Chuck Bonniwell of 710 KNUS-AM fired for a rant

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-radio-host-nice-school-shooting-distract-trump/story?id=67812461

The Rant was offensive and Salem has removed him from the station.

A Denver talk radio host has been fired after he said he wanted "a nice school shooting" to interrupt coverage of "the never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump." The firing came just hours after a father who lost his son in a school shooting in Colorado earlier this year said the host should be fired.

Chuck Bonniwell, cohost of a talk show on KNUS 710 AM, made the comments Tuesday afternoon coming back from a commercial break before being immediately interrupted by his cohost and wife Julie Hayden.

"No, no, don’t even say that!" Hayden said. "Don’t call us! Chuck didn’t say that."

Bonniwell immediately seemed to backtrack, saying he was talking about shootings in "which no one would be hurt."

KNUS announced Wednesday night that Bonniwell and his wife had been fired.

"Given the history of school violence that has plagued our community, 710 KNUS confirms that an inappropriate comment was made on the Chuck & Julie show by co-host Chuck Bonniwell," the statement said. "A programming decision was made to end the program immediately."

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/12/18/chuck-bonniwell-julie-hayden-knus-school-shooting/

Also Julie Hayden has been removed from the station too. With some of the School shooting victims families coming forward and saying school shootings affected their families lives though and offended by the rant.

 

[CaliRadioFan]

Lack of common sense. Seriously. Not thinking before speaking, or just "thinking out loud", and suddenly, management has the perfect excuse to cut them loose, and trim the operating budget!

 

[TheBigA]

The local talk show was replaced today by Salem's syndicated Sebastian Gorka.

 

[Gregg.]

Management wants you to be edgy, they want you to create buzz, they don't want their dad's well-reasoned talk show anymore. Then when a host who's on for three hours a day says something stupid, he gets fired. And even if the wife says "Don't say that." And he says, "nobody got hurt." The pair realized their mistakes immediately and walked it back, yet they both still get fired.

Suspended for a week? Sure. Required upon their return to talk to families of gun violence? Yes. Issue a heartfelt apology? I expect nothing less.

But not for both people to lose their jobs over one or two dumb sentences that they quickly tried to amend.

 

[TheBigA]

But not for both people to lose their jobs over one or two dumb sentences that they quickly tried to amend.

Unless the station was looking for a reason to replace them with the syndicated show.

 

[CTListener]

Unless the station was looking for a reason to replace them with the syndicated show.

Or because the station is in Colorado and, perhaps, joking about school shootings is in especially bad taste there -- Columbine, remember? I don't think an "Oopsie, didn't really mean that" apology would save any Connecticut talker's job, because the "joke" would have been interpreted as being about Sandy Hook.

That said, firing his wife/co-host seems harsh. After all, she knew his words were dangerous just as soon as they came out of his mouth and said so on air. Granted, telling her she can take over his shift while telling him he'll never work at KNUS again probably wouldn't work. She'd most likely refuse the offer, even if KNUS were to soften on Chuck and allow him back after a week or two. And that's not even considering that Chuck might be lawyering up at this moment to make sure the station pays for this firing, and then some. Having Julie on the air while that's going on just doesn't work at all.

 

[Syfy]

Or because the station is in Colorado and, perhaps, joking about school shootings is in especially bad taste there -- Columbine, remember? I don't think an "Oopsie, didn't really mean that" apology would save any Connecticut talker's job, because the "joke" would have been interpreted as being about Sandy Hook.

That said, firing his wife/co-host seems harsh. After all, she knew his words were dangerous just as soon as they came out of his mouth and said so on air. Granted, telling her she can take over his shift while telling him he'll never work at KNUS again probably wouldn't work. She'd most likely refuse the offer, even if KNUS were to soften on Chuck and allow him back after a week or two. And that's not even considering that Chuck might be lawyering up at this moment to make sure the station pays for this firing, and then some. Having Julie on the air while that's going on just doesn't work at all.

If in the original contract it has a clause for if you saying something offensive as a reason for firing the station shouldn’t have to pay him anything for the firing.