All of you reading this question will think that I am crazy, but I am
fairly certain that I am not...

Sometime within the last 3 years, I was driving home from work,
listening to my local NPR station, WUKY.  It was the afternoon news
program.  I am certain that this is the correct station, because that
is the only one I listen to.  When I turned the radio on, I was in the
middle of a story, but the story was clearly about Canada purchasing
or somehow obtaining the state of Arizona as its own.  They even
interviewed an Arizona government official.  They did not have a set
date for the transfer, but it seemed to be in the near future.

This story blew my mind.  I did not think that US States were FOR
sale.  So, as soon as I got home, I flipped on CNN and hopped on the
internet to find out more about a story that I figured would be all
over the news outlets.  Of course, I could find no mention of this
anywhere.  I told my wife about it, and she told me I was crazy.  So,
I waited a day or two and pulled up the NPR archives.  I figured maybe
I had heard a satire piece of some kind, and because I caught it in
the middle I didn't figure it out.  However, I couldn't find any
mention of a piece like that.

After not being able to find anything about this, I tried to put it
out of my mind.  I figured maybe I made it up, even though I know that
isn't true.  For some reason this story came back into my mind, and I
am determined to figure out this mystery.  I know that Canada isn't
actually purchasing Arizona (it didn't seem right when I heard it),
but I need to know that I'm not crazy!

So, the facts I can remember:  sometime in 2001 or 2002 I heard this
story.  It seems like it was spring time, but I could be wrong.  It
was on the NPR station, WUKY 91.3 based out of Lexington, KY.

Help me!

Hello.

First of all, you're NOT crazy.  :-)

What you heard was a re-run of a 1988 April Fool's Day gag from NPR's
"All Things Considered" program.

From the Museum of Hoaxes web site:

"No mention of NPR's april fool's bits they did every year (except
this year because of the war) on All Things Considered. They used to
be rather extensive like the 'Wisconsin cheese lake' and 'Canada
buying Arizona', complete with interview with then governor Bruce
Babbit. "
...
I have discovered your site and enjoyed reading much on it last night.
If you ever have an opportunity to hear the 1988 NPR April 1 segment
on Canada Buying Arizona, I do hope you take advantage of the
opportunity."
source:museumofhoaxes.com
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/guestbook/200304.html

This program has been discussed in various newsgroup posts:

"NPR had an April's fool day broadcast that Ronald Reagan had proposed
we sell  Arizona to Canada for three trillion dollars, to pay off the
national debt. They went whole hog - having Larry Tribe analyze the
law concluding that it was perfectly constitutional, and so on."
source: newsgroup post, archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=tktihvsl8hf0h7ovmcghr7r3431n1fcd0a%404ax.com

"...One year, they did a great bit about how the U.S. had sold Arizona
to the
Canadians... including interviews with Bruce babbitt ("the people of
the
US rejected me for President, so I took Canada's offer), the Canadian
Ambassador to the US (Canada has wanted a warm water port for a long 
time, and this was the best we could do), and an analysis by Dan
Schorr.
It was very,very funny and worth getting a copy.."
source: newsgroup post, archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=2no5pg%24ss1%40clarknet.clark.net

'.. I still remember the story NPR did about the governer of Arizona
deeding the entire State to Canada one April 1st.  He was quoted as
saying "Why not?  Half of Canada spends the Winter here anyway.  They
might as well own it."'
source: newsgroup post, archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=3cab1eeb.79510554%40news.west.cox.net&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dnpr%2B%2522april%2Bfool%2522%2Barizona%2Bcanada%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D3cab1eeb.79510554%2540news.west.cox.net%26rnum%3D2

"Many moons ago, "All Things Considered" chose, as its annual April
Fool's
joke, to announce that the United States had sold Arizona to Canada.
This
brought up an interesting legal discussion concerning the St. Louis 
Cardinals (the football version), who were about to be relocated to 
Phoenix. The problem was that the NFL forbids its teams from locating
out
of the country, and as Phoenix would now become a foreign city..."
source: newsgroup post, archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=DFHs3K.6v%40freenet.buffalo.edu

"...I still remember sitting in my car on April 1st a few years ago
(maybe
ten?) listening to the story on All Things Considered about how the US
had decided to cede Arizona to Canada.  They did all the requisite
analysis about the pros and cons, about the issues that led up to the
decision, even an opinion piece by Daniel Schorr.  It was brilliant."
source: newsgroup post, archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=3E8AE861.C68347E7%40cheerful.com

"If I recall correctly, some years back on April Fool's Day, All
Things
Considered had a wonderfully realistic story about how we were going
to sell
Arizona to the Canadians to reduce the US national deficit (and so
Canada
would have a warm-weather playground). They had some pretty
high-ranking
officials, from both nations, in on the joke, and they were quoted in
the
story."
source: newsgroup post, archived by Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=MKyR6.72721%24NK4.4307949%40news2.aus1.giganews.com


From the various descriptions floating around on the internet, it
sounds like it was a very elaborate hoax, so your reaction to it is
quite understandable.

search strategy:
"canada buying arizona"
"all things considered", "april fool", arizona


I hope this helps.

Thank you SOOOOO much!  All of my friends, family and coworkers
thought that I was crazy, and I was beginning to believe them.  Thanks
for your thorough and speedy answer.  It was well worth the money just
for my piece of mind about my own sanity!

I am sure some of our Arizona researchers would love to tackle this one!!

Gee........ I was getting all excited when I saw the subject of this question...

Now I'll have to endure another long, cold winter in Canada...brrrrrrr..yuck :(

tnsdan:
Thank you for the tip!  
-juggler

My first thought when I read this was that it had to have been April
1st when he heard it.

For more info on Canada's top secret agenda of world domination,
see:http://alsocanadian.blogspot.com/    ;)