“Watch the tramcar, please” has been heard on the Atlantic City boardwalk for the past few months ever since they got new tramcars but the recording has the The Wildwoods considering legal action because they have been using the exact same phrase on their tramcars for decades.
"Watch the tram car please."
They are the words and voice that millions immediately connect with just one place: The Wildwoods.
Wrong.
The exact same recording you can hear blaring from brand-new tram cars on Atlantic City’s boardwalk and it’s driving a wave of anger from The Wildwoods.
“I think that’s a violation,” vacationer Derek Middleman said.
“Shame on them. I mean, you can’t come up with your own idea,” said Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano. “They took the DO AC, that was Do Wildwood, Do WW long before.”
When the AC tram cars debuted in March, NBC10 asked the company operating them about why they were using the exact same voice.
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Tim Boland, B&B Parking vice president, said the phrase “wasn’t trademarked” so they decided to use it.
“They didn’t have any rights to it or claim anything so, we liked it,” he said.
But Wildwood officials don’t agree with Boland’s assertion. Patrick Rosenello, head of The Wildwoods Boardwalk Special Improvement District, which operates these tram cars, says he reached out to Atlantic City officials about the issue months ago, but got no response.
“The fact that it has been in use by us for decades, it is our property. It is proprietary and they shouldn’t be using it and how they obtained it is also questionable,” he said. “We are pursuing some legal action.”
They might not have to, though. After NBC10 reached out to Atlantic City officials today, they immediately asked the tram company to change the recording.
A company rep says they’ll do just that on Monday with a different voice and phrase. The spokesman says they don’t want to create any problems with The Wildwoods and tells us the business that installed the trams’ audio equipment took the recording off the internet.
“They shouldn’t have done it,” Augusctin said.
Soon, the message will again belong solely to The Wildwoods — an icon that many at the shore point say never should’ve been heard anywhere else.
