Radio Station Hoax Startles Edgy Colts Fans

INDIANAPOLIS -- A radio hoax is not playing well with the Colts organization, or with some rabid Colts fans.

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Images: Colts Leaving?

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In an elaborate prank, Emmis-owned 93.1 "Radio Now" apparently placed seven moving vans along Capitol Avenue and along South Street. Stickers were on the windows of the vans saying the drivers could not speak to the media.

The stunt came during the radio show known as 'The Morning Mess".

Listeners were led to believe that the team was packing up and moving out.

The stunt generated numerous calls and e-mails into the RTV6 newsroom from stunned Colts fans, afraid their team was leaving. Others took the hoax in stride.

"Isn't that what radio stations do?" Neil Rafferty said. "They're all looking for an edge over the other. It doesn't bother me. The only thing that really matters is if they are moving or not and if they're not, that's all I care about."

The hoax comes at a time when the future of the team has become a hot potato in the statehouse and on the streets of the surrounding "doughnut" counties.

The governor has spent the last four days trying to convince the public and politicians to support a 1 percent tax to pay for a new stadium.

A spokesperson for the Colts told RTV6 he was upset with the stunt and had already expressed his displeasure with the radio station's general manager.

A press release from the radio station contended this was the station's "unique" way of creating awareness about the Colts plight.