|
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Radio April Fools Day Joke Backfired
|
Joshua Lott
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 246
From: Fairbanks, AK, USA
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 04-02-2004 12:47 PM
This was done at a local radio station yesterday:
Link
quote:
April Fools' Day joke doesn't hold water
By BETH IPSEN, Staff Writer
An April Fools' Day prank backfired on popular local radio personality Glenner after he warned listeners that dihydrogen monoxide had been found in Fairbanks schools and homes Thursday.
Glenner, whose real name is Glen Anderson, was pulled off the air after the Fairbanks mayor's office was inundated with calls from citizens concerned that the air they breathe was laced with dihydrogen monoxide.
It is, but they didn't recognize it by that name.
Dihydrogen monoxide's chemical equation is H2O.
That's right: water.
The morning radio host for classic rock station KXLR 95.9 thought he'd take the Internet hoax--which briefly fooled people in a California town last month--and use it as a joke when he went on the airwaves at 6 a.m.
"It wasn't even pre-planned," Anderson said. "We simply said that this dihydrogen monoxide, that there were traces in most homes across the area ... We didn't say there were any alerts or that anything was closed. Some people took that to the next level on their own."
People who picked up on the joke called in and Anderson included them on the show as they played along with commentary.
On the other hand, some listeners heard only portions of the broadcast, prompting phone calls to the city mayor's office.
Mayor Steve Thompson's executive secretary Jennifer Brabham said she received about 30 phone calls within two hours Thursday morning, including one from a crying woman who thought her child was dying because of toxic air in the child's school.
Pam Hallberg, Fairbanks North Star Borough School District secretary didn't field any calls from concerned parents, but instead had people on staff questioning the broadcast, prompting the school district to check for official emergency alerts.
Debby Hassel, the Homeland Security director for the Interior, was teaching a class when the joke rolled over the airwaves. City officials tracked her down to look into the report, which she discovered was an April Fool's Day joke.
"I think it was a very sick joke and I believe he needs to apologize on the air," Hassel said. "It disrupted the city and it caused psychological harm on people."
Meanwhile, when Perry Walley, general manager for New Northwest Broadcasting and its five radio stations in Fairbanks went to work about 8 a.m. he was unaware of the uproar. He soon found out.
At about 9 a.m., he went to Anderson and told him the joke was over and went on air to apologize. Anderson was sent home early. He won't be on the air today, but Walley said Anderson, who is also operations manager, hasn't been suspended.
Anderson was surprised at the reaction to his joke.
"Three hundred sixty-four days out of the year I'm never taken seriously and April 1st rolls around and everybody takes me seriously," Anderson said. "On one hand I'm flattered that we had so many listeners; on the other hand I feel bad people took it seriously."
He's been known to dupe people before with his on-air antics.
One year a few people took their children out of class to wait at Fairbanks International Airport after Glenner and then morning show co-host Jerry Evans told listeners the space shuttle was going to make an emergency landing at the airport.
Anderson, who is also known for his stand-up comedy act at local functions and traveling around the state with a comedy show, is even more baffled that some people were angry over his latest on-air prank.
"I failed to see the humor in that," said Dave Jacoby, director of city public works. "A lot of people were worried and scared ... Those kind of jokes aren't funny, especially in this day and age. We take everything fairly serious now when you hear threats."
One of the radio station's advertisers, ABC Inc., canceled its advertising.
The company's ads appeared right in the middle of the joke, then immediately after the on-air apology, said Sue Ellison, co-owner of the home-building company that among other things, does radon removal.
"I was livid that someone would take that kind of liberty to think that was acceptable in our community," Ellison said.
In hindsight, Anderson said he regrets pulling the April Fools' Day joke.
"I guess people took it too seriously," he said.
Reporter Beth Ipsen can be reached at bipsen@newsminer.com or 459-7545.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roger Katz
Film Handler
Posts: 61
From: Thomaston, CT, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
|
posted 04-02-2004 09:42 PM
Anyone listener dumb enough to fall for this and conceited enough to complain about it needs to throw their radio out the window and never listen to it again.
A local DJ here a few years back on April Fools Day told people that the government was switching to blue money and that anyone who traded their green money in early would get a better trade-in value for it. The banks were overrun by hundreds of morons wanting to exchange their money. The next year the same DJ told listeners that a local "mountain" (really a large hill) had turned into a volcano and was about to erupt. Police fielded phone calls from dozens of worried imbeciles.
I find the joke played in the following article to be far worse:
quote:
Station apologizes for scaring relatives
Associated Press
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Two disc jockeys apologized for an April Fool's prank that caused a scare for family members of New York Yankees hitting coach Don Mattingly.
