The CVR transcript for that one was wild. As crazy as it seems, I recall our banned amigo Todd was part of the investigation and said the CVR transcript that the public has access to was actually cleaned up and less profane and what not then the real recording. Which says a lot.
Here is a PDF link to the CVR transcript:
https://tailstrike.com/media/il2bjcd1/151004.pdf
EDIT: Also, you know it has happened more than once in the 121 world, right? People do mess around with planes outside of part 91, not always leading to accidents, as I recall that Xjet E145 that very aggressively buzzed a Mexican beach on a revenue flight and that kind of stuff for example, but it happens. Off the top of my head, there was also this Northwest Airlines 727-200 on a ferry flight. All 3 pilots were 32-35 and they decided to have some fun on their way to go pick up the Buffalo Bills NFL team and see if an empty 727 could break the sound barrier. They forgot to turn on the pitot heaters, and since they decided to try and break the speed of sound in a 727 (the Wiki article doesn't seem to pick up on how they were messing around), they thought the stick shaker was just mach buffet and then they stalled at a high AOA and went down. That CVR is very similar to Pinnacle 3701, lots of laughter and "Hell yeah, awesome, man!" followed by "OMG". Do you not think the average regional pilot has only become less mature in those 20 years?
en.wikipedia.org
Report with CVR:
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR7513.pdf