April Fool's Day, Indiana Radio Style

Northeast

April Fool's Madness from Artistic Media's WDDB (106.3fm, Columbia City) morning man J.J. Davis:

The New B106-3 has been qualifying listners for the last two weeks to win tickets to see Kelly Clarkson in Indy, with dinner, and hotel that night, plus meet Kelly after the show. We qualified three contestants to play Hide 'N' Seek with me this afternoon at 5pm. The premise is, the last person I find wins the package. The reality is I won't be looking for them. I'll let the rest of the listeners in on it after the three contestants hide. The last person to come out from hiding will be my winner.

Northcentral

Rock/WAOR (95.3fm, Niles, Michigan) pulled off this April Fool's Day prank...as told to IRW by Dickson himself:

HATS!!! The Horn Activated Traffic System!!

95.3 WAOR's "The Morning Drive with Dickson" Dickson made it the top story in every news cast, a new traffic system started today to ease traffic congestion. When you approach a stoplight, honk your horn 3 times to change the light to green!! There were also 2 seperate "Commercials" running for this announcement, alternating every break. All morning, EVERY caller on a cell phone, had people honking 3 times in the background! There were some callers that finally figured it out, but it was a honk-filled morning drive with Dickson in South Bend!

Eastcentral

Dave Strycker, GM at Country/WQLK (96.1fm, Richmond) tells what "Kicks 96" did for April Fool's:

KICKS 96 air staff in Richmond reversed shits today. Steve Baker, PD and afternoon's did morning, but he gave the times as it actually would have been in the afternoon. Also did weather and benchmark contests as if it was the afternoon. Lindsey Parker, evening, did middays, Angie and Buddha, mornings, did afternoons and Jim Barbee, middays, did the evening shifts. This really screwed with listeners minds. A ton of calls! As of 2:10pm, some still don't get that it's April 1st.

Mid-America's WBAT/WCJC in Marion checks in. From WBAT morning man Tim George:

"We told our listeners that, due to another Texas oil refinery fire, gas prices would be going up over 3 dollars a gallon. You would not believe how many people swallowed this hook, line and sinker!!!! In fact, we took more than a few callers who were irate with the prank, saying they had called people all over to tell them to gas up, got people out of bed to dress and go get gas. Someone even criticized us because they delayed packing for their vacation!! Unbelieveable!!"

Central

OM/PD Scott Sands of Entercom's Hot AC/WZPL (99.5fm, Greenfield) checks in with the IRW Fool's Desk:

"For three hours this morning, following the market trend of Jack-FM and Hank-FM and Bob & Tom FM (oh wait, they're still called Q95) ... Entercom's WZPL-FM became "99.5 Dave FM - All Dave Smiley & All Dave Matthews All the Time." The (Dave) Smiley Morning Show played nothing but DMB requests and gave away tickets to their concert this summer at the Verizon Wireless Music Center before getting bored and returning to Z-99.5 around 9AM."

April Fool's Pranks on the AM Dial? It happened!

WXLW-950am PD Greg Rakestraw implemented some "fake stories" for Friday morning: Indianapolis Colts star Edgerrin James headed to Miami, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. entering the Indianapolis 500, and The IHSAA Class 3A state championship game to be replayed, lest the trophy and nets be awarded to Plymouth because replays show Luke Zeller's 40-foot shot at the buzzer was too late. Rakestraw fessed up on his afternoon sports talk show. Before that, the station received 55 calls and e-mails in response to the gags, but only one person was upset. "We had one guy say he had to pull his car off the road because he was laughing so hard," Rakestraw said.

