Radio ignores April 1 -- not

No, Howard Stern hasn’t resigned or been fired from his nationally syndicated show and replaced by bland, middle-of-the-road DJs. No, Kevin and Bean haven’t been exiled from KROQ-FM (106.7). No, the U.S. Postal Service hasn’t instituted a new rule that allows people to take their ZIP codes with them when they move, as was reported on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” And no, commentator Sean Hannity hasn’t changed his political stripes.

What was happening Thursday is that radio engaged in its yearly April Fool’s pranks.

Stern’s stunt, which occupied the first portion of his show (heard locally on KLSX-FM) was perhaps the most elaborate, and the most pointed. When he came back on the air, replacing the Donny & Marie-style “replacements,” he said this is what listeners will face if the current decency crusade pushes him off the air.

Kevin and Bean were similarly absent from their show, and references to them were even eliminated from KROQ’s website.

But perhaps Hannity’s was the most surprising. “People do change. People do evolve. Events change them. That’s why I have decided to support John Kerry for president,” Hannity told his dismayed supporters. He never credited the persuasion of the new Air America network, though, for his April Fool’s Day conversion.

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Jonathan Taylor, Steve Carney