KWEDding Ads Up to Commercial Event

The wedding of a Woodland Hills couple at a radio studio Monday was a fitting end to a courtship that started because a license plate resembled a beer commercial.

The bride, Lynn Gusto, wore a lacy white wedding dress from a dress shop that got a plug on the air. Bridegroom Mark Hannan proffered a wedding band supplied by a jeweler who also got a mention.

The early-morning ceremony was sandwiched between blocks of advertising jingles from other program sponsors. Afterward, as the newlyweds left the Wilshire area studio for a honeymoon sponsored by an airline and a hotel, they were pelted with rice sent by a food company.

The 10-minute wedding was broadcast live at 8:40 a.m. on station KFI-AM. The bride’s personalized license plate, “I’M GUSTO,” was prominently displayed on a cloth-draped studio control console.

Hannan, a jovial 45-year-old shirt salesman, said he spied the license plate five years ago while driving on the Ventura Freeway. It reminded him of a beer commercial about going for the gusto. Hannan honked and gestured for Gusto to follow him.

They Stopped for Coffee

“I said, ‘Don’t shoot!’ and she didn’t,” Hannan said, jokingly referring to the current rash of violent freeway incidents. “We got off at the same exit in the Valley and stopped for coffee and hit it off.”

Said Gusto, 36, who sells bath accessories and gift ware: “He was driving a red Mercedes, so I figured he had some money.”

Rabbi William Kramer of Burbank’s Temple Beth Emet shortened his usual wedding ceremony to fit the broadcast schedule.

“I asked that there be no commercial breaks. That would be offensive,” said Kramer, who is also a professor of religious studies at California State University, Northridge. “I won’t cut out any of the essential prayers, just some of the non-essential rabbi’s words.”

But disc jockeys Gary Owens and Al Lohman did not cut out a single essential plug as they described the bride and groom’s attire, rings, rice and honeymoon arrangements.

The newlyweds said their accountant had advised them to marry next year, for tax purposes, but they decided not to put off the ceremony when they won a contest sponsored by the radio station.

Although the nuptials followed an Aug. 2 wedding broadcast by rival station KROQ-FM, officials at KFI said their station had sponsored the first broadcast wedding. That was in 1923, when a couple named Hilda Simpson and L.E. Bachelor were picked in an essay contest. The Bachelors were still married in 1948 when the station did a follow-up interview, said Chuck Tyler, assistant program director.

At Monday’s ceremony, 17 family members and friends crowded into the studio to watch.

Gusto’s cousin, Rosann Fript of Chicago, was maid of honor. But producer Laura Brown hovered closest to the bride, signaling that a minute remained to wrap up the rites and switch to a commercial.

As the ceremony ended, the Lettermen, the San Fernando Valley-based pop music trio famous in the 1960s, crooned “When I Fall in Love” from a corner of the studio. Owens and Lohman, who wore tuxedos, finished their plugs and cracked a final joke.

“I cried during this thing,” said Lohman.

“That’s because I was standing on your foot,” said Owens.