Best Radio Stunt

No, we're not honoring 96.5 for its April Fool's Day joke, when listeners woke up to find that the station had somehow become KGAY and was playing only disco songs by the likes of Donna Summer and the Village People. That stunt grabbed headlines, but another one regularly has us in tears. In April, morning hosts Kenny and Afentra interviewed Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes. They recorded that conversation, along with a subsequent interview of Her Honor, and cut the recordings into little mayoral sound bites that provided fodder for future prank calls. To hilarious effect, Kenny and Afentra tortured people who innocently answered the phone only to encounter weird repetitions of "This is Mayor Kay Barnes!" In her inimitable first-grade-teacher voice, Barnes badgered strangers with questions such as "Let me ask you this: Is it bigger than London? Is it bigger than Paris?" Then, out of nowhere, Kay would say, "Tomato!" Citizens who thought they were having a real conversation with the mayor were routinely confounded when she'd burst forth with a "ha ha ha ha ha" that was nearly demonic in its fake cheeriness. This isn't just a junior-high stunt; it's profound political satire. Never mind that unsuspecting victims (who turned out to be good sports -- all of them gave Kenny and Afentra permission to air the recordings) were baffled by the mayor's seemingly bizarre behavior. Most biting was the fact that, by the end of each installment, you began to imagine her as the robot she may in fact be.