Do you remember when prank call radio shows were a thing?

This long-time listener became a first time caller when a husband enlisted a local radio station to play a cruel prank on his wife.

This is a story about how one listener turned the tables on that radio station.

I’m not sure if this one belongs here as I was not the one actually wronged: my revenge was taken for someone I have never met, and I honestly don’t know if they personally got any satisfaction from it.

I do know what it did to the perpetrator and that it satisfied me, so I’ll let the readers decide.

Like many of my tales, this one takes place in the distant past, before cellphones were common, and before universal caller ID was the norm, in a time dinosaurs most likely roamed the Earth. Well… the 80s, at least.

These things are very important to this story.

Our tale takes place in a large west coast city known for a big orange bridge and delicious sourdough bread. I was living in the city for several months working temporary duty for my company, and was preparing for work on the day in question.

As was my custom I was getting dressed listening to the morning radio show on a local station. This station’s jocks had started doing something called “the Monday Morning Wake Up Call”, where, on the first day of the week, they would make a prank call on the air to a victim chosen from write-in suggestions from the listening audience.

Doing this was actually very controversial in radio circles at the time: I had been a radio DJ in my hometown for a few years, and there are rules you must follow. One of the biggest rules is that you can’t make a false or deceptive radio transmission, like announcing an emergency, sending an SOS or cry for help or other such deceptions.

Doing so is a federal offense: you can lose your license and be fined, or even do jail time. It’s a big no-no.

Our storyteller is clearly not a fan of these prank calls.

The debate has long since been decided, but at the time doing prank calls on the air was a gray area; there were people who were sure it constituted a false transmission, and some stations refused to do it. The argument was still alive at the time this happened.

This day happened to be Monday, and the intended victim had been nominated by her husband: they had experienced a power failure at home earlier in the week and the husband’s suggestion was that the station call his wife, claim to be from the utility, and tell her that the power outage was somehow their fault and they would have to pay for it.

The station staff loved the idea, and they proceeded to call the wife at her place of employment, a local bank.

The victim answered and the prank began.

“Hello, is this Mrs. Victim? I’m John Doe from Area Power Company. Do you remember having a power failure earlier this week? Well, it was due to a blown transformer on your block and we’ve determined that the cause is a wiring fault in your house. We may have to cut off your power until you get it fixed. Also, you will be charged for the transformer. The total cost is X thousand dollars. Would you prefer we put that on your utility bill, or do you want to make other arrangements to pay?”

As you might imagine, the woman was shocked, then scared.

As she asked for more information, having trouble believing that they were going to have to pay thousands of dollars, she got increasingly more upset.

The woman is upset, so you would think maybe it’s time to call off the prank, right?

Nope.

This egged the radio staff on: the guy making the call kept increasing the pressure on her more and more, eventually telling her that her power would likely be cut off until payment was made, and that there might be a lawsuit.

After several minutes she suddenly hung up in tears. He called her back, and when she heard his voice she hung up again, crying even harder.

This time the guy waited a minute – and then called back again. Another lady answered the phone, a coworker, and he asked to speak to Mrs. Victim.

When the coworker asked his name he replied “This is her husband, (distinctive first name).” The coworker cursed at him, called him a liar and hung up.

The radio studio was filled with laughter: the jocks thought it was hilarious. They took calls from listeners who were all laughing and talking about what a great prank it was.

Naturally, the husband needs to chime in with his stamp of approval.

They finally got the husband on the phone, he of the distinctive name, and he was also laughing and joking that he’d surely be sleeping on the sofa tonight. He was congratulating the radio staff on the fine job they had done terrorizing his wife.

The radio hosts promised the listening audience that, because the prank was so funny, they would certainly be playing the whole recorded prank again at noon, so “Be sure to be listening, and call your friends!”

Our protagonist had had enough.

I, in my efficiency apartment listening to this, was getting mad. I was still pretty newly married, and couldn’t imagine doing something like that to my wife. All I could think of while the staff and listeners on the radio were laughing was that, a few miles away, a young woman was in the ladies room crying, probably with coworkers trying to calm her down.

