[joe-frank-list] Origin of the telephone medium/preacher clip?

[Erik Shirokoff]

Hi folks -

This isn't exactly a name-that-show question, but it's close.

In several of Joe's programs (Prayer, A Natural Disaster, Bible Stories, Men of the Cloth) there are clips in which someone posing as a medium/preacher calls people on the telephone and tries to convince them to repeat absurd prayers.

Somewhere, some time in the last decade, I remember hearing an explanation for the clip.  It involved a recording engineer somewhere making prank telephone calls and then secretly distributing the tapes to radio people.  

Did anyone else hear the explanation for that clip?  Any idea where it was?

I *think* the explanation was on a radio program, and I seem to remember it wasn't immediately associated with Joe.  A couple likely guesses are: an episode of This American Life, an Over the Edge show, an interview in a random news or arts program, or possibly an announcer or pledge drive jockey introducing a show.  But, memory being what it is, its possible it was actually a text article somewhere.

Any clues?  

- Erik