# Are all radio station "crank calls" fake? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594 "2013-12-31T22:15:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/21 "2014-01-02T16:47:28Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Radio stations, even large, lucrative ones, are notoriously cheap. > > The reason DJs do that sort of thing is not because it’s particularly compelling radio, it’s simply because they have airtime to fill and prank calls cost nothing. It doesn’t help the bottom line at all to have a bunch of voice actors just sitting around just for the purposes of staging prank calls. You are not correct. Most stations are owned by conglomerates. These bits are farmed out across the country. They are usually put together off the air and made to sound live. There are also services like prepburger that provides bits to radio shows. That is why radio sucks equally across the country. They are all using the same bits. There is no need for a bunch of voice actors to be on the payroll. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/22 "2014-01-02T17:03:37Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > These bits are farmed out across the country. They are usually put together off the air and made to sound live. There are also services like prepburger that provides bits to radio shows. That is why radio sucks equally across the country. They are all using the same bits. There is no need for a bunch of voice actors to be on the payroll. Call-in shows also reuse bits. I’ve heard the exact same call on [Delialh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah_(radio_host)) twice in about six months. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/23 "2014-01-02T17:09:59Z")
Back in the nineties I had a casette someone made for me of the world’s best prank calls. A group of people were calling a conservative Christian talk show, and the calls always started off like normal stories but grew totally outlandish. One caller, for example, was a former atheist who worked construction, until an accident crushed his leg and it was amputated. He lost his job, began drinking, his wife left him, his life was in tatters. Until he in desperation went to a church, where he felt the spirit of Christ enter him. And they all prayed together. “And last week, my leg grew back.” That sort of thing. My favorite was the guy who called in to commiserate about all the prank calls. “I just want you to know, preacher, that these godless souls are really showing how sad they are, and how much they need Jesus, but we’re all praying for them, and we’re praying for you, and thank you for your courage in standing up to them, and I’m totally naked and covered in pancake syrup.” Anyone familiar with these calls? Googling has turned up nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/24 "2014-01-02T17:24:20Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Call-in shows also reuse bits. I’ve heard the exact same call on [Delialh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah_(radio_host)) twice in about six months. The tired and worn out Scott and Todd show in NYC reuses their own prank calls. So sometimes you might hear old real pranks mixed in with new fake ones. But they are equally unfunny. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/25 "2014-01-02T17:30:31Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Back in the nineties I had a casette someone made for me of the world’s best prank calls. A group of people were calling a conservative Christian talk show, and the calls always started off like normal stories but grew totally outlandish. > > One caller, for example, was a former atheist who worked construction, until an accident crushed his leg and it was amputated. He lost his job, began drinking, his wife left him, his life was in tatters. Until he in desperation went to a church, where he felt the spirit of Christ enter him. And they all prayed together. “And last week, my leg grew back.” That sort of thing. > > My favorite was the guy who called in to commiserate about all the prank calls. “I just want you to know, preacher, that these godless souls are really showing how sad they are, and how much they need Jesus, but we’re all praying for them, and we’re praying for you, and thank you for your courage in standing up to them, and I’m totally naked and covered in pancake syrup.” > > Anyone familiar with these calls? Googling has turned up nothing. The Jerky Boys started by doing pranks and releasing their own tapes in the 80s. Maybe that was what you were listening to. Another famous one was the Bum Bar Bastards. They would call the old Tube Bar in Jersey City and talk to the bartender Red. Red was a scary old guy with no sense of humor. The calls consisted of asking for customers like Al Coholic and Red cursing and threatening to kill them. The calls were put on tape and passed around. They inspired the Bart Simpson calls to Moe’s. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/26 "2014-01-02T17:40:23Z")
Not sure if “radio station” refers to the Howard Stern show, but Captain Janks made dozens over the years, perhaps the most famous being his [portrayal of a neighbor of OJ Simpson who got through to Peter Jennings and Al Michaels on live tv.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLmoqbR3gto) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/27 "2014-01-02T17:59:32Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Do you really mean a _crank call_, in which an apparently crazy (often bigoted) person calls in to the DJ/presenter, or are you talking about a _prank call_ where the DJ/presenter pretends to be a crazy person calling some unsuspecting civilian? These are not at all the same thing. The terms “crank call” and “prank call” are used to mean exactly the same thing, a phone call where the caller is deliberately screwing around with the person they call. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prank_call) has them listed a synonyms, and a [previous thread on the subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=428559) indicated that “crank call” may be the older term. When I was a kid that was definitely the term we used, and more recently there was also the TV show [Crank Yankers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_Yankers). I’ve never heard “crank call” used to describe a sincere but cranky/crazy person who calls in to a talk show. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/28 "2014-01-02T18:21:51Z")
> [@phungi](#): > > Not sure if “radio station” refers to the Howard Stern show, but Captain Janks made dozens over the years, perhaps the most famous being his [portrayal of a neighbor of OJ Simpson who got through to Peter Jennings and Al Michaels on live tv.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLmoqbR3gto) Slightly different in that case because it wasn’t the radio show doing the calls. He is just a listener that did it on his own and they later put it on the air. But it was done before the change in FCC rules. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/29 "2014-01-02T18:37:23Z")
> [@phungi](#): > > Not sure if “radio station” refers to the Howard Stern show, but Captain Janks made dozens over the years, perhaps the most famous being his [portrayal of a neighbor of OJ Simpson who got through to Peter Jennings and Al Michaels on live tv.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLmoqbR3gto) What you say about Captain Janks is true in that he really did make tons of calls but I did want to mention he didn’t make that famous OJ call. That was someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/30 "2014-01-02T18:42:17Z")
Clear Channel’s morning show Z100, has an ongoing “stations that love us” gimmick where they will play one of their “phone taps” and then play some other station’s prank call that was almost word for word the same as their “tap”. Only it is different people-- actors-- supposedly being phone tapped by the smaller station’s personell. Elvis Duran, the Z100 head radio personality, says that he prefers to think of it as flattery and not thievery. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/31 "2014-01-02T19:01:04Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Clear Channel’s morning show Z100, has an ongoing “stations that love us” gimmick where they will play one of their “phone taps” and then play some other station’s prank call that was almost word for word the same as their “tap”. Only it is different people-- actors-- supposedly being phone tapped by the smaller station’s personell. > > Elvis Duran, the Z100 head radio personality, says that he prefers to think of it as flattery and not thievery. I don’t want to beat a dead horse but he is lying. FCC rules prohibit airing calls in which the person was not notified beforehand. The FCC is giving out fines to stations that do it. No crank calls that are played on the Elvis Duran Show are real unless he is playing them from years ago. It’s possible that he comes up with original ideas that others steal. But he is using people who are in on the calls too. Most shows just recycle the same ideas and I’m sure Elvis Duran does too. Prepburger tries to keep their client list secret so I don’t know if he uses it. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/32 "2014-01-02T19:42:03Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I don’t want to beat a dead horse but he is lying. FCC rules prohibit airing calls in which the person was not notified beforehand. The FCC is giving out fines to stations that do it. No crank calls that are played on the Elvis Duran Show are real unless he is playing them from years ago. > > It’s possible that he comes up with original ideas that others steal. But he is using people who are in on the calls too. Most shows just recycle the same ideas and I’m sure Elvis Duran does too. Prepburger tries to keep their client list secret so I don’t know if he uses it. I’m not understanding why crank calls cannot be done. You make the call and then you get permission. If you don’t get permission, the call doesn’t get aired. And yes, he does use people who are in on the call. That’s the hook. You send request to the station for people you want to prank and, usually, the person calling for the prank initiates the call. ---
**Author:** ![Mithras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mithras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithras)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/33 "2014-01-02T19:54:53Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I’m not understanding why crank calls cannot be done. You make the call and then you get permission. If you don’t get permission, the call doesn’t get aired. And yes, he does use people who are in on the call. That’s the hook. You send request to the station for people you want to prank and, usually, the person calling for the prank initiates the call. It’s because you have to get permission before the call is made. [From the FCC’s website:](http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/telphon.html) > [@](#): > > Pursuant to this rule, before recording a telephone conversation for broadcast, or broadcasting such a conversation simultaneously with its occurrence, a licensee shall inform any party to the call of the licensee’s intention to broadcast the conversation, except where such party is aware, or may be presumed to be aware from the circumstances of the conversation that it is being or likely will be broadcast. Such awareness is presumed to exist only when the other party to the call is associated with the station (such as an employee or part-time reporter), or where the other party originates the call and it is obvious that it is in connection with a program in which the station customarily broadcasts telephone conversations. The list of times this rule’s been enforced on that page make it unlikely that a show on a large station has been ignoring it and escaped the notice of the FCC. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/34 "2014-01-02T19:56:16Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I’m not understanding why crank calls cannot be done. You make the call and then you get permission. If you don’t get permission, the call doesn’t get aired. And yes, he does use people who are in on the call. That’s the hook. You send request to the station for people you want to prank and, usually, the person calling for the prank initiates the call. Dammit I keep trying to make a nice reply going back and forth with quotes from the FCC but my phone isn’t cooperating. Here is a ruling on one case from a few years ago. You can find the language yourself. > **[$16,000 Forfeitured Issued Against WSKQ-FM](https://www.fcc.gov/document/16000-forfeitured-issued-against-wskq-fm)** > > Issued a forfeiture of $16,000 against WSKQ Licensing, Inc., licensee of Station WSKQ(FM), New York, NY, for recording a telephone conversation for broadcast without prior notification to the called party in violation of Section 73.1206 of the FCC's Bottom line: the FCC rules state that both parties must know the call may be used on air prior to the call, not prior to airing. A release is not good enough. Elvis Duran is not making real prank phone calls. It’s either scripted with actors or both parties know its for broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/35 "2014-01-02T20:02:07Z")
Ah, now I understand. Thanks for being so patient. And on your mobile too! ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/36 "2014-01-02T20:07:14Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > The reason DJs do that sort of thing is not because it’s particularly compelling radio, it’s simply because they have airtime to fill and prank calls cost nothing. It doesn’t help the bottom line at all to have a bunch of voice actors just sitting around just for the purposes of staging prank calls. Why would you think that they would have voice actors just “sitting around”? That’s asinine. You would just have to hire a couple of them for a day. In an eight hour day, you could probably shit out a year’s worth of bits. The consensus of this thread is what I believe to be true. Twenty years ago, most of them were real. Now they’re almost all fake. This probably has more to do with the changes in regulations than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/37 "2014-01-02T20:07:26Z")
> [@Mithras](#): > > It’s because you have to get permission before the call is made. [From the FCC’s website:](http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/telphon.html) > > The list of times this rule’s been enforced on that page make it unlikely that a show on a large station has been ignoring it and escaped the notice of the FCC. That was the link I was looking for. Thanks. I knew they had been enforcing it for years but I didn’t know it went back to 2000. Biggirl, someone like Duran is less likely to want to run afoul of the FCC. He is syndicated. If the show gets fined the fine is assessed on every station he is on. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/38 "2014-01-02T20:12:10Z")
I meant to add an anecdote. Somewhere around 1992 a friend of mine was part of a prank. He was in Asia on a one month business trip and his girlfriend had a morning DJ call him at like 3am his time so that she, along with the radio station staff, could harass him about proposing to her. To say that he was not amused would be a significant understatement. I didn’t hear it but a lot of his friends and colleagues did. She got pretty much the opposite of a proposal when he returned to the States. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/39 "2014-01-02T20:18:35Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Dammit I keep trying to make a nice reply going back and forth with quotes from the FCC but my phone isn’t cooperating. > > Here is a ruling on one case from a few years ago. You can find the language yourself. > [$16,000 Forfeitured Issued Against WSKQ-FM | Federal Communications Commission](http://www.fcc.gov/document/16000-forfeitured-issued-against-wskq-fm) > > Bottom line: the FCC rules state that both parties must know the call may be used on air prior to the call, not prior to airing. A release is not good enough. Elvis Duran is not making real prank phone calls. It’s either scripted with actors or both parties know its for broadcast. Would it be correct that this FCC rule does not apply to calls made to people who hold political office? Because those calls are protected by the First Amendment? The prank calls to [Sarah Palin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masked_Avengers'_prank_on_Sarah_Palin) and [Scott Walker](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/23/scott-walker-buffalo-beast-phone-prank_n_827058.html) got wide airplay. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594/40 "2014-01-02T20:19:26Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Why would you think that they would have voice actors just “sitting around”? That’s asinine. You would just have to hire a couple of them for a day. In an eight hour day, you could probably shit out a year’s worth of bits. > > The consensus of this thread is what I believe to be true. Twenty years ago, most of them were real. Now they’re almost all fake. This probably has more to do with the changes in regulations than anything else. I heard an interview with a guy who does War of the Roses. He gets paid $75 a pop. WotR is a Clear Channel owned bit. Different stations call him up along with whoever they have playing his wife and they do the bit with the station’s jocks. Then it’s edited before airing. No need to have actors on payroll, Clear Channel has them available for their stations. I also mentioned Prepburger. It’s a real company. The station becomes a client and Prepburger provides song parodies, phony phone calls, contest ideas, topical jokes etc. All of it sucks and can be heard across the country. PB just adds in the stations call letters or there are breaks in the bits where the local jock can be a part of the bit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-radio-station-crank-calls-fake/677594.md?page=3)