Do radio stations conduct April Fool's Day pranks anymore? At WNEX, in the mid 70's the newsman, Joe Ferry, and I swapped jobs for the day and tried to convince the audience that this was a permanent move. Another year, we changed formats each hour during the morning show. One of the best April Fool's pranks I ever heard was in the early 80's. I was in sales at D-103, a rock station in Tallahassee, and our air staff staged an April Fool's Day Parade downtown. The prank was classic theater-of-the-mind, with lots of sound effects, local parodies, etc. It sounded so believable that we actually had listeners driving downtown looking for the parade. We ended up getting newspaper and TV publicity from the stunt. And I remember when Sean Hannity was at WGST in Atlanta, he tried to convince his audience that he had become a liberal on April Fool's Day. I tend to believe that in this era of political correctness and fear of lawsuits, harmless April Fool's pranks have gone the way of turntables and cart machines. I'd love to read your memories of other April Fool's Day radio pranks.
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April Fools Radio Pranks
- Thread starter Ben Sandifer
- Start date
K
kenglish
Guest
I don't remember any from Macon radio stations, but when I was a "Patrol Boy" (school crossing guard) in grade school, we always took a train trip to Washington, DC over spring holidays. We were at the National Zoo, and one of the local stations was filming (yes...remember 16mm film?) a report about April Fools jokes. They said someone had "invented smell-o-vision", and that viewers had called in by the hundreds, to report how well it worked.
Those were the days...$40 or so got us a train trip from Macon to Washington, three days at the Hotel Houston, sightseeing all around DC, meals, and all we had to do was buy souvenirs, and bring home "stuff" from Sonny's Surplus. ;D
Those were the days...$40 or so got us a train trip from Macon to Washington, three days at the Hotel Houston, sightseeing all around DC, meals, and all we had to do was buy souvenirs, and bring home "stuff" from Sonny's Surplus. ;D
Oh lord, April 1 is a day notorious for stupid "pranks" & other assorted foolishness. It's one day of the year I don't want to listen to the radio, especially in the mornings.
You can count on the following dumb pranks:
*morning shows on rock & country stations will switch
*something odd will be mentioned on the morning traffic report, like an elephant blocking the right two lanes of 75 southbound.
G
You can count on the following dumb pranks:
*morning shows on rock & country stations will switch
*something odd will be mentioned on the morning traffic report, like an elephant blocking the right two lanes of 75 southbound.
G
I worked with a ND (city and name deleted to protect the guilty), who never and I mean never, prepared for morning drive. All of his copy was either rip n' read or prepared by the PM drive anchor. One year, the PM drive anchor decided to write a fake story just to see how deep into the newscast the ND would get before realizing it was a joke. The story was about a French diplomat named "Jaques Strapp" who was in town on a goodwill tour. A sound bite of Monsieur Strapp was included but instead of a comment from the distiguished visitor it was a a snip from the Beatles, "Michelle." The ND punched up the sound bite and knew he'd been had. Needless to say, he wasn't happy.
Another year, another city, the morning drive anchor on a network radio newscast swapped places with a Weather Channel personality. The news anchor did the weather and the weather guy did the news. Not a single person called!
Another year, another city, the morning drive anchor on a network radio newscast swapped places with a Weather Channel personality. The news anchor did the weather and the weather guy did the news. Not a single person called!
In the mid-80s 96 Rock (WKLS) in Atlanta advertised for several days about new a new format coming at midnight Thursday night. Of course there was no mention that after midnight was 4/1. All the jocks did their goodbyes on air Thursday. Lots and lots of promos about something new and exciting. Listeners calling in all week angry about losing their rock station.
At midnight the new format came on and they start play beautiful music. They played the music for about half an hour and then busted in April Fools.
The prank made the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the TV stations. They had me... I tuned in at midnight along with most of my friends.
At midnight the new format came on and they start play beautiful music. They played the music for about half an hour and then busted in April Fools.
The prank made the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the TV stations. They had me... I tuned in at midnight along with most of my friends.
C
C414B
Guest
Several years back, KISX 107.3 in Tyler, TX, pulled a nice little stunt where they reverted from their hot AC format back to their former oldies/classic hits format during morning drive. Even down to pulling out the old classic hits jingles. I remember hearing phone bits where people were hoppin' mad that their radio station had changed. (I, OTOH, was quite happy to hear their prior format back on the air.) At their last break before 10AM, the morning crew dropped the bomb that it was an April Fool's prank...and resumed their regularly scheduled hot AC format.
Last year, working at a soft rock station in Prescott AZ, we announced that the remaining Beatles, the remaining Bee Gees, and Elton John would be performing SGT Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the local arena. We played promos all morning long with all three acts performing songs from the album. We directed people to our website to buy tickets (err, I mean let them off the hook). All morning we had people calling and talking about the good seats they got for the show. We did have a few people preetty upset about the whole thing, but overall I think it went pretty well.
