ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130317
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BURBANK, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

DJS APOLOGIZE FOR ON-AIR MURDER HOAX

Two radio disc jockeys who faked an on-air murder confession that sparked a nine-month police investigation apologized to listeners for failing to tell officials it was a hoax.

KROQ-FM morning radio show hosts Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter said Friday they used poor judgment in not telling police and station managers about the prank before it received national attention and was aired twice on the "Unsolved Mysteries" television series.

"The thing snowballed on us and we didn't feel like there was anyone we could go to," Baxter said in a broadcast aired shortly after 7:30 a.m. and repeated later in the day. "The management here . . . was completely unaware of it . . . "

The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether to start a full-scale investigation into the hoax after receiving several complaints about it Friday, said Mary Catherine Kilday, assistant chief of enforcement of the FCC's mass media bureau. - Los Angeles Daily News 


 by CNB