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The blogs of Word of Mouth are So, There's That, Inside Word of Mouth, and 11 for '11.

Our Report On Zach's Departure Was Greatly Exaggerated

Logan Shannon

We have great news! Yesterday’s story about Zach Nugent leaving Word of Mouth to join Disney on Ice was a silly April Fools joke. Ok, maybe it wasn’t our best April Fool’s gag; Zach as a figure skater??? (Well, it’s not THAT far-fetched, Zach is a consummate athlete and we’re fairly certain, that with a little practice he would probably make a half-decent skating fish.)

There’s a long history of April Fool’s radio pranks and we wanted to look back on some of our favorites. In no particular order:

Square Trees

NHPR’s Amy Quinton did such a convincing job telling the story of ‘square trees’, a fourth grade teacher wrote in to tell his story of how he started planning to incorporate the concept into his curriculum. He called in for more information and a receptionist patched him through to Amy who explained the joke to him.

A New Public Radio App

Jon Greenberg brought us the story of an incredibly invasive app that tells users whether or not a particular individual is a public radio supporter.

Farm Raised Whales

In 2009, NPR’s very own--and very fictitious--ChaselCheswick-Weisberg reported on a new development in alternative energy sources: blubber. The story highlighted a new plan in Illinois to farm-raise whales in order to harvest the blubber. Cheswich-Weisberg’s story was apparently so compelling, that Diane Rehm was fooled by the joke and discussed it on her show.

What's the best April Fools Day joke you ever fell for? Let us know in the comments!

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