03.28.07

The Great Doobie Prank

Posted in Personal News at 3:05 pm by divinity

With a recent massive harddrive failure, I’m going back through all sorts of backups that had to be scattered across drives to save. Every now and then I come upon a little nugget or memory. Here’s one about the college radio station I was a part of. I’m not sure what this was written for, probably the 50 year anniversary of the station.

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It was the end of our Senior year (2002). For 4 years WDUB had been a part of our lives and we weren’t quite ready to leave it behind. We didn’t want to just fade out like the music before a PSA about Bigfoot stealing your shoes, we wanted to leave a memory in people’s minds that made them think back fondly about the station and the slightly-odd DJs that controlled the 91.1 frequency. A prank was most definitely in need. Abe, Jess, and Ed (names not changed cause noone is innocent) came up with the idea of making the entire CD library disappear. There had been a great deal of “disappearing CDs” by malicious or careless parties around this time, so we thought we’d take it so far that people would laugh.

During Finals Week, Jess and Ed scheduled back to back radio shows so late into the night that we would have to shut down the station when we were done. This gave us plenty of time to get the job done. Abe met us at the station, and we began moving the CD catalog. We pulled every single CD, yes every single CD, and began stacking them in the newsroom downstairs. Using the mail bins, we did our best to keep everything in a decent order for the poor souls that would have to move them back (us). After several hours, we finally accomplished the gargantuan task of relocating 7000 CDs. The FM room and every drawer in the back room was completely empty save for the thick layer of dust that had built up over the years. I guess not cleaning is truly a Doobie tradition. With all of the CDs relocated, we settled down to making the “ransom note” in true ransom note fashion. Unfortunately at this point we could no longer say, “No issues of CMJ were harmed in this prank.” Ransom note made, evidence stupidly left behind in the trash can, we locked up the station and ran into the darkness of night.
Later that night a DJ stumbled into the station, didn’t see the CDs in the newsroom and thought they were truly stolen. A late night call woke up a very grumpy station manager, and the fur started flying. Over the next few days, rumours of suspension, criminal charges, and even not being allowed to graduate began to circulate. The station was closed down, locks changed, and students were not allowed to broadcast during finals week. This being the unexpected result of a prank that had many people laughing and some not so happy, we decided it was time to fix things. After some anonymous negotiation through a 3rd party, we were finally allowed back into the station to put the CDs back where they belonged in hopes the station could be reopened. Along with a true band of dedicated Doobie DJs, we spent the night carting the CDs back upstairs, alphabetizing and reorganizing, as well as finding many of the “missing” CDs.
Early into that morning, with all the CDs put away, many of the senior DJs bid a final farewell to the station they knew and loved so well. But we had all contributed our part to the crazy history that makes WDUB the best student organization at Denison University. Here’s to 50 more years or music, fun, pranks, and something to do from 3-5am! To all the present and future DJs, keep the spirit alive.

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I just checked out the WDUB website myself and find it kind of insulting that they say:
“In the fall of 2004, WDUB began a second era of its history as the station began streaming its on-air content to worldwide internet users.” That’s utter crap as I was streaming the station online via shoutcast while I was there and I graduated in 2002! Hell, I even had a webcam going for my shows. But maybe evidence of my existence with the Doobie was wiped clean after the above debacle.

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