A world-record pumpkin chucker, the Aludium Q36 Pumpkin Modulator, will operate in Ames Monday morning courtesy of WHO Radio’s morning team of Van Harden and Bonnie Lucas.

The machine, which has launched a pumpkin 4,491 feet, will be part of the Van and Bonnie Morning Show Monday from 5 to 9 a.m.

The Aludium Q36 Pumpkin Modulator was named after the machine the Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian was going to use to blow up the Earth, according to a press release from WHO Radio.

It’s doubtful that Marvin the Martian intended for his Aludium Q36 Space Modulator to double as a pumpkin launcher, but as five men in Morton, Ill., have proved, everything has more than one use.

“There is a National Pumpkin Chuckin’ Contest in Delaware that we heard about, and we decided to enter it,” said Chuck Heerde, member of the team who built the launcher. “Being a bunch of farm kids, we’re always tinkering with something.”

At the Delaware contest, their chucker placed first and set a pumpkin-shooting record of 4,026 feet, Heerde said.

“It took us about one month to build the prototype, and we’ve been expanding on it ever since,” Heerde said.

He said in order to transport the launcher to Ames, the team will have to disassemble it.

“The barrel itself breaks down into three sections,” Heerde said. “When we get where we need to be, it takes between one-and-a-half to two hours to set it up.”

The Aludium Q36 is an air cannon that features a laptop computer to monitor pressure, temperature, valve-opening rates and other relevant data, according to the press release.

“The barrel of the chucker is about 80 feet long and shoots pumpkins nine inches in diameter or smaller,” said Harden, who also is program director for WHO Radio.

“Because of the regulations of the contest in Delaware, the pumpkins have to be between eight and 10 pounds,” Heerde said.

WHO Radio is hosting this event in Ames because of the huge response the morning show got last year from its post-Halloween pumpkin event.

“Last year, we got to thinking about what people should do with their extra pumpkins, so we decided to drop them from a 47-foot scissor lift,” Harden said. “After that event, we got a huge response from people wondering what we were going to do next year.”

“Somebody brought a picture of this launcher from an Illinois newspaper, and we realized that we had to get it,” said Jonnie Nordaker, WHO Radio promotions director. “We were finally able to track them down on the Internet and get them to come to Iowa.”

The Aludium Q36 will be “chuckin'” pumpkins at the Hallett Materials Gravel Pit on the north side of Ames during Van and Bonnie’s show Monday morning, Nordaker said.

The radio station is encouraging listeners to bring their pumpkins to the site during the morning show, she said. The pumpkins must be no bigger than nine inches in diameter.

The event is sponsored by Kryger Glass, and everyone who shows up will get a free sandwich certificate from Hardee’s restaurants, Harden said.

“We’ve had a lot of phone calls from people saying they were going to take the day off,” he said. “Hopefully, we can shoot the pumpkins throughout the whole morning show.”