April Fool Jokes/Pranks-Atlanta Radio

[nativeatlanta]

I lifted this topic from the Memphis board. Since April Fools Day is approaching, I wanted to hear from the readers.

What is your favorite April Fools Day Joke/Prank by an Atlanta Radio Station and/or dj?

Mine is The Morning X switching places with Sean Hannity. I believe that was 1996. Runner up is the fake Morning X annivesary concert at an amphitheater in Alpharetta/Roswell with live cuts from several major artists.

 

[tlyle]

My favorite was Steve and Vickie on Star 94 jumping back to 1978 with Olivia Newton John and promoting "Grease" as if it was being released that weekend. Olivia was in on the joke and did the usual press junket promo all during the show. It really sounded like 1978. They were playing music from that time. Don't remember if the news was 1978 news or the news from that did when they did the newscast. Either way, it was funny. They played songs from "Grease".

 

[wooder]

Even though April Fools pranks seem to be a thing of the past, no one will ever come close in Atlanta to the Morning X's string of gags. The ones mentioned at the beginning of the post were good along with the fake amusement park, Leslie getting fired because she was too ugly for the webcast, Crash getting a teenager pregnant, Jimmy getting beaten up by a crazed redneck woman in studio, and probably the grand-daddy of them all: giving out Leonardo Dicaprio's home phone number (which was really a voicemail box they had set up with some sound-alike) and then playing all the messages left by idiot listeners on the air the next day. Even when you knew the bits were April Fools jokes it was great radio hearing all the people who fell for them.

 

[Barbapapa]

In the early eighties 96Rock did an April fool's format switch. They put some effort into it and it fooled at least one stupid teenager.

 

[itburnswhenipee]

I lifted this topic from the Memphis board. Since April Fools Day is approaching, I wanted to hear from the readers.

What is your favorite April Fools Day Joke/Prank by an Atlanta Radio Station and/or dj?

Mine is The Morning X switching places with Sean Hannity. I believe that was 1996. Runner up is the fake Morning X annivesary concert at an amphitheater in Alpharetta/Roswell with live cuts from several major artists.

I have a couple of favorites from my old morning show:

1) Sabotaging the intercom system at Walmart ("attention shoppers, we have a monkey loose in Aisle 12")

2) Impersonating an IRS agent, and telling my co-host's 75-year-old grandmother that she has to pay a "needlepoint tax" because she does needlepoint as a hobby. I've never heard an old lady cuss like that.

3) Conference calling two rival radio stations' request lines---so the two rival air personalities put each other on the air, live, at the same time.

4) Doing a "Hottest Stripper" contest---and having one lucky guy win a chance to meet a furniture stripper.

;D

 

[HHalland]

this is funny

 

[grmf]

3) Conference calling two rival radio stations' request lines---so the two rival air personalities put each other on the air, live, at the same time.

That's funny. I wish I'd heard that one.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Here in San Diego the CC station cluster changed the format on all of their stations during morning drive.. THe news/talk station ended up on the frequency for the AC station, the AC station was on the AOR station's frequency, etc. etc. They stayed like that for about an hour then at the top of the hour they all went back to their correct and usual frequencies.

 

[winreader]

Here in San Diego the CC station cluster changed the format on all of their stations during morning drive.. THe news/talk station ended up on the frequency for the AC station, the AC station was on the AOR station's frequency, etc. etc. They stayed like that for about an hour then at the top of the hour they all went back to their correct and usual frequencies.

Here in Atlanta, no one would notice if they did that.

 

[MisterDaisy]

The morning X switching with Hannity was my favorite as well.

Tied for second would be the fake underground amusement park and the fake concert.

Lots of LOL delivered.

 

[topgun24]

Hello folks...I've been lurking on this board for a few months.

In the spirit of April Fools Day and hoaxes in general, I was hoping someone would have "The Georgia Cat Chasing Championships" that Neal Boortz did when he was at WGST. The hoax was a skydiving competition to see which skydivers would be able to catch a cat that had been thrown out of the plan earlier. It was very convencing and legend has it copies of it were sold to benefit a local animal charity. Would anyone have a copy of this that they would be willing to part with?

Thanks a lot!

Brian

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Here in San Diego the CC station cluster changed the format on all of their stations

They did that here in Atlanta too...but it wasn't April Fools!

