The Townsville stubby cooler wall that Power 100 listeners built

Power 100 Townsville Breakfast announcer Sam ‘Archie’ Arenson recently experienced what he describes as his best-ever day in radio.

It involved quite the challenge – building a ridiculously long wall of stubby coolers.

Arenson says “It was a simple concept that truly caught the imagination of our city and our listeners.”

After being challenged by a listener to “do something impressive,” Arenson and co-host Henry Bretz hit upon the idea of a stunt which would allow the audience to be part of the success – or failure – of the wall.

“Over 100 local businesses and countless listeners were dropping off stubby coolers for 4 weeks in the lead-up to build day. Every person donating a cooler (or 20) was recognised and got a shout-out on air. We ended up with over 6,000 stubby coolers.”

“During the 4-week run we had a listener become our iconic hero of the whole story, when Tracey got in touch and donated her 30-year collection of over 3,000 stubby coolers to the cause. She was our guest of honour.”

Arenson says he and Bretz were overwhelmed by the response from listeners, who turned out in droves across the 3 hour broadcast to help build the wall and be part of the story.

“Some came for 20 minutes to help while some dedicated listeners joined us for the entire 3 hour show. They built the wall so fast we even had to stop at one point as we would’ve been done before 7am!

“Listeners generously brought us food and drinks, t-shirts they’d made for us, some made signs with our now-famous campaign slogan Every Cooler Counts.”

“It was just incredible to see the smiles and happiness being shared by everyone there on the day doing something, in reality, that was just a silly radio stunt!”

Arenson says it was the listeners who were the stars.

“They made it happen. They made it magical.”