There has been plenty of discussion among broadcasters since a nurse in England killed herself on Friday. If you missed the story, she was the nurse who accepted a call from a prankster radio host in Australia and, believing the caller was the Queen, put her through to another nurse who gave the caller details about Kate’s condition as Prince William’s wife was being treated for a severe form of morning sickness.
The radio station, 2DayFM, got worldwide attention and plenty of admiration for their hoax call, which they aired last Wednesday morning. It wasn’t even very good. Â The woman imitating Queen Elizabeth sounded no more like her than I do – and as you’ve heard recently on this page, my imitation is weak. Although deeply embarrassed about the security breach, King Edward VII hospital didn’t discipline the nurse and the Royal family shrugged it off as well. Â But Jacintha Saldanha apparently took it so hard that she couldn’t live with herself. The Royal family issued a statement offering their deepest sympathy to her family. The 46-year-old left behind a husband and 2 children.
Radio pranks have been going on since man first took to the airwaves. In 1938 Orson Welles scared the heck out of listeners with a broadcast of the play, War of the Worlds, which many listeners thought was real. It was considered the first radio hoax. It’s no accident that stations often remind listeners of what they’re listening to, whether it’s a rebroadcast or an infomercial or pure fiction.
Several years ago 2 Miami DJs called Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and got through when one of them pretended to be Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Scruff Connors was legendary for his on-air pranks. In one, he called Toronto’s multi-cultural radio station using a phony Chinese accent in an attempt to get a job. Embarrassed, the company’s executive later complained but The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled the prank wasn’t racist, just in poor taste.
In Canada radio types don’t do pranks like they used to mainly because you have to get a person’s permission before you can air their voice. You could go to a lot of trouble creating a scenario, carry out the prank and if the person doesn’t say it’s okay, you can’t air it. It kind of takes the steam out of making the effort.
My favourite pranks were always the set-ups by a friend or spouse. Humble and Fred did those well. As an example, a man would tell them his wife was getting her car fixed and worried about a really big bill. So Humble or Fred would call her on the air, with the husband listening in, and pretend to be a mechanic who’s obviously trying to rip her off. Or it could be wedding arrangements going wrong at the last minute. Â You get the idea. Â In the end, the prankee finds out it’s all a joke, they’re relieved, everyone has a laugh and life goes on.
I don’t presume to know anything about Jacintha Saldanha but it’s a fair guess that she was a fragile person. She wasn’t under fire for her mistake. Of course it was embarrassing and she would have been humiliated by the unwanted attention. Â But she hadn’t given away British trade secrets that led to anything dire. She made an error in judgment and people laughed. Â Another person might have handled the fallout very differently. Â Sadly, Jacintha chose a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Some of my fellow broadcasters are suggesting the radio hosts should be charged with manslaughter. Â I would agree if it had been widely known that prank calls cause suicides. But they don’t. Â The radio station issued a statement saying the hosts are devastated and off the air for now. Â Their Facebook page is down. Early this morning they spoke publicly for the first time. Â Through tears, they expressed their deep regret over Jacintha’s death. Â They explained that the phone call was vetted through the radio station’s lawyers before it went to air. “These prank calls are made every day, on every radio station, in every country around the world.” Â It was their fifth try at this particular type of call that finally got through.
Most people who suffer public embarrassment get past the discomfort and carry on. It’s a terrible waste of a life and the loss of a mother to two kids but no one could have reasonably foreseen this outcome. Still, I think this will give plenty of broadcasters pause before they pick up the phone and try to make a fool of someone again.