Howard Stern Show Removed as Joke, Then Restored (April 2, 2004)

A new wholesome radio show hosted by the team of "Cross and Lopez" took over for a few minutes.

The bit got several fans to bite, and at least one cable news organization reported the firing as fact.

Stern's millions of listeners were rudely awakened this morning by news that Stern had been pulled from the air.

Instead of hearing Stern and his sidekicks open the morning show, New York's WXRK Radio's General Manager Tom Chiusano read a statement saying the show was taken off the air. "Viacom can no longer bear the weight of the government pressure and its affects on our corporation," he said, adding, "While we're sorry to end the Howard Stern Show, we promise quality programing in the future." After the message, two other deejays then played about an hour of music interspersed with sterile banter and a promise of a show with "all the fun without the filth."

Under the banner of "Fun without the filth," WXRK PD Rob Cross and part-timer Danni, playing "Lopez," treated confused Stern listeners to 90 minutes of a chirpy, middle-America morning show, complete with Olive Garden gift certificates, playing clean pop tunes by the likes of John Mayer and Beyonce (huh? clean?), and family four-packs of Scooby Doo 2 tickets.

"We were trying to do basically every stereotypical thing you would hear on an AC morning show in say, Knoxville," says Cross. "We were trying to be the exact, 100% opposite of everything that The Howard Stern Show has come to represent."

Cross says the show was bombarded with phone calls and e-mails and adds, "I'm surprised at how many news stations picked up the bit like it was legit," he says. Cross & Lopez mercifully gave way to Stern at around 7:30am ET.

At about 7:20am ET, Howard Stern (and Robin) came back on and admitted it was all a joke, including the new 'radio team'.

Stern returned to the airwaves (to a chorus of farts). He spent the next 40 minutes talking with callers about how the prank could be reality soon. "If anything, this demonstrates what is going to happen here," said Stern.

Some callers said it almost killed them to hear Howard was taken off the air.

One caller said it was the best joke she has heard on his show in the last 14 years.

Listeners across the country called the show to complain, but after a few minutes, Stern and his sidekick Robin Quivers came on the show and revealed it was a hoax. "We are back for anybody who was stupid enough to fall for that," Stern said. Added Quivers: "Check your calendar, people."

The timing for this practical joke was timed perfectly, since Howard Stern's radio show has been the subject of indecency concern by broadcasters such as Clear Channel, which yanked his show off six of their affilliates, in February, for airing a caller's racial epithet. Stern has said that he will eventually be thrown off the air.

Stern has been raving mad on the air fighting against the crackdown on indecency and has made President Bush and his conservative policies a target of on-air rants. Stern blamed the conservative backlash on the exposure of singer Janet Jackson's breast during a performance in February's Super Bowl half-time show.

Some Other National Radio April Fools Jokes (April 2, 2004)

Posted by many readers at the Coast to Coast Board

99 WMYX-FM/Milwaukee did an "April Fuels Day" stunt where they partnered w/ a Mobil station to sell gas for 99cents.

In Portland, one of the local AC outlets, 106.7 K-Lite, played their "Happy Holidays from K-Lite" jingles, followed by a Christmas song. This was about once every hour. Rest of the hour was regular programming.

Well, on a national scale, Sean Hannity became a supporter of John Kerry for the first 1 hour, 50 minutes of his show. He claimed he was trying to make a point about Kerry's flip flops and how it's inconceivable that people could accept such massive flips, but he also admitted that he was trying to have fun with April Fools Day.

Not sure which station, but they said a truck with a whale in the tank had broken down at the Lindon exit about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City and asked listeners to fill milk jugs with fresh water for the whale.

I havent heard anything creative yet this year. Same old, Internet is Down, Water is Contaminated, we're changing formats..etc.

