Diablo Gazette • APRIL 2016 • Page 15 • www.DiabloGazette.com | www.fb.com/DiabloGazette • (925)-298-9990
SPECIAL APRIL FOOLS ZONE Who Said That?
by Micah
Can you match the famous quote with the celebrity below? 1) "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." 2) "I may be drunk Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." 3) "A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." 4) "Outside of a book a dog is mans best friend. Inside of a dog its too dark to read." 5) "If at first you don't succeed . . . so much for skydiving 6) " I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her." 7) "A two year old is kind of like having a blender but you don't have the top for it." 8) "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." 9) "If you can't beat them arrange to have them beaten." A) Rodney Dangerfield B) George Carlin C) Henny Youngman D) Winston Churchill E) Isaac Asimov
F) Steve Martin G) Mel Brooks H) Jerry Seinfeld J) Groucho Marx
Beware of the ‘April Fools!’ Backfire by Carolyn McArdle
Big 103.7 Radio Host 6a-10a
Answer: 1E; 2D; 3F; 4J; 5C; 6A; 7H; 8G; 9B
Name the Place, Lunch is on Me by Edi Birsan,
Concord City Councilman
In my travels through the valley there are times when a latent gene of O.C.D. *Obsessive Compulsion Disorder* manifests itself for a brief moment. In one establishment which sells ‘holy’ food there is a floor pattern of 11 hexagons in three different colors as below….HOWEVER… there are places where the pattern is VIOLATED to the great discomfort of OCD people. Win a free lunch for one with a Councilmember at this location. I will buy lunch at this location for a person who can correctly answer these two questions. 1.) Where is the pattern found? Name the Location. 2.) What are the errors (just so I know I will be having lunch with a fellow OCD’er) To enter, submit your answer to info@ diablogazette.com. One person will be randomly drawn from all correct entries on April 20.
“April Fools!” Do those words give you that uncomfortable, uneasy, embarrassed-even though-youdidn’t-do-anything-wrong feeling? Me too. Have you ever pulled an April Fools’ prank on someone that backfired? I did. I was working at a radio station in Pleasanton about fifteen years ago. I was the host of the morning show. My co-host, Ted Asregadoo (currently doing traffic and weather at TTWN in San Francisco) and I decided that it would be hilarious if we pranked our entire listening audience by switching roles for the day. Ted would now be the host of the morning show and I would be the co-host and traffic reporter. We went on the air the morning of April 1, 2005 and read a “fake” letter from management to our audience that essentially said that research has shown that having a male morning radio show host vs. a female would gain a much larger audience than having a female take the. Not true at all, but for that morning, we told our audience that was the truth and effective that day, our roles were now reversed. Ted was the new morning show host and I was the co-host doing traffic and news. Sure, we had several listeners call and say how they like me better as the host of the show and they love Ted doing traffic and wanted our roles reversed back. Some went as far as writing to management and voicing their displeasure. When that started happening, we knew we were in trouble as management was now being bothered with emails and phone
calls and letters. It was only 8:30am! The show was still on the air at that morning and our Program Director AND General Manger were already ticked at us! We still had ninety minutes to go before our shift was over and this “bit” was spiraling out of control! But the real backfire came when listeners started calling and telling Ted and I that they actually liked it BETTER this way! What?????? “You know, Ted makes a really great host and I like you better on traffic.” Uh oh. This is all of a sudden not going as planned. So now we are really in trouble! We’ve ticked off management AND now our listeners prefer Ted as the host and me as the co-host/traffic reporter! During our last break of the show, Ted and I went on the air and told our listeners that it was all an April Fools’ joke and that we would be back in our original roles in the morning with me as the host and Ted as the co-host. That was met by utter silence from the listeners. No phone calls. No emails. No letters. Ouch. Major backfire on this bit on our end. Were our listeners relieved that it was an April Fools’ prank and just didn’t care to take the time to write? Were they pulling an April Fools’ prank on us with their non-responses? This bit was like a firework that fizzled out uncharacteristically. Oh and then there was dealing with management after the show. I’ll save that for a separate column. Before you pull that April Fools’ prank this year, make sure you think it through…..all the way…. before you launch it. You don’t want it to turn into a “Carolyn and Ted” moment in the end. Fail.
Carolyn McArdle is the morning radio show host weekdays from 6am-10am on Big 103.7