KTAR Pulls Stunt on Audience; Speed Camera Story Fake

Local radio station KTAR (92.3 FM) is giving New Times some competition in the joke article department, telling its audience today that Phoenix is getting 350 federally funded speed cameras. The online article ran with this hilarious map -- which alone should have been a dead giveaway for readers. The...

By Ray Stern

April 1, 2009

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18478561",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "16759093",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759092",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759094",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        }
      ]

Local radio station KTAR (92.3 FM) is giving New Times some competition in the joke article department, telling its audience today that Phoenix is getting 350 federally funded speed cameras.

The online article ran with this hilarious map -- which alone should have been a dead giveaway for readers. The audio version made it tougher for some listeners to guess what was going on, since it contained actual sound-bites from Phoenix City Councilman Claude Mattox and U.S. Congressman John Shadegg.

KTAR caught heat from Governor Janet Napolitano's office last year for a similar April 1 prank, says this Arizona Republic article from Scott Wong (who was among the first to get KTAR's joke this morning).

By late afternoon, the station had 'fessed up.

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Phoenix New Times has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.

Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.