What made it worse to my mind was that the guy who set her up for this was the one guy in the world who should have her back: her husband.

Anger turned to resolve, resolve formed a plan.

I grabbed the city phone book..remember – it’s the 80s… and looked up two phone numbers.

I called the first one.

You may remember that I said I had been a radio disk jockey myself. It was a tiny, dawn-to-dusk station, but I knew how stations worked: I knew what they liked, and more to the point, I knew what they did NOT like.

I also had done a lot of voiceover work and could sound professional as heck. The phone rang and was answered.

“You’ve reached K***, Radio Jerk!”. I launched my attack.

Me, in a professional voice, “Yes, this George Smith from the Office of the Federal Communications Commission. I’ve been getting some disturbing calls about your morning radio show, and I need to speak to your Program Director to discuss it.”

Radio Guy 1 – “Uhhhh… he’s not, um…. here right now…. letmegetyousomeoneelse!”

I was put on hold. After a few moments…

Radio Guy 2 – “Hi….um, hello…. uhhhh this is Radio Guy 2. Um…. you’re from the FCC…?”

Me – Yes, this is George Smith from the Office of the Federal Communications Commission. As I told your coworker, I’ve been getting some disturbing calls about your morning radio show, and I need to speak to your Program Director to discuss it.”

Radio Guy 2 – “Uhhh…. he’s not in yet…. he’ll be here at , um, nine o’clock…”

Me – “Ok, well I can start with your station manager since he will need to be in the conversation as well.”

Radio Guy 2 -“Oh, wow, um… he gets in at nine too…. I, um, I…I can, um, can I have him call you?” He half-asked and half-pleaded.

Me – “Very well. I will expect to hear from him at nine. I will need to speak to your Station Manager, your Programming Director, and very likely your on-air personnel from this morning. I’ll also need your station logs.”

Radio Guy 2 – “Oh, yes sir! I’ll make sure he calls you right away!”

Me – “All right, I’ll be expecting his call. Here’s my number”

At this point I gave Radio Guy 2 the second number I had looked up in the phone book: the main number for the Office of the Federal Communications Commission. Radio Guy 2 stammered his thanks and promises of phone calls and we hung up. I went back to the radio.

Jerk Disk Jockey – “UHHHH OOOHHHH!!! The FCC is calling! Well, They can’t do anything to me… I’ve got a year of pre-law in college and blah blah blah…” he continued his defiance for a few minutes and then went to commercial. I kept listening.

They stopped talking about the prank call.

They stopped taking phone calls from listeners.

They stopped talking to the husband.

They started playing music. A LOT of music.

Had his return-serve prank been that effective???

I listened for the rest of the day. They didn’t talk about it the rest of that day and they didn’t replay it at noon. In fact, for the rest of the week I listened and heard nothing about it.

I was a bit surprised. I figured that they might stop talking about it for a little while, but not altogether. It wasn’t until later that I realized why they went so silent.

I had scared them.

In my quest to get a little vengeance for that crying woman I’d never met, I scared them, but more to the point – I’d embarrassed them, and Jerk Disk Jockey had helped.

Once he went live with his bravado against the call from the Feds their listeners knew they’d been called and heard the silence afterward too. They were embarrassed because I had just done to them what they had done to her, and they didn’t want to have to admit it.

But, of course the radio station would never admit they’d been embarrassed or scared…

I’ve kept the rather distinctive name of the husband a secret, because I have always wished that I could meet that poor woman and that name would be how I would know it was really her. I doubt she is still married to the guy, but I’d like to let her know that in that place, on that day, someone had her back.

Redditors had a lot of feelings about prank call shows.

But our jockey in shining armor got a lot of love.

Redditors loved that he stood up for a stranger.

The consensus was that everyone needs to be in on the joke for a prank to be funny.

But the husband did not get off so easy.

I think we can all agree this prank crossed the line and the author deserves all the kudos for coming to this woman’s aid.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.