Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Members of the European Coaster Club ride Kennywood's storied Thunderbolt roller coaster during their visit to the park last summer. Click photo for larger image.
	Related Link Click here for Kennywood-inspired cell phone ring tones.
	Kennywood's Web site this season will feature pages like the one seen above that will allow fans to build their own park film clips, including music and video effects. Click photo for larger image.

Teaching an old amusement park a few digital tricks shouldn't be too hard.

Kennywood, which opened in 1898 and has hosted generations of screaming teens, is used to changing fashions, hairstyles and the demand for regular doses of newness -- such as the Cosmic Chaos, this year's addition that's supposed to resemble an elevated, disc-shaped UFO that spins.

For the iPod generation, there could be another dose of new thrills this year. The old place next to the Monongahela River is jumping feet first into the revolution that uses technology to put consumers in charge of their own marketing.

Need a new cell phone ring tone? Kennywood will offer some free. Want to share a video capturing Kennywood memories, yours or perhaps your grandparents? The park plans to start posting customer submissions online, once the films have made it through a quick check to weed out such unnecessary and un-family friendly things as obscenities.

Avid coaster fans, a group of whom were scheduled to meet this weekend at The Bradley House of Catering on Brownsville Road, will be among the early testers of the new digital Kennywood. The Western Pennsylvania chapter of American Coasters Enthusiasts will be given special information so they can try turning a collection of video clips and music on the Web into a minifilm to be called a K-Clip.

"They deserve a secret key," said Mary Lou Rosemeyer, public relations director for a park which is known worldwide for its lineup of roller coasters, from classics to the modern Phantom's Revenge. "They do a lot for us. They really do."

Indeed, coaster fans have served as a social network long before that became a buzzword on the Internet among admirers of MySpace.com and Friendster.com. They not only have alerted the park to problems or pointed out misspelled words on the Web site but they have helped get the word out about new rides and events.

Some may even have contributed to the cache of Kennywood videos already available on YouTube.com showing front-row rides on the Phantom's Revenge, pictures of that annoying laughing mannequin, even images of a ride that resembles the Cosmic Chaos the park operators promise to unleash on visitors this year.

"I love KennyWood in Pennsylvania. but watching this makes me miss the summer so much and walking around with those warm cheese friens and then to the raging rapids!lol!" was one viewer's recent, unedited response to the park slide show posted in May by KingZach123.

Giving fans a warm dose of summer fun in the chilly winter months is part of the thinking behind the projects the park is working on with South Side agency CarneyFireman. "This way they can get a fix," said Paul Fireman, who envisions friends posting their creations on MySpace and sharing them with friends.

The agency's proposals to put more power in consumers' hands were well-timed to fit with a more interactive marketing strategy already under consideration, said Ms. Rosemeyer.

For the past few years, she has been interested in developing a sort of in-park television network that also could extend to the company's two other local venues, Sandcastle and Idlewild. But the expense and the technical challenges were sizable, especially at a time when increasing competition for entertainment dollars means Kennywood has had to market itself to a broader geographic region extending into northeastern Ohio and south toward Maryland.

The three parks typically draw more than 2 million visitors annually, but many of those people easily can go instead to places such as Hersheypark, which is building a new boardwalk offering interactive water-play; Geauga Lake, in Aurora, Ohio, touting two new shows this summer; or perhaps Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio, between Cleveland and Toledo, which is marketing a new $21 million roller coaster called Maverick.

Meanwhile, the Internet's reach had become clear in the summer of 2005 when Kennywood ran a Web contest inviting fans to come up with names for a new ride. More than 10,000 entries from every state in the union arrived, even though there wasn't a big fancy prize. "We know that things like that are just plain fun," said Ms. Rosemeyer.

If putting up a fresh supply of video and music on the Web can help export and maintain the feeling of fun year-round, then that's a good investment.

The park's marketing budget has been rearranged to put more dollars into such nontraditional projects, said Ms. Rosemeyer, who declined to release financial details. Less will be spent on traditional advertising media, although Kennywood still will invest in a campaign handled by Downtown agency Dymun + Co.

Various pieces of the layered approach will roll out in a slow build toward opening days, the first Friday and Saturday in May. Consumers will be able to download new ring tones developed with CarneyFireman multimedia designer Jim DiSpirito, a former member of the band Rusted Root. The choices will blend music and park sounds.

Schools have been asked to test the video clip technology in teaching multimedia techniques. Classes at the Ellis School, the city's Creative and Performing Arts high school and schools in West Mifflin will be given early access to the Web program, allowing students to use different splicing techniques and other tools.

"Maybe [students] can learn they should be a video editor," suggested Mr. Fireman. He is eager to see if the system can be used easily by students of all ages or if more refinements are needed. The technology will be opened to all schools when the park reopens for the summer.

There's also talk of setting up recording booths at the park where people could make videos, although that may not come for a while.

Ms. Rosemeyer is working with independent producer/director Mark Patterson, whose MPTV Digital in Greenfield is developing a wireless television network that will allow tailoring to specific groups.

Fans in one place might see a Rick Sebak video, while those waiting in lines at Kiddieland might get trivia questions aimed at children. On the day of the North Allegheny picnic, the park might show video of the NA band performing. There's even the capability of letting visitors send text messages to vote on the best coasters or choose a song to play.

Some of the films that fans make on their own to post to the park's K-Tube online video sharing feature could be shown on the parks' television screens.

The K-TV network also could alert visitors to weather emergencies -- plus it has ad potential. A sponsor of a hot-dog-eating contest would be happy to have more people watching than those right at the event. Ms. Rosemeyer said the park was looking at selling more sponsorships, but she was not sure exactly how that would work.

Officials should probably be careful if they decide to go that route, said Robert J. Gilbert, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh who teaches marketing courses. "Once you do that too much, you reduce its coolness dramatically," he said.

But the plan overall has the potential to be pretty cool, in his opinion. The interactive techniques may draw in an audience beyond the relatively captive one in the Pittsburgh region that already puts Kennywood on the schedule every summer.

"It's an old, old park," said Dr. Gilbert, adding: "They're going to make it a whole lot more hip."