Betty Driver moved uncomfortably in her chair. She crossed and re-crossed her long nylon sheathed legs nervously. She couldn't believe what they were asking of her, and it was all because JPLTV had raised a record amount of cash in their national charity marathon.
Jake Elway was the man behind JPLTV, and everything he did was aimed at getting one over on his arch rival, Silas Crain, who ran the other local TV network in Plainsville, SCRTV. Everything the pair of them did was aimed at getting something over on one another.
When Silas had seen the spread on the front cover of last week's Plainsville Gazette that JPLTV was now leading the overall race for the coveted Elway trophy, he had angrily tossed the paper aside. The Elway trophy was presented by George Elway, the richest man in Plainsville, to the TV company who raised the most cash in the annual charity marathon. When he had seen the news, Silas had immediately called in his promotion staff and told them that they needed urgently to come up with something to put them back in the lead.
Last week, JPL had run a major charity stunt where viewers had been able to ring in to the station and pledge an amount of money. When the sums of money pledged by the viewers reached a predetermined total, one of the station's several attractive new anchors who was selected by the viewers would read the hourly news bulletin in either her underwear or a bikini, depending on what had been advertised.
The stunt had been a wild success, and had pushed JPLTV into the lead for the trophy. Now Silas wanted to get his own back on his arch rival and he was looking towards his promotion staff to come up with something sensational.
After a lot of discussion and soul searching, they had finally come up with what they thought was an exciting and daring plan, and this was what Betty was now feeling extremely uncomfortable about. Silas had been called in to listen to what they had come up with and to give his consent to the plan.
He listened with interest as Morgan Grainger, the head of promotion, explained what he had in mind. Silas smiled and looked over at Betty who was beginning to feel even more uncomfortable now that she realized that Silas looked to be in full agreement with the plan.
Silas listened silently until Morgan had finished. "Can we get away with it?" he asked.
Morgan shrugged. "I can't see why not. It's for charity, and you can get away with anything when it's for charity."
Silas turned to Betty. "And how do you feel about it?"
She didn't speak for a moment. "Well, I can't say I'm all that keen about it, sir. It's not like what they did on the other side, they only went down to their undies. Mr. Grainger says that if we get a lot of pledges I might have to go further, even all the way."
Silas smiled. "Don't worry, my dear, I don't think that will happen. We will attempt to set the levels high enough so that you won't have to go all the way." Secretly, Silas knew that Betty would be going all the way if he had anything to do with it, and if things went to plan, maybe even further.
Betty had been a prize catch for SCRTV. She had been the Plainsville High School beauty queen and had gained more fame when she was also an entry in the local heats of the Miss World contest. She had been highly placed but had not won the national heats. The publicity had done her no harm.
Of course she was an extremely attractive young lady. With long blond hair and magnificent 38dd breasts always enticingly displayed above the low scooped necklines she wore, she caused every hot blooded male who met her to stare. Along with her slim waist, shapely hips, and those long, long legs, she was every man's image of the perfect woman. During her high school days, she had never been short of male company. When she left high school, she had applied for a position at SCRTV. Silas had no hesitation in employing her. She had soon proved to be an asset as a hard and willing worker for the station, and when she had tried out for a news anchor position, the viewers had voted for her in droves.
She had proved popular with the viewers, especially the male viewers, although she was not deemed as capable to handle the main news. She was used to deliver the human interest and the lighter news stories. Jake Elway had tried on a couple of occasions to lure the attractive anchor woman away from SRC, but he had always been foiled by Silas offering her a higher salary to stay were she was.
Advertising for the stunt which was to take place on the following Friday was quickly organized by the promotion staff. Items were inserted in all the news programs and Betty was called in by the art department for a photo shoot. Soon pictures of her attired in some brief but attractive undies were distributed around town. Help us raise money for needy children by undressing Betty Driver on SRCTV, the colorful handouts were headed. They caused an immediate reaction. The switch board at SRCTV was flooded with calls for more information.
On Wednesday, two days prior to the stunt, Silas met up with Morgan Grainger to discuss plans for the evening. He slid a sheet of paper across to Morgan. "It's a good job we didn't set the levels earlier, or that poor girl would have been totally naked by seven o'clock," he said with a smile. The idea of the levels was that a scale would be set and when certain points on the scale were reached by pledges of money from viewers, Betty would, at the start of her broadcast, have to remove another article of clothing. This was to be done at the start because doing it as an opening item meant that she would be displayed on screen to the viewers for the full five minutes of the broadcast.
Another extra fund raiser was that her discarded clothing would be given as a prize for the person to pledge the highest amount of money during each hour. Then there was the special show that Silas was arranging through a friend in the business, a special show to be transmitted on pay TV after midnight. Silas looked across at Morgan. "Have you spoken to her about the special show yet?" he asked.
Morgan shook his head. "No, but I'm taking her out after our meeting. I will put it to her then, but what if she refuses to go along with the plan?"
Silas looked across at Morgan and reached into his briefcase and pulled out a video cassette. "Just show her this," he said, passing the tape to Morgan. He looked at the title: 'The Cheerleader does the First Eleven.' It was a cheaply produced video, one of a kind made by one of the many small independent video companies.
"What's this got to do with Betty?" Morgan asked.
Silas smiled at him. "Just watch it when you get home. You will see our Betty was a star before she joined us. Just show her the tape, and if she refuses to do the special show, tell her we will show the video on the normal channel instead."
