In Jim Crow Part 2 America, racism might be a selling point.
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97 Rock REALLY steps in it
- Thread starter ckg279
- Start date
Only for him to be hired by WABC, where he worked for the rest of his career.
I think it was more about him preferring toast that looked like a light skinned black woman. Perhaps we'll have to wait for him to get another show befoe we find out if he actually prefers light skinned black women themselves.
Violating the "moral turpitude" clause, which these contracts typically have, means your actions, on or off the air, brought shame or other negative consequences to the station or company. You would be considered terminated "for cause". In the old days, being fired "for cause" would leave the non-compete provision intact, but I don't believe that's as broadly enforceable in NY state as it used to be.
99% of non-compete agreements are not enforceable in NY. Only exception are trade secrets, which would not apply to on air radio personalities.
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Here's how the station is dealing with the bad publicity:
www.insideradio.com
‘This Is Not Who We Are,’ Says Buffalo’s 97 Rock In On-Air Apology For Racial Comments.
Following the firing of morning co-host Rob Lederman for comparing shades of toast color to Black women, Cumulus Media classic rock “97 Rock” WGRF Buffalo issued an on-air apology and
Halle Berry, who was one of those referenced by Lederman and the rest, responded on Twitter: "It's ridiculous this type of nonsense is still broadcasted across airwaves." Halle added, in a comment directed to Lederman, "All Black women are beautiful and worthy" before telling him off in a way that I'm not going to repeat here, even in acronym form, because it includes a dirty word. (That item is on News 4's website.)
-Berry
-Jickster
↑ The amusing parts of this ordeal ↑
Seems unusual that a fill-in DJ reads an apology rather than a PD or GM taking the lead.
So the saga continues yet another day, in large measure because Berry weighed in on Twitter, and Lederman continues to reach out to apologize to the community. Lederman has been more proactive and out-in-front of this than the radio station.
This is not Lederman's first rodeo. He will survive this.
If anyone reads the apology, it is clearly apparent why apologies are mostly done by PD's and especially GM's.
Just in the first paragraph:
"I 100% understand why people are justifiably angry. I made a mistake and it's hard to look myself in the mirror, but I want to acknowledge it. I apologize from the deepest depths of who I am."
A couple of redundancy moments, a mixed metaphor....
Yu can get away more easily with those errors when you are speaking, but once you put it in writing? Not so much. It's better to have mommy check it first.
You see as unpolished what I see as a sincere attempt to show remorse for a major (especially today) mistake.
When a statement is too "neat and nice" I know someone else wrote it. This one sounds like the actual person with true remorse who is having a hard time finding the right words.
Good point.
I guess I'm just cynical about such things these days because with the advent of online forums, e-mail and texting, we get to see how people write---maybe more now than ever before, and it's alarming. Even worse are online "news" sources like Yahoo, where there are clearly no editors, so you have people reading articles that look like they were written by 3rd graders. But in this case, maybe a proper and postured written apology would've seemed more insincere.
He will survive, but his Radio career may not. Cumulus ended his employment at the station.
There are TWO separate apologies being offered. The station had one of its staffers read a stilted wooden scripted apology. Lederman has offered his own to media sources. It seems unlikely that Cumulus would rehire him in the same market. They have moved on and are trying to minimize the stain...
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You mean the station that runs "Stale Beer and Hot Wings"? They can add "Toast" to the menu...
No law that requires him to do mornings, is there?
OK, BigA-anon.
It's curious that many people who listen to this station are more angry about the DJ getting fired(based on Social Media posts). That IS who they are. They are Troglodytes.Here's how the station is dealing with the bad publicity:
‘This Is Not Who We Are,’ Says Buffalo’s 97 Rock In On-Air Apology For Racial Comments.
Following the firing of morning co-host Rob Lederman for comparing shades of toast color to Black women, Cumulus Media classic rock “97 Rock” WGRF Buffalo issued an on-air apology and
The only reason Cumulus took action is because they lost some important advertising accounts. What percentage of this stations demographics are non-White? Not much diversity in the stale programming or the audience for this format...
flybynight said:
That's Lederman's apology, which appears to be heartfelt and sincere both in writing and orally. The apology referenced in post #49 pertains to that which was read on the air Friday morning by a fill-in DJ, which is why the issue of having a GM or PD read it was raised.
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