Today's April 1st, April Fool's Day, I've played one April Fool's prank in my entire
life.
And this wasn't squirting flowers or stuff like that, and that's kid stuff.
I pulled a real good one.
And the guy I pulled it on is on the line with me.
He was a former owner and general manager of WRJ and Tony Gazzana.
Thanks, Tony.
Good morning, you know, I had to give up my ownership after that prank that you pulled.
I'm still glad you're talking to me after that.
On the little background, we had an inspection by the Federal Communications Commission.
And I was walking the FCC guy around the building and, you know, whatever, keeping him busy
and trying to keep him away from the bad stuff, you know, I want you to look over here instead
of over there.
You know, stuff like that.
Anyway, he left and we got a clean bill of health, but that's not what happened.
I, we had some FCC letterhead here from our call letter change and I got a hold of the FCC
letterhead and I printed my own letter and I put it in the FedEx envelope and I left
it in Tony's door.
And we had a young lady working here who I knew was going to look in his mail.
I knew she was going to check his mail.
You have to know the people you're working with and sure enough, she went right to your mailbox
and saw the FedEx envelope and it was from the Federal Communications Commission.
And you said, read it to me.
And she read it and it said, pursuant to field inspection on this date, we were going
to find you.
I forget what the amount was like $30,000 in fines and it was signed, whatever, I made a fake
thing signature on there.
And you, I guess we're having a coronary at that time, right?
Because that's a lot of money.
I was contemplating my revenge.
But you didn't know it was a joke until she read the last line to you and it said, I don't
want to hear any sappy excuses pay up and that was the last line in the letter.
And then you knew it was a joke.
But you really, at first you didn't think it was a joke, did you?
No, not at all.
And that back then in the dark ages, that was a lot of money still a lot of money.
And so you got even held and you put out a memo to the entire staff saying we got
to find this large amount of money and we're going to have to take a pay cut for every employee
in the building.
I keep in mind, this was all in April 1st.
And everybody started the panic until you said it was an April fool's joke.
That was the only one I've ever pulled in my life.
And it was, I had to go through a lot of work, I had to make my own FCC letterhead.
I had to depend on somebody else here, the young lady of the radio station going into
your mailbox, all this had to come together for the work.
But it just happened, we just had the FCC inspection like two or three weeks before.
So you knew something was coming, it turns out we were perfectly fine.
We got to find all the health.
But I don't know what maybe do it.
I didn't tell anybody I was doing it either because once you tell somebody, forget it.
It's all over.
Yeah, and everybody said no.
So anyway, every April 1st, I remind you a little, I appreciate it and I'm happy to
bolster your ratings every April 1st.
And Tony made our line on our FM radio, it was WHKQ at the time, later became WBCY
on 92.1 and he called it quality radio.
And we have an article, an article, let's say, yeah, an article in the latest Ray Mac magazine
for the spring edition, it's called 100 years of quality radio, WRJN.
And I had to send it to you, I said, quality radio, there it is again.
That was your big selling point for 92.1 FM.
That was great.
And I sent back to you a photograph of a coffee mug that I had from 28 years ago that
said, quality radio.
And I still have that mug.
I have that exact mug, I have all the mugs I've ever had at every radio station I worked
at.
I saved them all.
I don't know why.
As you guys see my old age, I can point to them and say, I used to work there.
It's something like that.
Tony, happy April Fool's Day, anybody have a pool of the joke on you since that one?
That was it.
That's the best one.
Let me put it this way.
Nothing even close.
Did anybody live to tell?
There was another April Fool's Day.
Well, that's another story, as you know, that my family is in concrete, actually.
Well, I'm glad you're doing well.
Thank you, my friend.
I value you as a good radio friend and a regular friend, too.
I thank you very much.
And you are a good spot.
Good talking with you.
And I can't wait until next year.
Well, we're going to get to you later on in the year because our hunger th anniversary
is coming up on December 6th.
We'll make you a big part of that, too.
Awesome.
Looking forward to it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tony.
Tony Gazzana, everybody.