 

[evnlee]

3) Conference calling two rival radio stations' request lines---so the two rival air personalities put each other on the air, live, at the same time.

That's funny. I wish I'd heard that one.

Honestly, how can that be done? I would truly love to think that was a great hoax, but how does one 'conference a call' on a 'standby request line'?

Is it like, 'Okay, hold on, I;m gonna switch over to connect you ( the request line guy holding...holding...) while the other line is being dialed, and the, 'whats your request?' followed by 'whats YOUR request'?!

If it can be done, and it was, by god that is the drop dead winner!

 

[itburnswhenipee]

3) Conference calling two rival radio stations' request lines---so the two rival air personalities put each other on the air, live, at the same time.

That's funny. I wish I'd heard that one.

Honestly, how can that be done? I would truly love to think that was a great hoax, but how does one 'conference a call' on a 'standby request line'?

Is it like, 'Okay, hold on, I;m gonna switch over to connect you ( the request line guy holding...holding...) while the other line is being dialed, and the, 'whats your request?' followed by 'whats YOUR request'?!

If it can be done, and it was, by god that is the drop dead winner!

Just remember, I hosted a morning show in a small market---and most of the small market morning personalities did not have a producer, and ran their own boards (including me).

In the case of our "Juvenile Conference Calls" bit, the Hot AC jock was doing a phone topic and punched up the phone line to hear a dial signal (phone ringing). "Let's see what this is about," he said. Then a moment later, you hear the CHR jock come on the line and say "Kiss 105, Good Morning!!!"

 

[evnlee]

3) Conference calling two rival radio stations' request lines---so the two rival air personalities put each other on the air, live, at the same time.

That's funny. I wish I'd heard that one.

Honestly, how can that be done? I would truly love to think that was a great hoax, but how does one 'conference a call' on a 'standby request line'?

Is it like, 'Okay, hold on, I;m gonna switch over to connect you ( the request line guy holding...holding...) while the other line is being dialed, and the, 'whats your request?' followed by 'whats YOUR request'?!

If it can be done, and it was, by god that is the drop dead winner!

Just remember, I hosted a morning show in a small market---and most of the small market morning personalities did not have a producer, and ran their own boards (including me).

In the case of our "Juvenile Conference Calls" bit, the Hot AC jock was doing a phone topic and punched up the phone line to hear a dial signal (phone ringing). "Let's see what this is about," he said. Then a moment later, you hear the CHR jock come on the line and say "Kiss 105, Good Morning!!!"

hilarious. if you have audio of this, you have to share it!

 

[thinice66]

In the early eighties 96Rock did an April fool's format switch. They put some effort into it and it fooled at least one stupid teenager.

Make that at least two stupid teenagers. ;D

 

[PST]

My favorite one from growing up had to have been when Randy & Spiff in their "early" days on Fox 97 advertised a new newspaper being launched called The Atlanta Post. They promoted the heck out of the thing leading up to that day, even with fake advertisments about it. And then of course the day comes and they started taking calls from people that couldn't find it, and then calls from people that figured out the joke and went along with it.

Of course, their worst one was when they claimed Stone Mountain had turned into a volcano. But that's beside the point...

 

[TheChief611]

One of the best April Fools Day Programming stunts was in the late 70's or very early 80's. WQXI was still Top 40 - in the last days - but on April 1 they went back to April 1st of 1968 I think. Anyway, they had Tony the Tiger, and several other jocks from that era on the air all day with the music, spots and everything just as it was, or as close to it as possible. They added reverb and really made it sound like you were in a time warp. Great entertainment.

 

[Fox97Fan]

I remember that back in the early to mid 90's back when Randy & Spiff were on Fox 97 they did a prank where they told people that the was going to be a new newspaper for Atlanta "The Atlanta Post". They made commercials telling people to go buy the new "Atlanta Post". Many people fell for it and called them after they said "April Fools!!" The whole thing is on one of the tapes that they ahd entitled "Fox97's Shower Stall Singers" I will find out whcih one it is on and let ya'll know.

 

[bnaivar]

Randy & Spiff also broke the story on April first that construction of the Olympic Stadium (now Turner Field) had been halted due to the discovery of dinosaur bones. Oh, and they invited all of their listeners to watch them on channel 1 on their TVs.