Westcentral

Never can tell what CHR/WMGI (100.7fm, Terre Haute) will be up to for April Fool's, but this one is worth marking down. IRW talks with WMGI PD Matt Luecking:

For many years WMGI has been known for it's April Fool's jokes. This year we played it down all week that we weren't going to do anything since Steve Smith departed for WHHY in Montgomery, Alabama. Steve was a big prankster. We have had concerts at two streets that didn't intersect, we have blown up the Terre Haute house, and the list goes on and on. This year at around 7:55 AM, The Big Morning Show with Jamie Dawson and Tara Summers walked out from their airshift in a contract dispute. The station ran jockless for a half an hour or so, until weekender Bubba O'Reilly saved the day, and called PD Matt Luecking on the air. Bubba filled-in for part of the morning show, as Matt frantically rushed from home to finish the morning show. When Matt arrived he was later greeted from a call from John Crumb (middays) and Aaron Green (nights) - both saying they were not signing new contracts in the contract dispute, so they were on strike as well. The Big Morning show not only walked out but took the MIX-FM SUV hostage, along with the all of the Lil' Flip and John Mellencamp tickets. (Both music acts were coming to Terre Haute in upcoming days.)

MIX-FM listeners called in all morning all over the Wabash Valley with SUV sightings. The police even called, but we told them that we were trying to settle the contract dispute sensibly. Even that surprised PD Matt Luecking.

Luecking was on-air for part of the morning show and most of the midday shift. DJ Phil Inn (really Matt's brother Eric Luecking) finished the rest of the midday shift. Matt then returned for afternoons, still trying to track the SUV down.

Many people helped with the success of the bit. Steve Smith from WHHY in Montgomery, AL, Ben Davis from WDJX, Mark Strickland from AllAccess, and local news director Kathy Dash from WTWO-TV helped with the gag all through the day.

In the 5pm hour, the SUV was caught with The Big Morning Show - Jamie Dawson and Tara Summers - in it. The contract dispute proved to be an April Fool's joke, and the lucky listener that corralled the SUV won Lil' Flip and John Mellencamp tickets.

Southeast

More proof that the AM dial still gets listeners every April 1. IRW talks with John Foster, Director of Programming for WCSI (1010am, Columbus): "We did something rather fun on News/Talk 10-10, WCSI. I read an announcement several times an hour reminding listeners that cable and satellite providers would be up-grading to the new H-D T-V technology that day, and, if you did not have an H-D T-V, you were urged to disconnect it from the cable or satellite system to prevent any possible damage to your old set. It prompted lots of calls and Comcast said they received a "rash" of calls from concerned customers over the announcement aired on WCSI.

Southcentral

Even the owner got involved at WBIW/WQRJ/WQRK...

First, the morning started with Owner Dean Spencer passing out paychecks. For those who got to the bank without looking, they were all made out for 2 cents. (some people must have got a raise!)

After week-long promos and adding newscast mentions, The First Annual Spring Celebration Parade hit the main drag in downtown Bedford at 9:30AM Friday. Calls from City Hall and the local Police Department on Thursday told us we had a hit on our hands. People were waiting downtown in cars and on the sidewalk for the parade that wasn't happening in real life, but only on the air on Super Oldies. The 30-minute parade, complete with marching bands, police and fire units, and a Grand Marshall (a former mayor who voiced his part in advance) was on the air, hoted by Shannon In The Morning And Deb. One parent even pulled her 5 kids out of school to attend the "parade."

An April Fool's Prank from sister stations Country/WKKG (101.5fm, Columbus) and Rock/WWWY (106.1fm, Columbus), as told by WKKG/WWWY PD Scott Michaels:

"We took advantage of the already displeasure with gas prices and took it a step further. On our country station WKKG and rock station Y106, we reported that "news agencies" were reporting that effective today, the oil companies were going to begin regulating the gas pumps and that listeners would be REQUIRED to purchase A MINIMUM of 10 gallons of gas at the pump. Needless to say people were pretty riled up. The hilarious calls were from motorcycle owners with 2 gallon tanks wondering what they were supposed to do...carry gas cans of course! Hilarious."

All pages Copyright Blaine Thompson. Articles, photos, corrections, and other contributions should be e-mailed to the editors.