Just the other day my pal Jay and I thought of the perfect prank to pull on local radio for "April Fools Day" (a little late I know).
You see, both Jay and I have been recently listening to a "smooth jazz" guitarist by the name of Jeff Golub and we both became fans of his music (sure we both like metal, 80's New Wave and a wide assortment of other styles but it never hurts to branch out) and I jokingly said in a slow and smooth voice "that's Jeff Golub with "Drop Top" on Smooth 96". What makes the station ID funny is that it's the spot where the local rock radio station, FM 96 sits on the FM dial .
I guess half the joke too is that FM 96 is a bad rock radio station (according to Jay and I anyways) that just stays with the same rotation of songs (aka: crap and most noteably the popular stuff of whatver band is hip du jour ) every day and doesn't really go too far out of it's way or do too much to break new musical ground. Sure there are some people who call in every day during the lunch hour show to request stuff that I haven't heard in a long while .. like .. 2 hrs? But to the credit of SOME listeners they request 90's songs that I haven't heard in a long, long and I mean
LONG while.
But I digress since this isn't what the original angle of this entry is about.
The joke in theory is to convert "Londons' Supposed Best Rock" FM 96 from 5:30am to 12pm into "Smooth 96", a "smooth jazz" station.
So what do you do? Here's what you do:
You do is hype up the "format change" weeks in advance getting the word out through print and your own station that you're changing formats all together and the new station ID's in between songs to herrald the "new sound" of 96. Get the DJ's in on the selling of the switch by saying that it was purely a business decision by Corus and that this is their last week on the air or what have you (and I am sure the frantic calls to the station would be
PRICELESS!) . Of course on that last day you have all the staff making their tearful farewells and how they enjoyed being in London and that London is a great radio city and well respected across Canada etc etc and etc.
Finally the big day comes and "Smooth 96" hits the air for it's first (and last) broadcast day after a really epic rock song ("Stairway To Heaven" anyone?) followed by one of those station ID's I spoke about earlier and the new sound hits the airwaves! Of course for staff you will need a whole new morning show host, a 10-2 person and a drive home person (assuming you want to really go that long till 5pm if you want to drag the agony out) to round it out and make it legit (I can already imagine how potentially expensive this prank could be in media coverage and in man/woman hours).
Finally at some point you let the public off the hook. You let them know this was all a prank during a newsbroadcast of some variety and bring in who was supposed to be in at that time slot.
Would the public fall for it? Maybe. Would you have upset your new listeners who thought this was a legitamate format? most definately! I can however imagine most of all the backlash against the station and how angry some of those nubile pre teens and 25+ folks would be. But if you ask me, I think it'd be pretty freakin' funny.
Cruel I know but as April Wine once sang:
"Isn't it a pity, Isn't it a shame?
No one ever warned the boy
Rock and Roll is a vicious game"
