Mad Atoms

A local radio station offended a minority group for essentially being an alternative station. Little did I know that a piece of paper made to look like olive branch would be a declaration for war. The people protested after a rejected proposition to host an evening hip-hop program. Those who showed up pelted the station with rocks until the cops came and drove them away. 

I chose to help the situation by making a party invitation for the station so offensive that those people would attack again with increased anger and “mo’ posse”. The big letters across the invite read, "C'mon down to the KUKQ Nigga House Party" complete with the promise of ice cold 40's and all the mac n cheese you could eat. There was even a crudely drawn Coolio looking character with a word bubble saying, "I'm gonna pick my cousin up from jail and go down there." Keep in mind this was the early 90s and we were using Apple II's to craft and transmit this prank. 

The finishing touch was to include the station name and phone number in tiny font on the top of the page so it would look like a fax. With Mac’s easy to use fax program all we needed to do was dump in the 1000+ fax numbers we got from our city chamber of commerce. Through the night my primitive Mac faxed and faxed and faxed as I dreamed of race riots and smashed They Might Be Giants records. 

The next morning I woke up to see that almost all fax transmissions were successful. I called the station as an angry black man who did not enjoy being the brunt of the joke. The station owner was there and told me that the FBI was on their way there to investigate how someone broke into the station and used their fax machine all night. He also told me that scores of people had stopped by through out the morning and early afternoon to try to fight them. I nearly bit through my lip to conceal the laughter.