Radio DJs get visit from Smokey the smoke alarm!

When two radio DJs were heard complaining about their smoke alarms live on air – the Greater Manchester FRS Corporate Comms team jumped at the chance to do some quirky publicity around the importance of smoke detectors.

Key 103’s breakfast show duo Mike Toolan and Chelsea Norris were discussing how he’d hit his smoke alarm with a hammer to stop it beeping while she had covered hers up with a tea-towel.

On hearing their discussion, Station Manager Pete Lamb decided to tell Corporate Comms about it – suspecting they’d have an idea up their sleeve about how to turn the presenting duo’s conversation into a positive publicity stunt. And they did!

Using a smoke alarm costume (aptly named Smokey), the team’s Multimedia and Photography Officer Alex Flahive and Home Safety Co-ordinator Phil Greenwood turned up at the Key 103 studio in Castlefield, Manchester.

They waited outside the studio doors then ambushed Mike when he popped outside on his break.

Phil said: “We had a conversation around fire safety, the importance of working smoke alarms and Home Safety Checks which they recorded to play later in the show.

“During our conversation Chelsea said jokingly that Mike had upset her friends in the fire service and that I was invited in to ‘tell him off’ because Fire Angel alarms are good alarms and they save lives.

“I told them that we’d had a serious fire the night before where a man nearly died from smoke inhalation after taking his alarms down. Mike’s face dropped when he heard that.”

Mike than posed for photographs with Smokey and Phil and both presenters were also tweeting about the stunt to help GMFRS spread the message of smoke alarms to their thousands of followers.