BROOKE GLADSTONE: Comedy Central's latest fake news concoction, called "Dog Bites Man," has made its debut. The improv-based show follows a fictional Spokane, Washington news team as they interact with real-life subjects, sources and experts. Their motto: "News travels fast. Unless there's traffic." In this week's episode, the news division went for sensitivity training. [VIDEO CLIP]

NEWS MAN: I don't know why we need a racial sensitivity seminar. We're all pretty sensitive.

WOMAN: Well, evidently there was a complaint filed against us, maybe 'cause we didn't celebrate Ramadan or something. ALAN: I stayed at a Ramadan once in Seattle.

WOMAN: That's Ramada Inn, Alan. [END VIDEO CLIP]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The show has been well received, except maybe by some of the real-life newsmen and women of Spokane, who may have a sense of humor but don't want anyone confusing them for the impersonators in their midst. Spokane Public Radio's Janean Jorgensen wrote to us with her own particular beef.

JANEAN JORGENSEN: The news organization has the call letters KHBX. We are KPBX. Secondly, our afternoon news host is Tom Bacon. Their news anchor is Kevin Beacon.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Not only that, you sent me the photos of your news team, and I see the photo of their news team. And you pointed out that there is a certain general resemblance, and I have to say I agree. So what did you do?

JANEAN JORGENSEN: I had to bring it to the attention of Comedy Central. I said, what is going on? Why did you use the letters KHBX for a Spokane news team? Was it really a random grouping of letters? They have been blurring the lines between television entertainment and news. They're arranging interviews with organizations and people. They set up a panel discussion, and then they started asking inappropriate questions.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANEAN JORGENSEN: They set up these interviews saying that they were a real news team in Spokane. We know this is supposed to be a comedy show, and, sure, we're amused by the coincidences, but there's a little part of us that is hoping that nobody thinks that this is really a Spokane news group and that it certainly isn't Spokane Public Broadcasting.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Fair enough. So you wrote to Comedy Central. Did they write back to you?

JANEAN JORGENSEN: All that they told me was that the person who could answer that question of why they used KHBX was in London and so couldn't answer our question at the moment.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well, we're going to work on getting an answer for you, Janean.

JANEAN JORGENSEN: Thank you, Brooke. I appreciate it.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Janean Jorgensen is the marketing and Web director at Spokane Public Radio. Dan Mazer is the executive producer of "Dog Bites Man." We tracked him down in London. Dan, welcome to the show.

DAN MAZER: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Very exciting.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So you are aware of the fact that your fictional letters, KHBX, are very close to Spokane's real public radio station call letters, KPBX?

DAN MAZER: I literally was made aware of that seven days ago. I had no clue whatsoever. It's an unfortunate, yet happy, coincidence.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] Happy for you, perhaps. You know, KPBX has a bit of a beef with you guys because they're afraid that when they go out to do their legitimate news reports, the people that they encounter may think it's you, and they'll head for the hills.

DAN MAZER: Well, they can just do opinion pieces. It's fine. They can just talk about the news. It's fine.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

DAN MAZER: And also, they should be happy that we've actually been pretty much banned from the environs of Spokane by the Spokane Tourist Board, so - [OVERTALK]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Really? They're not going to let you do a taping in the city?

DAN MAZER: No. Mean-spirited Spokane Tourist Board have said that we're besmirching their town's good name.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] So where are you going to tape?

DAN MAZER: Whatever's next door to Spokane. [LAUGHTER]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So, Dan, other than the city of Spokane itself, what's the biggest hurdle you've had to overcome in producing the show?

DAN MAZER: It's a very unique concept, the show, that hasn't really been tried before. My background is I was the executive producer and sort of co-creator of "Da Ali G Show." Obviously, that was all about kind of fake interviews. So, you know, I have my share of people chasing me already, whether it be the FBI or the CIA or the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, all of whom I've kind of set up in the past. I'm surprised they even let me back in the country initially to film this series, let alone actually the people that we encountered while we were doing it. But what we have to do is we're kind of intertwining real people into our fake plot. So the only actors in it are our four crew from KHBX, and everybody else is the unwitting cast member, if you like, of our sit-com. And so when you're sitting in a writing room and coming up with a plot, you sort of bank on people responding in the way you expect them to respond in order to propel your narrative and your plot forward. And sometimes, very, very selfishly, they refuse to comply with what you've imagined in your writing room, and you have to kind of horridly reinvigorate your narrative and your plot to fit 'round their nuisance strange answers.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: I think we've talked to you before about the problem of what happens when your program, which involves unwitting participants, becomes too well known and suddenly those people become less and less available to you.

DAN MAZER: That really is a problem, and obviously the shelf life of "Ali G" was severely compromised by that. So, you know, I'm hoping that we're nowhere near as popular or as successful as my previous thing – [OVERTALK]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

DAN MAZER: - so therefore I can carry on going for longer. You know, that's the dream.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Dan Mazer is the executive producer of Comedy Central's new show, "Dog Bites Man." Thank you very much.

DAN MAZER: Thank you very much, Brooke. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

BOB GARFIELD: Up next, what if they declared a national awareness month and nobody was – aware?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media from NPR.