The radio station responsible for the Kate Middleton hospital prank call that lead to the shocking suicide of a nurse has a long history of jokes designed to cause devastation.
The worst of the segments was on 2DayFM’s “Kyle and Jackie O” show which had a long running lie detector bit that went horribly wrong in 2009 when a mother brought her 14-year-old daughter into the station to grill the teen on her drug and sexual life.
The young girl was strapped into the lie detector and was first asked some easy questions about partying and skipping school but then the mother’s questions took a dark turn when she asked, “Have you ever had sex?” according to Australian newspaper The Sunday Morning Herald.
DJS BREAK SILENCE ON ‘ROYAL’ NURSE’S SUICIDE – ‘WE CAN’T BELIEVE PRANK WORKED’
The terrified teen replied, “I’ve already told you the story about this…and don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny.”
Apparently that wasn’t enough for the 2DayFM DJs because the girl then blurted out, “Oh OK…I got raped when I was 12 years old.”
Without pausing to reflect on the shocking and embarrassing admission host Kyle Sandilands pressed ahead, “Right, is that the only experience you’ve had?”
The exchange lead to a police investigation and the DJs were suspended “indefinitely” but were only off the air for a week, according to TMZ.
Additionally host Sandilands lost his judging gig on the equivalent of “American Idol” in Australian, but the radio show actually grew in popularity after the incident.
In another joke gone wrong from 2009 the same “Kyle and Jacki O” show paid a listener to call her sister and convince her that their mother was seriously injured and in need of medical attention.
The panicked sister bought the schtick and called an ambulance only for the paramedics to find the mother in good health.
Once again, the show was investigated by police.
After these incidents and many others that Howard Stern would be proud of, the show hired a full-time censor and removed segments from their online archives including a feature where people stripped for money, another where they searched for the man with the smallest penis in Sydney and finally a photo gallery of Sandilands taking part in a sperm donation race, according to the Huffington Post.
With a history like that it is no wonder that a number of 2DayFM’s show’s have been slapped on the wrist for falling foul of Australia’s broadcasting rules.
2DayFM’s latest prank puts all the other’s to shame however after 46-year-old mother of two Jacintha Saldanha killed herself 72 hours after she was pranked while working at the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated for severe morning sickness.
The now infamous prank was pulled off by DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian who impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles in order to trick Saldanha into transferring their call to the nurse who was attending to the future Queen of England.
Southern Cross Austereo, the parent company of 2DayFM, released a statement Monday saying Greig and Christian’s show had been terminated and there would be a company-wide suspension of prank calls. The DJs themselves remain suspended.