All Access.... Did ENTERCOM Talk WRKO-A/BOSTON go after AIR AMERICA RADIO by flipping to a liberal talk format? Of course not, but the APRIL FOOL'S DAY joke caught several listeners unaware. The "new format" featured 60's music and techno for bumpers, liners touting the station as "from the left end of the dial," and repeated calls to morning hosts PETER BLUTE and SCOTT ALLEN MILLER from Exec. Prod. RICH CARBERRY threatening the previously conservative-leaning duo with replacement by talent in DENVER via ISDN if they couldn't conform to the new political slant. The show carried the joke all the way to SCOTTO's sign-off, which normally reads "have whatever kind of day you want" but this time read "have whatever kind of APRIL FOOL'S DAY you want. Coming up next, after the news, MICHAEL DUKAKIS." Director of Programming & Operations MIKE ELDER and staff kept busy answering e-mails and calls all morning from folks who didn't check the calendar.

EMMIS Top 40/Rhythmic KKFR (POWER 92.3)/PHOENIX's "MORNING MADHOUSE" promised listeners free breasts as part of a promotional event for an expanding cosmetic firm setting up a new franchise in town. The first 92 women who showed up at 7a this morning would get free breasts. Listeners couldn't wait and started camping out in the parking lot two days in advance. The police were called in, TV stations broadcast live from the site, only to find that the breasts being given away were . chicken breasts.

BUCKLEY Top 40/Rhythmic KSEQ (Q97)/FRESNO kept it on the "breast" tip as well, offering up free breasts to listeners. The breasts proved popular as hundreds lined up, only to be given chicken breasts. Q97's MORNING MADHOUSE will serve a one-day suspension on FRIDAY (4/2).

INFINITY Oldies WGRR/CINCINNATI today switched on its Multi-Lingual Translator System (MLTS) to comply with the FCC's latest "politically correct" measures. The system, much like the "SAP" setting on new televisions, allows people to listen to the radio station translated into the language of their choice. It appeared to be a dismal failure as listeners with older, non-MLTS equipped radios began calling in to complain that songs were coming out of their radios in French, Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese, even though everything else from commercials to announcers remained in English. The station tried several corrective measures throughout the morning, then finally switched the system off at 9a with an official APRIL FOOL'S announcement.

All Access reports a dozen radio stations flipping formats in the morning, then flipping back to their previous formats as an April Fool's joke. I strongly don't advise this kind of practical joke. Listeners have a bad habit of removing stations that change formats off of their radio presets prematurely.

Top 40 WHZQ (Q94)/GREENWOOD, SC pulled gags on listeners today. Rather than lead in with a bunch of flowery language, we'll cut right to the chase: The station first told listeners that a beer truck had flipped on its side just north of the city, and, of course, rather than wasting time and money picking up the delicious cargo, the beer company had decided to give all the beer away for free. Listeners of beer drinkin' age were told to come to the site and get up to 6 free cases apiece. Opportunistic lushes showed up only to be told it was a scam. They got a free t-shirt for their trouble.

Noncommercial Variety KVMR/NEVADA CITY, CA flipped to Hawaiian music THURSDAY morning, surprising listeners who were unaware of the date. The "flip" turned out to be another APRIL FOOL'S DAY prank, and the station is back to serving as "Music Of the World, Voice of the Community." This one sounded pretty cool though.

Zany day in SPRINGFIELD, MO as JOURNAL Top 40/Rhythmic KSPW (POWER 96.5 JAMS) morning duo KAANE & McCLAIN reported that the government agency in charge of the Internet will be closing for 10 days for "maintenance" effective midnight tonight. The duo even put up a Web site to back their story at http://www.globalwebprotect.org/. Said KAANE about the stunt, "People are dumb."

Top 40/Rhythmic WRDW (WIRED 96.5)/PHILADELPHIA, in association with CPR's PAIGE NEINABER, utilized the power of the internet to pull APRIL FOOL'S hoaxes on listeners. They set up the classic "Pets By Mail" scam (www.phillypetsbymail.com), and introduced a new entry into the jokebook with the KID'S NATURE CAMP (www.kidsnaturecamp.com), a pretty off-kilter getaway for children. Take a look-see.