I came up with an idea back in the mid 90's in a Medium Market im Michigan. A movie with the Stars, with Live guests, Micheal Jordan, Mel Gibson and other "celebrity names". Was actually local people with celeb names...HUGE Turnout, about 700 people showed up at the client movie theater, they were happy and so was my PD for that news coverage.
dont remember the year but in Valdosta georgia wqpw-fm and wwrq-fm swapped morning shows on april 1st it was funny.They were like we we don't know any of this music. then 1 day i dont believe it was april fools but when kix106 before it moved to 99.5 (at the time spelled KICKS). They went to the Rock 108 Studios before they combined into same building and took a stuffed parrot out of the studio. They went on air saying we got the bird. Scott James office was at the kicks studio. Todd went over and ended up in his office and tearing it up looking for the bird. Scott was like wait thats my office! Long Story short Kicks ended up keeping the bird.
Sixteen years ago on April 1, 1993, WGTZ/Dayton "Z-93" played a huge prank on the listeners by actually doing serious announcements in the days leading up to 4-1-93, by having their announce guy say "Great Trails Broadcasting has done it again, putting Dayton radio on its ear! Listen for full details April 1st @ 7 AM with Wicker in the Morning." Then at 7 AM on April 1st, following Kim Faris and the news, on comes Jeff Wicker:"Thank you Kim it's 7:02, at this time WGTZ/Z-93, owned and operated by Great Trails Broadcasting, has decided it is time to change Dayton radio. In compliance with the FCC, WGTZ "Z-93" will become WGTZ "Z-Country". Then some imaging that said, "The best country favorites are on 92.9 Z-Country...Just the way you like it!", then they played Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy", took angry listener calls, and then played other assorted Country tunes such as Garth Brooks' "Friends In Low Places" until 8 AM, when they went on the air and said, "WGTZ, Z-Country...NOT!" and then went into Jon Secada's "Do You Believe In Us?". One of the funniest pranks they pulled, and yes, as a 15 year old die hard fan of WGTZ at the time, they got me. ;D
K
kenglish
Guest
Too late to do it this year, but next year let's have WIBB (Macon) become "We're Into Big Bands".....Guy Lombardo, Lawrence Welk, Kate Smith,....
I'd love to hear those hip-hop DJs pull that one off. ;D
I'd love to hear those hip-hop DJs pull that one off. ;D
When I was a kid in Harrisburg, PA back in the 1970s, Ron Drake on WHP580 pulled some classic April Fools jokes. This was back in the days before FM radio was big, and his morning show would hold down 40+ share of the market. Each stunt sounded so realistic because the news department joined in on the stunt complete with "breaking news alerts".
One year, he reported that a whale swam from the Atlantic Ocean up the Chesapeake Bay and then up the Susquehanna River into Harrisburg -- complete with "live" reports and phone calls. Police reported major traffic jams along the riverfront that morning from people trying to see the whale.
Another joke -- he reported that the phone company had to do emergency maintenance of the city phone lines because too much dust and dirt had accumulated in the phone wires. He instructed all city residents to take their phones off the hook and cover the phones in plastic because the phone company had a special machine to blow the dirt out of the lines. Needless to say, phone service in the city was nonexistent because all circuits were busy.
One more classic -- One year the city water company was going to do emergency maintenance and they had to shut off water to the entire city for a few days. To help city residents prepare for this "emergency", the instructions were for all city residents to fill their bathtubs with water so that they had enough water for the next few days. That stunt totally killed water pressure to certain parts of Harrisburg that morning.
One year, he reported that a whale swam from the Atlantic Ocean up the Chesapeake Bay and then up the Susquehanna River into Harrisburg -- complete with "live" reports and phone calls. Police reported major traffic jams along the riverfront that morning from people trying to see the whale.
Another joke -- he reported that the phone company had to do emergency maintenance of the city phone lines because too much dust and dirt had accumulated in the phone wires. He instructed all city residents to take their phones off the hook and cover the phones in plastic because the phone company had a special machine to blow the dirt out of the lines. Needless to say, phone service in the city was nonexistent because all circuits were busy.
One more classic -- One year the city water company was going to do emergency maintenance and they had to shut off water to the entire city for a few days. To help city residents prepare for this "emergency", the instructions were for all city residents to fill their bathtubs with water so that they had enough water for the next few days. That stunt totally killed water pressure to certain parts of Harrisburg that morning.
gr8oldies said:
Ha. That's a great harmless April Fools gag that's actualy enjoyable for the listener (kind of a wild thought, huh?). Didn't Fox 97 play international versions of oldies every now and then while the olympics were in town?
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