contest rules allow for a 10-minute break from island life every four hours. Contestants must wear the same clothing, which includes a T-shirt issued by WPLJ, for the entire length of the contest. They are allowed to bring one “luxury” item onto the island, usually a sleeping bag or a blanket. Sexual activity is barred by contest rules, but Mr. Blanks said there was no real threat of any breaking out on the last island.When he finally left the mall, Mr. Blanks said, “I needed a salad, definitely.”Mr. Pardavila said the station received “thousands” of applications for the 10 open slots. The producer said it is difficult to judge the popularity of the “Lost” promotion against other recent stunts. “We had the Bon Jovi promotion,” he said. “Every Bon Jovi fan and their mother came out of the woodwork.”

As Part of Radio Stunt, 10 To Spend 5 Days on ‘Island’ in Mall

As Part of Radio Stunt, 10 To Spend 5 Days on ‘Island’ in Mall

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