Raglan Community Radio had a busy time on Thursday 2nd April with callers and visitors either asking, “Is it true that the entire Raglan Community Board has resigned?” or “Has Station Manager, Aaron Mooar changed his name to Orson Welles?”.
With a news broadcast in the best tradition of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938, Wednesday’s Raglan Community Radio news update convinced many Raglanders that the entire Raglan Community Board had resigned.
The news broadcast started with an item about the Kopua Junior Soccer fields being replaced with a boat trailer car park, then went on to cover a fictional meeting of the Raglan Community Board where a humorous ‘discussion’ between members Bob MacLeod and Matt Holl about who had a community mandate evolved into a situation where all members decided to resign.
Aaron says he was surprised that anybody believed the April Fools news broadcast, especially as it ended up with him saying that Chelsea Pollock-Milne, the shop mannequin at Raglan Vintage and Retro would be standing in the by-election. Her platform was described as promoting daylight saving for a full 12 months to keep the Raglan vibe going all year round.
Some Raglanders are convinced that the item is true and have told Raglan 23 that the meeting of Community Board members took place at the Raglan Bowling Club on the evening of March 31st.
I guess all good gags need an element of truth to be believed and for this one, if we look back in history, the entire Raglan Community Board along with the Raglan ward councillor did actually resign in 1957.
Well done Aaron – great fun. Sorry folks, the Raglan Community Board members have not resigned. There remain only the two vacancies and the by-election for these will be held on the 5th June.
You can listen to the April 1st broadcast here: