April Fools’ Day prank gets two radio personalities suspended

Two Florida radio personalities were suspended indefinitely over an April Fools’ Day prank. (pictured)

 The “Val and Scott in the Morning” hosts were joking that dihydrogen monoxide was coming out of peoples’ taps.

The hoax sent listeners into a panic and led to several calls to Lee County utilities.

 Dihydrogen monoxide is another name for water.

 But a lot of listeners didn’t know that and were worried that their water wasn’t safe to drink.

 The radio station, 101.9 Gator Country, spent the rest of the day apologising for the prank.

 A station official said: “This messes with the big three – food, water and shelter. You can’t mess with those, and we did.”

 Lee County utilities sent out a release, letting the public know there weren’t any issues and the water was safe.

 Everything old is new again. The dihydrogen monoxide hoax was first distributed via leaflets in the early 1990s by students at University of California Santa Cruz. In 1994, one of the students, Craig Jackson, launched a fictitious online organisation known as Coalition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide for dissemination in online newsgroups.