Culture

Florida DJs Are Off the Hook for Their Successful April Fool's Prank

The indefinite suspension didn't last very long for the Florida morning-radio hosts who used a chemical name for water in a public health scare gone weird, and according to an official at the local health department they also won't be charged with a felony. 

By Esther Zuckerman
This article is from the archive of our partner .

The indefinite suspension didn't last very long for the Florida morning-radio hosts who played an April Fools' prank gone wrong—or right, it's kind of hard to tell—and according to an official at the local health department they also won't be charged with a felony.

South Florida's News-Press reports that hosts Val St. John and Scott Fish were back on the air Wednesday, following their "dihydrogen monoxide" (aka water) joke Monday that created a false panic and resulted in their suspension.

Meanwhile, Diane Holm, the public information officer for the Florida Department of Health in Lee County, told The Atlantic Wire that the department is "not pursuing any other charges." Monday, Holm had said that it was her "understanding is it is a felony to call in a false water quality issue." However, she told us today that "we were satisfied with the speed and the action that the station management took in all aspects." She added: "They handled appropriately and expeditiously the discipline of the the DJs as well as the public notification. They immediately retracted indicated that the joke had been in poor taste and it was inaccurate, inappropriate and every break that day they aired that there were no problems with the water." 

The DJs' joke was totally immature—think grade-school level—and yet remarkably successful. They warned listeners that dihydrogen monoxide was coming out of the taps in the Fort Myers area. Of course, dihydrogen monoxide is water, but people were so freaked that Lee County Utilities had to make a statement saying that their water is safe to drink.

This morning, the Facebook page for Val and Scott in the Morning, which airs on a popular country-music station in the Fort Myers area, featured a thank-you to fans.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
Esther Zuckerman is a culture writer who has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and Vanity Fair. She is the author of two books.