A FOX WHO CAN SHOCK

Every week some unsuspecting citizen of Providence, R.I., is the victim of an elaborate hoax. The perpetrator? Carolyn Fox, the sassy morning deejay at rock station WHJY-FM, who regularly treats her listeners to a feature known as “Trick and Treat.”

One morning, posing as a Ms. Berler, she called up a local dentist, frantically trying to arrange an emergency appointment for a chipped tooth.

Fox gave the dentist a graphic description of how her tooth was damaged by her amorous boyfriend. “I’m in a lot of pain and he’s in a lot of pain too,” she said. “Have you ever heard of a problem like this before?”

“Well, this is rather unique,” the dentist said hesitantly.

Finally, Fox revealed her true identity. “Oh!” the dentist laughed. “I’ve heard you on the radio. So you’re really OK, aren’t you?”

For the past four years, Fox has been a mainstay at WHJY, where she’s emerged as the No. 2 morning deejay in the latest local ratings.

Good ratings are hard to find, but the 26-year-old deejay is an even rarer commodity--a brash, suggestive and--yes--controversial woman in a male-dominated rock radio world. While Shock Jocks like New York’s Howard Stern and Washington’s Greaseman have grabbed most of the headlines for their audacious antics, Fox can hold her own when it comes to sly double (and even quadruple) entendres, raunchy repartee and zany stunts. For example:

Fox threw Providence into a tizzy last April Fool’s Day when she announced that the fictitious Providence Labor Action Relations Board Committee had declared the city “closed for the day” and that people needn’t go to work. (For people who wanted more information, she gave out the phone number of a rival rock station.) The local police said they were “swamped” with calls until Fox revealed the joke later that morning.

Fox oversees a regular feature called “Throwing Someone Down the Stairs,” where local figures or national celebrities are lambasted for pompous, hypocritical or just plain tacky public statements. Victims have included President Reagan (“he’s a regular”), the Bishop of the Providence diocese (“for refusing to let kids know about birth control”) and pop cover girl Samantha Fox’s mother (“for selling underage nude pictures of her to London newspapers”).

WHJY program director Ken Carson admits Fox is controversial, but says she’s a valuable drawing card for the station. “Her best ratings are with our male audience, where she’s No. 1 in the market for both 18-year-old to 34-year-old men and 25-to-49 men,” he said.

Unlike her morning radio peers, Fox steers clear of the “T&A;” humor that dominates most Shock Rock programs. “I don’t think its funny,” she said. “I don’t tell jokes about black people either. They’re very sensitive, so I stay away from it.”

Fox laughed. “But everyone else is fair game--Jews, (Poles), gays. . . .”

Oddly enough, Fox says she attracts a much bigger--or at least, more vocal--male audience than female. “A few women like the idea of me,” she said. “But most of ‘em find me crass, vulgar, sexist--you name it.

“I think it’s because I’m tough on women. I have no sympathy with women who let themselves get stepped on. I’m pretty frank and I think some women find me offensive because of it. I could be sweet and pretend I’m a sex-kitten. But I think it’s more interesting for me to play the tough-girl role.”

Despite all her antics, Fox still has one fan she tries to please (though not always successfully)--her father.

“Of course, he gets upset when I get too wild,” Fox said. “Last Thanksgiving we did a stunt where we dropped turkeys out of a helicopter. He got mad because some people thought we were dropping live turkeys--and I’d used one of my father’s clients to buy the birds.”