Oxy-Morons?

Proof that a top-notch education doesn't necessarily make you smart came today when Oxygen FM, Oxford's student radio station, was fined nearly 20,000 pounds (for those of you scoring at home, that's around $32,000) for faking an entire day's broadcast to pass muster with Britain's licensing authority. Faced with complaints that the station was ignoring its mission to cover the finer arts and sciences and broadcasting too much noxious, fluffy pop music (and with a playlist that included Sheryl Crow's remake of "Sweet Child of Mine" we're inclined to agree), Britain's Radio Authority asked the station for tapes of the March 1 broadcast for review. The problem, of course, was that the March 1 broadcast was especially frivolous.

So, in a straight-from-sitcom move, the station on March 8 broadcast a whole day of serious, public affairs-oriented programming (well, sort of Topic A was Jerry Springer) then labeled the tapes March 1 and sent them off to the proper authorities. A perfect scam, except for one glaring inconsistency: The deejays forgot to backdate the news as well. While they were telling listeners on air that it was March 1, the news events they reported were from March 8. The bureaucrats were not amused.