When Mattingly's two younger sons arrived at school Thursday morning, concerned classmates told them that WSTO morning show hosts Brad Booker and Diane Douglas were extending their on-air thoughts and prayers to the Mattingly family.
The broadcast made the youngsters assume something bad had happened to their father, who was in Japan with his wife, Kim, for the Yankees' series with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
In reality, the on-air remarks were part of a prank.
"Our idea was to mention several times that our thoughts and prayers were with the friends and family of Don Mattingly. Later in the morning, we planned on stating that he had nicked himself shaving and we were concerned for him," Booker said in a news release posted on the Evansville station's Web site.
But Mattingly's family members -- including 12-year-old Jordon and 16-year old Preston, who had stayed behind in Evansville -- weren't in on the joke.
"It upset the youngest boy," Mattingly's father-in-law, Dennis Sexton, told Evansville television station WEHT. "He kind of shed some tears because he was worried about his mom, dad and brother."
Sexton said he "kind of panicked" because he knew his daughter and son-in-law were on their way home from Japan.
Sexton said the younger Mattingly boys reached Don, Kim and Taylor Mattingly by phone on Thursday afternoon.
Mattingly's oldest son Taylor was also in Japan. He was drafted by the Yankees last summer.
The radio station later posted a public apology on its Web site.
"Unfortunately, we did not realize the impact our statements would have on Don's friends and family members," Booker said.
Tim Huelsing, general manager of the radio station, said the disc jockeys "understand the severity of this mistake ... but they have assured me that it won't happen again. It won't happen again."
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
|
posted 04-03-2004 02:38 AM
Same thing happened here... but it was a Seattle station doing to another city (ours).
Link here
April 2, 2004
A Seattle radio station's April Fools' Day joke about Bremerton's water supply went too far Thursday morning, scrambling city and county officials to calm residents' concerns.
KIRO-FM radio, known as 100.7 The Buzz, reported that the Navy had contaminated the city's water supply with dihydrogen monoxide, the chemical name for water.
Bremerton and Kitsap officials asked the radio station several times to let listeners in on the hoax. Hosts Robin and Maynard resisted until 9:45 a.m., three hours later and more than an hour after a city official contacted the station.
"These idiots. I'm trying to figure out legally if I can send them my bill," said Phyllis Mann, director of Kitsap County Emergency Management.
"I've had at least an hour of staff time working on this and the city of Bremerton has had two hours. I'm all for a good April Fools' joke, but not when it affects public safety."
When told that city and county officials were far from amused, host John Maynard said: "No kidding? Just because we said you had water in your pipes? That's rough."
Maynard said he heard that officials had called the station to stop the joke, but he didn't feel their urgency.
"It's nothing new," he said. "I think every high school chemistry teacher played this prank on their students."
Earlier this year, the Southern California city of Aliso Viejo fell so completely for the joke that its city council nearly voted on a proposed law to ban the use of foam containers because they contain dihydrogen monoxide.
Kathleen Cahall, Bremerton's water resources manager, said she had to explain the joke to several people, and didn't find it remotely funny.
She said the prank put a great stress on her staff as well as other city and county agencies because they had to respond to it seriously. She said they received constant phone calls from concerned customers.
"We had to respond like we would with any other emergency to notify emergency responders and answer customer concerns," she said.
"We work very hard to ensure the quality of water. Bremerton has some of the best water in the country, so this is very discouraging. It was so inappropriate."
Mann talked to KIRO-FM station manager Dave Richards after 9 a.m. -- following a call from the city -- and asked him to stop the joke. It was another 25 minutes before the station notified listeners of the April Fools' Day prank, she said.
"If it sounds like I'm mad, I am," Mann said. "This is irresponsible. They have a right to be entertaining and do whatever they want, except when they cross the line."
Maynard said his show began picking on Bremerton last month when it was learned that the Navy didn't notify anyone of an incident in which the nose cone of a nuclear missile was punctured at Naval Submarine Base Bangor.
"I made a joke that if it (the missile) would've gone off, it would've been a part of their rebeautification program," Maynard said. "It would have leveled the place, and they could've just started from scratch."
Asked if it he regretted the three-hour water joke, Maynard said: "Do I feel badly? Well, I'm not really sure what happened, but if someone was genuinely put out by it, or something bad happened as a result of it."
He added that neither he nor his co-host "make a call to action, like don't drink the water, or drive like hell to get out of there.
"We were just saying they had water in their pipes. That was the goof."
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic