Remember the famous GovernmentAid April Fools Spoof?
He had a beurocrat on who claimed that government workers were poorly paid and that there was going to be a LiveAid type benefit concert to give money to the poor government workers. I was running around the shop I was working at then in a lather. Callers were just trashing this guy. No one got it until about one minute before the end of the show when David and his buddy fessed up. Radio at its absolute finest. This was on the same level as War of the Worlds.
David Newmans Memorial Day History Quiz was also can't miss radio.
What those who are reading about David for the first time don't realize is that he was often criticized as being too intellectual and "stuffy", because of his magnificent baritone voice, precise grammar and diction, and the generally serious nature of his presentation.
This is what made his April 1st shows all the more effective. He'd take a premise that sounded almost too ridiculous to be true -- meaning that it's something you'd expect to hear a liberal ACTUALLY PROPOSE -- and run with it, with the help of very convincing interviewees. Wonderful stuff that proved that he, indeed, possessed a great sense of humor.
Anybody remember his interview with Timothy Leary? That's the one time I remember where David truly lost it...
Did you hear the show about Hillary's health care plan? The "expert" was defending her plan and answering most hypothetical questions posed by an increasingly furious audience with the phrase: "You would go to jail!" He had me for about 45 minutes until I figured out it had to be a spoof. But it was so well done and so plausible. He is/was the greatest!