Dallas Deejays’ Tall Story Hasn’t Seemed to Land Them in Hot Water

As radio hoaxes go, this one doesn’t seem all that creative: Take to the airwaves and pronounce pop stars Britney Spears and boyfriend Justin Timberlake dead in a Los Angeles car accident.

Were the Dallas duo of Kramer & Twitch conducting some sociological experiment that went over most people’s heads? Or did they simply figure out a way to make the phones light up and get the media to write about them?

Kramer & Twitch, who are on weeknights at KEGL-FM (97.1), the Clear Channel Communications-owned Dallas rock station nicknamed “the Eagle,” weren’t elaborating this week. Neither was KEGL program director Duane Doherty, who didn’t return numerous calls, nor was the staff at Clear Channel’s corporate headquarters in San Antonio, which referred all calls back to KEGL.

Instead, KEGL aired a brief apology Wednesday but apparently didn’t suspend Kramer & Twitch, who were back on the air Wednesday night.

“Last night, this radio station erroneously reported an incident involving Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake,” went the recorded message. “The Eagle apologizes for any confusion this erroneous report may have caused.” Reached by phone by the Dallas Morning News, Kramer said he had been instructed by Clear Channel not to discuss the incident, the paper reported.

Damage control was also taking place on other fronts.

Wolf Kasteler, the PR firm for Spears and Timberlake, put out a statement Wednesday saying, “Timberlake is on tour with ‘N Sync and Spears is currently in the studio recording her next album. Representatives for both Spears and Timberlake are looking into the situation to determine the original source of the rumor and if legal action is appropriate.”

Kramer & Twitch said on the air Tuesday night that an “inside source” was giving them information about the accident, including that Timberlake was in a coma and that a spokesperson at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center confirmed the accident, according to the Dallas paper. The deejays also said they were reading from wire reports.

Los Angeles police and fire officials said that although a flood of calls inquiring about the fates of Timberlake and Spears were an irritation, authorities were not contemplating action against the deejays. Most calls came in on normal business lines and did not tie up 911 emergency lines, they said.

“It was an annoyance and unfortunate, but no crime was committed,” said Sgt. John Pasquariello of the Los Angeles Police Department. “There’s already been national condemnation” of the deejays, he said.

Police in Dallas also said they do not plan legal action.

Kramer & Twitch previously broadcast from San Jose station KSJO-FM, but operations manager Greg Stevens said they hadn’t been on the air there since a failed stint between January and April. In February, the two, who make a play for young male listeners in the crude way of many on-air deejays, were suspended for joking that motorists should run over motorcyclists and bicyclists or bump them with their open car doors. But Stevens said their departure was unrelated to any pranks. “We didn’t feel it fit the local vibe,” he said.

John Winston, an assistant bureau chief in enforcement at the Federal Communications Commission, said Wednesday that no formal complaint had been filed against KEGL over the phony death report. While the FCC must receive a complaint before taking action, the government agency does have a policy concerning such hoaxes. License- or permit-holders are prohibited from broadcasting knowingly false information concerning a crime or catastrophe. Such information must also be seen to cause substantial public harm, including the “diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties.”

To those schooled in radio, meanwhile, the hoax had the ring of desperate personalities doing anything for attention. Phil Hendrie, arguably the best at turning fakery into radio theater, with his callers as participants, noted the significant difference between a hoax and what he prefers to call a put-on.

“The way to do an effective put-on is to start from the premise that you want to be funny and work at being funny,” said Hendrie, who is syndicated by the Premiere Radio Networks and heard locally on KFI-AM (640). By contrast, Hendrie said, there are always those in radio “simply taking a stick and banging on a garbage can lid until someone notices.”

Sky Daniels, general manager of Radio & Records magazine, agreed. “Typically, they figure out, ‘How far can we push it, where do we think we’re going to get into trouble and . . . is it worth it?’ ” Daniels said of such deejay stunts.

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Times staff reporter John Johnson contributed to this story.