Radio Pranks

DJs Michael Christian & Mel Greig

As radio prank calls go, this one seems tame by comparison. Australian radio personality Mel Greig pretended to be Queen Elizabeth checking with the hospital on the condition of Prince William's wife Kate Middleton and managed to get answers from a nurse there. After the call was revealed to be a hoax, the nurse later committed suicide. The DJs involved have been suspended and are obviously devastated. The suspension may be appropriate, since their careers are not the number one concern at the moment. Beyond this unintended tragedy, I am reminded of prank radio station phone calls and stunts that have made their unwitting targets look very bad and could have easily led to equally disastrous results. Here in the New London market alone, there was a DJ who made outrageous prank calls and got people extremely upset - all in the name of shock value entertainment. In another instance our WBMW morning show was the target of syndicated shock jocks Opie & Anthony, who had an axe to grind with the owner of our station and decided to take it out on me and my co-host. They'd take audio clips from our show and make fun of us as "whitebread local radio". A couple of their stooges even prank-called us, joking about something personal to do with my co-host. At the time we ignored them and they predictably moved on within two days to trash someone else. As broadcasters, being a target can be a hazard of the occupation, but most are not expecting to be ridiculed in front of a less than sympathetic audience. Radio personalities repeatedly prove there's plenty of money and ratings in making others look bad, but once in a while there are consequences.