Excellent radio prank pulled in my area.

GreatTeacherMacRoss

Okay, so the local wacky morning DJ's broke this news story that some researchers at Harvard or something had discovered a link between the ability to hear a particular tone and high IQ. They played the tone over the radio (I heard nothing obviously) and asked people to call in to tell them if the heard the tone. The rest of their show was taken up by people calling in and telling them what the tone sounded like, and also how smart they were.

The next day, they replayed some of the choice phone calls, and proceeded to tell everyone they were all stupid and that there was no tone and that they had, in fact, just left dead air each time they "played" the tone. Even MORE people called in telling them that they (The DJ's) were crazy and that there was a tone. They were made fun of mercilessly.

It was really amusing and I thought I'd share.

xenomouse

The emperor's subjects are not wearing clothes either.

Viga

This...was awesome. If I could get a recording of that show I'd play it for my friends and watch the mayhem.

MitchyD

Clever. I like it.

...

I wanna hear the noise too mommy!

Nice prank, though it's really one you should hear for yourself.

Boy Blue

Wow for the "more" people that heard it the next day... just "wow".

Sail

It's like that prank they pulled in the 50s or 60s where they told all their listeners that, because the planets and the moon were lined up in a certain way, if they jumped at the right time the weakened gravity would allow them to float around the room for a few seconds. They got hundreds of phone calls from people claiming that they actually flew around their living room.

Omnutia

I wonder what would have happened if hearing the noise was associated with a negative effect.