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 Radio Station 'Hack' An April Fools Prank

 David McGuire


Last week's apparent attack by heavy metal hackers against an Internet radio site dedicated to broadcasting the jangly, melodic strains of so-called "indie" pop, was actually the result of an April Fool's prank played by the site's owner, we have learned.

"We actually started a little bit early," Indiepopradio.com owner Rich Burroughs said of the March 31 hoax. "A lot of our listeners listen on the weekdays," he added, pointing out that April 1, fell on a Saturday.

As Newsbytes reported on March 31, visitors to the Indiepopradio.com site were being directed to a page bearing a photograph of the 80's hair-metal band Poison and what appeared to be a message from a group calling itself "th3 p01s0n kr3w."

The seemingly hijacked site included several cryptic references to the auditory superiority of heavy metal music, and its normal audio stream - which typically includes songs from bands such as Dressy Bessy and Belle and Sebastian - had been replaced with a relentless soundtrack of heavy metal hits.

Burroughs cobbled together a three-hour, continuous loop of songs from Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Motley Crue and other metal staples. He obtained most of the tracks from the controversial MP3-sharing site napster.com, Burroughs said.

As part of the hoax, Burroughs briefly took down the faked p01s0n kr3w page and posted a message saying that the hack had been fixed. He then reposted the vandalized page a few hours later to give the appearance that the heavy metal hackers had struck again.

The hoaxed site remained in place until early Sunday morning, when it was permanently replaced with the normal Indiepopradio.com home page.

 


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