Local radio stars end up on wrong side of law
By Kyra Hoggan
Two popular local radio personalities found themselves in the uncomfortable grip of the long arm of the law after an on-air game drew the attention of local RCMP members.
Shaun Johnson and ‘Drex’ (The Source is witholding the subject’s real name at his request, as no formal charges have been sworn against him), hosts of Mountain FM’s morning show (the aptly-named ‘Drex and Johnson’ show), said they felt they were providing a public service when police came into the radio station and told them to desist immediately. “It was about two weeks ago – we were doing our ‘stop-sign lottery’ bit,” said Drex. “We’re at the radio station in front of a four-way stop on Fourth Street and 11 Avenue. From where we sit in our booth, we can see the stop sign clearly. Traffic starts to build at around 6:15 a.m., and I’m going to say 90 per cent of people don’t stop – they blow right through or only come to a rolling stop. “Sometimes one of us will take a cell phone outside with us and give stuff to anyone who actually stops – concert tickets and CDs and stuff.” On the morning in question, he said, they had just wrapped up the ‘stop-sign lottery’ for the day when a police squad car came to a full and complete stop at the intersection. “We were live on-air, and if he hadn’t have stopped, I would’ve said so – I even would’ve read out the numbers on the side of his squad car,” said Drex. But stop he did, so Drex and Johnson were more than a little surprised to see a pair of officers, armed and in full uniform, enter the radio station about 15 minutes after the show. “They were not happy,” Drex said. “They walked in all serious-like, with their hands on their hips, and said ‘you can’t be doing your own policing, you can’t enforce traffic laws, you leave that to us’.” Johnson concurred with Drex’s description of the incident. “They came in and scared us,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘are we really getting in crap for doing a good thing?’ “I was about to start crying – I heard that’s a good way to get out of trouble with the police – but Drex, being the confrontational jackass that he is, starts saying, ‘Why? What have I done that’s illegal?’” At this point, Johnson said, his heart was beating faster than it’s supposed to, and the stern visage presented by the officers was not helping. “They were speaking abruptly to both of us – they were very clearly not impressed by us,” said Drex. Drex (a man who, according to unnamed sources, has long struggled with the notion that he’s the only person in the city with a sense of humour), took a moment to realize the joke was finally on him, even after the officers started laughing. “I was actually worried, wondering if I’d really done something wrong,” he said. “I tried to bribe them with some movie passes and other free stuff, but the good citizens of Castlegar can sleep soundly with the knowledge they are safe from police corruption – local police can’t be bribed. “Either that, or we have to try to bribe them with better stuff.” After the general hilarity died down, both Drex and Johnson asserted that they will absolutely continue the ‘stop-sign lottery’, despite the “harrowing ordeal of police harrassment” (which is how Drex intends to relate the story to anyone who might believe him). “Of course we’re still going to do it – the police here do a bang-up job, but they can’t be everywhere,” Drex said, right before characteristically taking it that one little step too far. “If the RCMP can’t be there …we will!”
