Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9402040025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel
DATELINE: ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Before it was over, a deputy sheriff, an animal control officer, an animal shelter and even the Central Florida Zoo were pulled into the mess.
WXXL-FM spent the morning apologizing to listeners for the joke. Station officials said they would donate $1,000 to the Seminole County Humane Society as a gesture of penance.
Two announcers, who go by the on-air names of Doc Holliday and Johnny Magic, caused the uproar when they joked about putting an opossum on a new Seminole County expressway.
In honor of Groundhog Day, they suggested that if the creature could cross the high-speed road without getting hit by a car, spring soon would come.
Calls of protest flooded the station, and newscaster Deborah Roberts was so incensed she refused to read the news, cursed the announcers and finally stormed out.
The disc jockeys were yanked off the air one hour before the end of their shift and the station's program director finished the program.
"It was an ill-fated attempt of humor this morning without management's knowledge," said program director Adam Cook, who confirmed the account of what happened.
The station, which calls itself "XL106.7," later aired a disclaimer apologizing to listeners, the Humane Society and the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, which has jurisdiction over wildlife.
Listeners were so upset they called the Seminole Sheriff's Office, which dispatched a patrol deputy to the highway. An animal control officer was placed on standby.
Sheriff's spokesman Ed McDonough, who heard the radio show, said he was fooled, too.
"I thought they fully intended to do it," he said. "It sounded real to me."
A deputy spent about 15 minutes driving the expressway but saw nothing unusual.
"You just don't do things like that. They should have said it was a joke," McDonough said. "We're paid to provide a service, but that deputy's time could have been spent on better things."
Terry Kona, an administrative assistant at the Humane Society, said about a dozen people called about the disc jockeys' joke.
"They struck a lot of animal nerves," she said. "The calls we had were very sincere calls from people who wanted us to do something about it. One lady was crying."
Andrea Farmer, a spokeswoman for the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, was interviewed on the air: The disc jockeys wanted her expert opinion on the animal's odds of reaching the other side of the road alive.
"I hoped they were joking," she said. "People do take animals very seriously . . . perhaps because animals can't speak for themselves like young children."
Cook agreed.
"It's funny, we ask for opinions on [high school] shootings and we get few responses, but when you get an opossum on the road, people get so upset," he said.
Cook said the station received several hundred calls, some angry and some wondering about the on-air fight.
None of the staff was fired but the station has ordered the announcers to perform community service, Cook said. The morning team was back on the air Thursday.
"I think everybody's learned a lesson," station general manager Randy Rahe said. "I think they'll bounce things like this off us for feedback in the future."
by CNB