Reminiscing About A Good April Fool’s Joke

Saturday was April Fools’ Day and because it took place on a weekend I was not able to have any fun with this.  In truth our company in the past has put out emails to be careful about what we do on the air or post on our websites and social media. I admit in my creative days when we had a bit more liberty I came up with a few good ones but none had the lasting impression of the joke I played sometime around 12 or 13 years ago.

By the time I came up with this one pretty much all my listeners knew that I was a devout Penn State fan.  My son had graduated from there and my daughter I believe was a freshman or sophomore at the time.  What I did was announce that I had accepted a position working in the football office and while I don’t remember the details it was pretty convincing.  I talked about how hard it would be to leave WOBM after 30 years or so but it was my dream job.  I wish I had a copy of it but if my memory serves me correctly I did not announce that I was leaving for this new job until the very end.  What I also don’t remember is if I closed the segment by saying “April Fools” but by that time many were almost in shock that they never heard the disclaimer.

What I do remember is going weeks whereby somebody would ask when I was leaving for my new job and it led to some interesting exchanges in public places. As late as that summer I was in the Bayville post office when I was approached by a woman asking how I liked my new job.  By this time I had almost forgotten the joke so I asked her what she was referring to and of course she said my new position at Penn State.  I really had to convince her it was only an April Fools prank and I was embarrassed when she told me that she had not listened to WOBM since I “left.”  I hope she tuned in on the following Monday morning.