Best Engineering Related Pranks

[RF Man]

Broadcasting is a fun and exciting occupation to many. However occasionally one does get bored which leads to some creative fun and games. After reading posts from another topic I thought it might be fun to ask for some experiences playing pranks on your co workers.

I'll start with this one:


A station in Columbus playing classical music had it's share of over serious people working there. One person in particular was a stickler for no noise occurring in adjoining studios and hallways while he did his program. He was also the hardest on engineering types trying to get work done or not repairing items in "his" studio quickly enough. This went on for years. One day he asked for a cough switch to be installed. This was back in the early 70's when cough switches were virtually unheard of. Well as usual he was not happy with the time it took to install such a device and he read the Chief Engineer the riot act. Engineering decided to get even.

The cough switch was installed soon after with an unrequested feature which was kept secret. In the corner of the studio was an electric sweeper which lived there fulltime. The engineers used a multi pole switch for the cough switch and ran an extra wire to a relay which the provided power to the sweeper upon activation of the cough feature. The engineers gathered in the adjoining studio and waited until the host used his cough switch for the very first time. When the moment came he depressed the switch and the sweeper came roaring to life! His eyes got as big as silver dollars and there was almost a minute of silence on the air as he tried to regain his composure. There was no alternative but to release the switch. The sound of the sweeper ramping down could distinctly be heard over the air as he introduced the next classical number. Needless to say he never tangled with the engineers again!! ;D

 

[Robert Bass]

Yeah that was funny... But it makes me question the management department. Why did they allow it to go that far? It's one thing for a departing engineer to pull an exiting prank. But I would suspect most station managers would consider this childish behavior as grounds for dismisal.

R

 

[joep]

Yeah that was funny... But it makes me question the management department. Why did they allow it to go that far? It's one thing for a departing engineer to pull an exiting prank. But I would suspect most station managers would consider this childish behavior as grounds for dismisal.

R

Oh, Jeez-o-Pete, Robert.... Lighten up, will ya? I'm sure glad I don't work for YOU.

 

[Robert Bass]

Yeah that was funny... But it makes me question the management department. Why did they allow it to go that far? It's one thing for a departing engineer to pull an exiting prank. But I would suspect most station managers would consider this childish behavior as grounds for dismisal.

R

Oh, Jeez-o-Pete, Robert.... Lighten up, will ya? I'm sure glad I don't work for YOU.

Guess you've never dealt with a hostile co-worker before, eh?

And you're right, you would never work for me, because I am not employed in a management position of that nature.

Besides, in this day and age of frivilous lawsuits, this incident might be grounds for one.

C'est la vie, unfortunately.

R

 

[joep]

Guess you've never dealt with a hostile co-worker before, eh?

And you're right, you would never work for me, because I am not employed in a management position of that nature.

Besides, in this day and age of frivilous lawsuits, this incident might be grounds for one.

C'est la vie, unfortunately.

R

Lawsuit? On what grounds? I don't see any damages or injuries here. Unless you're counting hurting somebody's pride as an "injury".

 

[RF Man]

Yeah that was funny... But it makes me question the management department. Why did they allow it to go that far? It's one thing for a departing engineer to pull an exiting prank. But I would suspect most station managers would consider this childish behavior as grounds for dismisal.

R

It was the early 70's. A very different time than today. People were more free spirited. If you tried to pull it off today I think it would most certainly end up badly.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Good thread...here's my contribution. April 1 1978 or maybe 1979. Local legend Sam Simmermaker is sitting in the WCSI Columbus,IN newsroom after his 11AM newscast. The receptionist calls back to him & asks what the temperature was. He answered her 67 degrees & she asked if he was sure. Sam replied that he was & asked why she doubted the reading. She replied that a number of listeners had phoned in from the western part of the county that the temperature had suddenly dropped into the 30's & she wondered if it was getting cold in town. Sam looked again & noted that the temperature had dropped from 67 to 60...no, 55...couldn't be...49....when it got down to 17 degrees, many of the WCSI staff burst through the door & hollered April Fools. Sadly, I wasn't there to witness that...you see, I was on the roof with a can of freeze mist spraying the thermometer probe...and now you know the rest of the story.

