I hope all of you have not been fooled today...so far I am OK.  But I thought I would share an April Fool's Day joke I pulled back in 1997 when I worked at WAOW TV-9 in Wausau.

After a long and cold winter, we were expecting our first big warm-up with highs in the 60s.  We talked about it all week.  On the morning of April Fools I had an idea.  I started the morning newscast by saying the storm pattern change and the big storm we were tracking to our south turned toward us overnight and we were not expecting 60s anymore.  The forecast was now for 6" of snow.  You could hear the gasp in the news studio and my co-anchor became very angry on the air.  "Are you kidding me?"  After a few weather graphics explaining why it changed, I shouted April Fools.  The floor crew started throwing things at me.  It was classic..I got everyone.

No one was really mad at me.  The phones at the station lit up but to say it was a very good prank.  I went to the store and bank later that day and everyone I met said I almost gave them a heart attack when I said it was going to snow and then they wanted to come get me after I told them I was joking.  Everyone thought it was very good.  Thank goodness it was nice that day or I may have been harmed...kidding.

Today during the noon show I told that story on the air and I told Diane and Vinny that I was no longer welcome in Wausau.  I even joked that they rolled me down Rib Mountain that day to punish me.  I was kidding, but you have to be careful what you joke about...I took a chance with weather in Wisconsin and it almost back fired on me.