Brian O’Brien

CASE SUMMARY

Brian O’Brien is a Tradio presenter from Pineville, Kentucky. He is the owner and main host of the Big One 106.3 radio station, broadcasting to the tri-state area. Brian is more than a mere radio host, but the de-facto journalist, entertainer, social worker, and therapist of his town. Brian often comes to loggerheads with the numerous colorful characters of Pineville, most notably the UFO Guy and Mr Cox.

While initially Brian was fervently determined to find the pranksters and expose them, his touch has since softened and a number of soundboard fans now tune into his live radio broadcasts on YouTube. Brian’s wacky soundbites stemming from his interactions with Pineville residents, and the various segments, ads, and contests from his show have provided bountiful ammunition for soundboard lines. Brian is sometimes joined by another presenter, mostly Travis.

ORIGINS AND HISTORY

ThePumped initially discovered Brian’s Tradio livestream in July 2024, repeatedly posting it in several soundboard Discord servers including the DuncanandFriends and Kimble servers.

Eventually, Discord user Fulcrum called his show with the Chet soundboard, leading many others to jump on the pranking bandwagon. ThePossessedTelephone and DuncanandFriends began bombarding Brian’s show with prank calls, some even calling Brian’s personal cell phone.

Some pranksters also targeted Tradio listeners who had items for sale, as their phone numbers were read out on-air. One victim had their voicemail message changed to an InteractiveMale soundboard, which was inadvertently played by Brian live on-air, something which made Brian particularly angry. Throughout all of this, Brian was unsure of what was happening and did not know who the perpetrators of the pranks were.

However, after an attempted (but ultimately unsuccessful) pizza order to the Big One studio, Brian was made aware of the pranksters targeting him. Kimble was sent Brian’s personal phone number on-stream, and would have a conversation with him in which he insulted Brian’s radio station, leading to Brian believing that Kimble was the one masterminding the pranks to his station and viewers, with the Tradio host threatening to take him into custody (despite Kimble as-of-then not yet making a single call to Brian).

This interaction infuriated Brian and he began to make various threats of repercussions, vowing to arrest Kimble and anyone else who prank called his station. Users from the Kimble Discord server fed Brian false information, including that the supposed prank call ring targeting him was based in Manchester, England. Brian would offer a $1000 reward for a picture of Kimble.

After discovering Kimble’s YouTube channel, Brian joined the Kimble Discord server with the username “AntiVenom”. Some have theorised that he did some research into the soundboard community and decided on this name, as it was the same as a well-known Arnold prank caller. It didn’t take long, however, for people to realise that this account was not the real AntiVenom and was in fact, most likely, Brian attempting to conduct some surveillance on his foes.

Brian’s threats and condemnations only served to give the pranksters more fuel, as he would read out the names of various channels and viewers, including Duncan, Kimble, Indie, and Memeshift. Initially enthused at the prospect of bringing justice to these individuals, Brian would grow more and more defeated as the pranks continued, and especially as his regular Pineville listeners were called as well.

Brian would stop livestreaming his Tradio shows on YouTube around this time, pivoting to Facebook-only broadcasts. Unfortunately for him, the pranks continued, although eventually his show would stop being inundated with calls. Brian subsequently moved back to YouTube, where numerous members of the soundboard community tune into his show, often attempting to get their usernames read out (and thus added to his soundboard).

Soundboard and Prank Calls

Soundboard engineer Ye24 created the first Brian board in August 2024. The board featured numerous now-iconic lines of Brian, including his attempts to procure a picture of Kimble (“Now it’s a matter of getting a picture of you”) and his disgust at people prank calling his listeners (“You’re a piece of garbage, man”).

Using this board, and the subsequent updated versions, Kimble called businesses around Pineville and the tri-state area. Brian’s listeners have also received calls from the soundboard, with a number believing that it actually was Brian calling them, and having a conversation with him.

Some pranksters have spoofed Brian’s number when making calls with his soundboard, leading to him receiving a number of strange and angry voicemails from people. In one case, Brian said that he had to explain to a Pizza Hut that he hadn’t ordered $1000 worth of pizza – although in this particular call, the Brian board had offered the Pizza Hut $1000 if they could answer his trivia question, not to order pizzas.

With Brian hosting Pineville’s flagship radio show, he provides regular news and weather reports, runs contests, and engages in other such day-to-day proceedings. These have led to a number of interesting lines, and have made Brian a very versatile soundboard. Also notable is Brian’s tendency to cough, grunt, moan, and sniff on-air, clips of which have also proved valuable in calls.

Some members of the soundboard community have taken a liking to Brian and his Ned Flanders-like demeanour, making remixes and fan art of their favorite Tradio presenter. Perhaps realising giving reactions only feeds the trolls, Brian has softened towards the pranksters, and will often indulge enthusiastic callers and chatters. One Kimble viewer even sent Brian the prankster’s merchandise, which he gleefully showed on-air.

Personal Life

Brian lives in Pineville, Kentucky with his wife Sherry. Brian has said on Facebook that he was adopted as a child. In addition to his duties as Tradio host, Brian is also active as a journalist in the area, commentating on high school sports and covering political events. Brian previously worked as a bouncer, and witnessed an incident in which someone’s skull was caved in. Brian has commented that when working at a radio station in Asheville, he would make prank calls himself.