 

[Robert Bass]

Guess you've never dealt with a hostile co-worker before, eh?

And you're right, you would never work for me, because I am not employed in a management position of that nature.

Besides, in this day and age of frivilous lawsuits, this incident might be grounds for one.

C'est la vie, unfortunately.

R

Lawsuit? On what grounds? I don't see any damages or injuries here. Unless you're counting hurting somebody's pride as an "injury".

Trust me, a good (or maybe sleezy?) lawyer will come up with something.

I don't recommend trying this type of prank, unless you're prepared to accept a pink slip. Given the limited positions in radio today vs the number of young college grads hungry for a position, pranksters are too easily replaceable.

R

 

[Robert Bass]

Yeah that was funny... But it makes me question the management department. Why did they allow it to go that far? It's one thing for a departing engineer to pull an exiting prank. But I would suspect most station managers would consider this childish behavior as grounds for dismisal.

R

It was the early 70's. A very different time than today. People were more free spirited. If you tried to pull it off today I think it would most certainly end up badly.

Yep

R

 

[SFM-Ptgal]

Early 90's, rookie on the board, discovering the wonders of 2r2 machines... They can be used as echo machines! That's how they did then when no spx or whatever were available.
How about feed the own taped live broadcast onto the newsreader headphones? Must be fun, I figured then... Two patch chords from the 2r2 into the L+R headphones insertion/radio monitoring override... 3...2...1 Then the newsreader (also a newbie) said "What a &%=# is this???" LIVE ON AIR... No big problem for both of us... we were both forgiven ;D

 

[Robert Bass]

This isn't quite an on-air prank, but heck it still involves a radio station.

(probably the oldest trick in the book too, but I'd never experienced it before).

Early 1990's I was working a weekend PT shift. The guy scheduled to follow me, was notorious for being late almost all the time. On this particular day, he calls me about 5 minutes before he is supposed to be at the station, and tells me some "I'm running late today" story. Of course I bought it and started cursing to myself, realizing other plans for that afternoon could be affected.

While I'm standing by the studio entrance door, doing this cursing to myself routine, the supposedly-going-to-be-late guy, arrives. He had just called me from a phone down the hall.

Sure had me fooled.

R

 

[jboydingram]

Here's a harmless one..In the late 50's I was a weekend jock for a deep Southern station...earphones were a requirement...one weekend they suddendly went silent,,,the Chief Engineer rushed in and said"Tell the listeners we are off the air...be back as soon as possible"...of Course, I obeyed...but as I made the announcement, I saw the Mod Monitor move with modulation....coincidently, there was loads of laughs from the hall...I had been had! Luckily, the Boss had not heard the scam....Thanks....JBI

 

[boiseengineer]

During a major rework of a directional array, the transmitter wasn't very happy with the load & was running really low power. They also switched DA/NDA/DA a few times. This during the afternoon drive. Jock went on an on-air tirade saying how the engineers must not know what they're doing and must be idiots. Consultant walked over and shut the transmitter off for a few seconds. When it came back up and the jock began to berate the "engineers" again so the consultant shut him off again! This happened 2 more times before the jock got the message, shut up and continued with his "show".

 

[K4WRF]

This happened about the time Eventide came out with their pitch shifter/flanging device in the 1970’s called a Harmonizer. You could do a lot of damage to the audio but it had a feature where you could make small, or large, incremental pitch shifts in the audio. Someone sent us one of these on a trial basis. Well, it didn’t take long for the evil minds to start working on how we could have just a little fun with it. At the time, we had a late midday jock that was very proud of his “pipes”. He was a good fellow mind you but he would work on his voice before he went on the air to drive it down further every day, or that is what he thought anyway. The microphone processing was located in an adjacent rack room at the time, so after some experimentation, we carefully inserted the pitch shifter in his mic chain being careful to leave out all effects with only the ability to make very small pitch shifts with the knob. We told the news man what we were doing and co-opted him and the PD into the scheme. After a few breaks, we would begin to shift his voice up very slightly. Don would hear this and ask the newsman if he noticed anything wrong with his voice? With a straight face he replied, “nope, sounds fine to me”. After a couple breaks, he was back in the bathroom spraying his throat with something and complaining that he thought he was coming down with a cold. He never knew what we were doing. After that, we were all out in the alley behind the radio station doubled over on our hands and knees in laughing convulsions.

