Radio Station’s 50 Cent April Fool’s Gag Ticks Off Listeners

According to Portsmouth/Norfolk TV station WAVY, Virginia Beach radio station Z104 spent days promoting that the rapper would shoot a video Thursday night at the town’s Mount Trashmore Park – named so because the park was once a city landfill.

Adding to the incentive to see the star at Mount Trashmore were reassurances from the radio station that 50 Cent would listen to any demo tapes brought to the park.

So you can imagine how folks felt when Virginia Beach officials posted the following message on the town’s Twitter page: “Hi folks! 50 Cent will NOT be @ Mt. Trashmore this evening. The supposed video shoot was an April Fools’ Day prank by a local radio station.”

But not everyone was laughing.

“These are people’s dreams,” Chesapeake resident Robert Brown told WAVY. “I was really hopeful and now I’m really disappointed.”

Evidently, the creators of the prank were quite pleased with themselves. Z104’s morning show crew told WAVY they planned the stunt months ago when 50 Cent was in their studios, saying the rapper went along with the gag by recording an announcement promoting the fake video shoot.

Meanwhile, local police expressed concerns about the prank.

“It was a joke and we appreciate that,” Virginia Beach Police officer Adam Bernstein said. “But, as a police department we have to worry about crowd control and traffic, even if it is a hoax you might have thousands of people show up anyway.”

Click here for the complete WAVY TV report.

Click here for the Z104 Web site.