In 1987 a Los
Angeles disc jockey Steve Morris from KRTH-FM
radio station have announced that on April 8th all the major Los Angeles
highway system would be shut down for repairs for an entire month, as part of an elaborate 3 1/2-hour hoax.
As you understand, this was quite surprising and alarming news for Los Angeles
drivers, since there it's necessary to use the highway to get almost anywhere.
KRTH-FM staffers were quite surprised over the overwhelming response to
their little April Fool's prank. "We wanted to do something special for
April Fool's day," explained KRTH program director Phil Hall. "We
thought that this was the most ludicrous thing we could say--so crazy that
nobody would believe." They overestimated (or underestimated) their
audience.
The radio station
immediately received hundreds of angry calls in response to the announcement,
and the California Highway Patrol reported that they were also flooded with phone
complaints throughout the day. The station later admitted that it was stunned
by the intensity of the public reaction to the hoax. A representative from the
California Department of Transportation contacted the station's managers to
share their opinion of the prank. Hall
said he received a call from Caltrans "telling us that they didn't think
it was very funny and asked us to make an announcement that it was a
hoax." Deejay Morris readily complied 20 minutes later, as he had
initially planned.
About KRTH-FM
KRTH (101.1 FM, "K-Earth
101") is a U.S. oldies radio station located in Los Angeles, California,
broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles Area. Currently, it is the oldest
continuously operated FM station in southern California, signed on in 1941.
Sources and Additional
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