 

[TVJunkie12]

On this subject I could go on and on-we had a pretty fun place to work back in the day. I pulled one on an afternoon drive jock at a CHR station I worked for who was constantly pulling pranks on others-including me. This was mid 90's and we were still playing CD's for music and carts for spots. I went into a production room and recorded a CD player on pause with the audible search turned on onto an endless loop cart. This perfectly mimicked the sound of a CD player in 'laser lock'. I had a friend help lure the aforementioned jock out of the air studio, while I played the cart in audition and left the speakers where he had left them-turned up loud before slipping out of the room and back into the shop (located next door to the studio). About half way down the hall the jock heard the 'laser lock', his draw dropped, he said oh-oh and raced back into the room and started pressing buttons which resulted in a train wreck of songs playing over each other on the air by the time I got in there to tell him what was going on. No real harm done, it just made him look incompetent at running the board. The jock took it in stride and just said "You got me." It was a little payback for many of his pranks in the past.

 

[easyfm]

Besides, in this day and age of frivilous lawsuits, this incident might be grounds for one.

If you tried to pull it off today I think it would most certainly end up badly.

I don't recommend trying this type of prank, unless you're prepared to accept a pink slip.

And people wonder why broadcasting's no fun any more :'(

 

[Robert Bass]

Besides, in this day and age of frivilous lawsuits, this incident might be grounds for one.

If you tried to pull it off today I think it would most certainly end up badly.

I don't recommend trying this type of prank, unless you're prepared to accept a pink slip.

And people wonder why broadcasting's no fun any more :'(

You are overlooking the fact that the guy who was the subject of this particular prank, is very hostile. It's one thing to play a prank on someone with a sense of humor (some of the other stories in this thread are truly funny), but BE CAREFUL about doing it to someone who is hostile. It can backfire on you. trust me, I know.

R

 

[radiosaur]

I'm proud of these two...from different stations and decades...


#1

So, our GM who is the nervous type, goes out of town. He is constantly calling in checking on things. One afternoon he is put on hold by the receptionist, only to hear an extremely foul-mouthed tirade about nothing in general from the afternoon drive jock....which we had pre-recorded and patched into his private line music on hold circuit.

The sales manager who was with him said he nearly fainted.


#2

We also once put an official looking knob in one station's control room labeled 'ratings'. The midday guy was in on the joke, and set it at mid-scale every day. Sure enough, the PM guy would make a beeline to that knob at 3:01 PM and crank it fully clockwise. We were all waiting for a discrep report on the ratings circuit from him after every book, but it never happened.

 

[knowbetter]

don't know if this one fits, but..

In 1973 I was an operator at a station in Middletown, Ohio. and was happily listening to the jock on the air thru the off air monitor.

I then heard the jock on the air swearing, and complaining about how the damn station went off the air, and was screaming and cursing to beat hell...

I jumped up, patched the studio off the air, and called him on the intercom, to see what his problem was...

(monitor amp in studio died, halfway during his spiel....)

luckily, he apologized, and the listeners thought it was funny, the guy didn't lose his job..

 

[test123]

Not sure if this one counts either...

In the mid 80s I went to work for a station that had just started a remodel. It was decided the FM Air Studio needed to be painted while the furniture was removed so I went around and removed the plates around the wall outlets and light switches...I came to a thermostat. I removed the two screws and it fell to the floor. I expected the wire to hold it but there was no wire...

I went and asked the OM what the deal was...Seemed the former Midday girl was always complaining about the room temp so the former CE put in the phantom thermostat...He said that you could see her from the other studio adjust the thermostat every day when she started her shift...and never said another word about the temperature...

t123