WBZ-AM morning show referring to Japan aftershock

[farnsworth]

WBZ radio anchor Rod Fritz' (sp?) snide reference openings to today's aftershocks in Japan as "The hits keep on coming" and "Rock & Roll is hear to stay", were in poor taste given what Japan has been through. IMHO, more is expected of the morning show. Making light of a devastating tragedy as the morning news anchor for a heritage station like WBZ was pretty shocking. I switched after hearing those comments. They came off as very flippant and missed whatever lighthearted effect he was trying to achieve. As a news veteran, more should be expected if you're filling that seat.

 

[CTListener]

Geez, that kind of stuff got Gilbert Gottfried fired as the voice of the AFLAC duck. Stunned that 'BZ would allow it to go out over the air.

I work in the newspaper business and remember the Challenger jokes and the Katrina jokes that got us laughing/cringing in the days after those disasters; newspaper people can be a cynical lot. But not one of them ever got into print, nor would anyone have even considered printing them.

 

[farnsworth]

It was very surprising the first lead "The hits keep on coming", that was used going into the tragic story. But, the second time the story came up and the comment "Rock and Roll..." was used before leading into the story, that was very disturbing. Here, the preset was turned off after that. Perhaps the PD isn't aware.

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

I would agree that remarks like that, would be
in extremely poor taste...

 

[SonicOverload]

wow, pretty bad... do you have a link for this story?

 

[farnsworth]

Unfortunately, there is no link to the audio or recording of the audio. It happened during the later part of the morning drive news cycle.

 

[GovtMule1979]

How many ways can you describe an earthquake? I'm not offended by it. He talks for four hours a day, he's going to slip up and say something that might not be PC once in a while. It may not have been the best phrase to use but it's not the end of the world.

 

[farnsworth]

You may not personally see it as offensive, but, surely you can understand how some people who depend on the news, and might have relatives or friends who have perished, would find that insensitive.

Do you think glib commentary in news should be used freely? tragedies or not? Just as long as it doesn't affect U.S. soil or it's citizens directly that's okay?

 

[DToTheJ]

It could have been worse - Fritz would have actually played the Danny and the Juniors song "Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay" behind the story (sister station WCBS-AM is infamous for this practice - playing music leading into and during news items - I think it's a PPM thing - e.g. they'll break out "Hot Hot Hot" when the temperature hits triple-digits in Central Park).

In fact, it could have been much, much worse - you might have heard The Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane" behind the story...

 

[GovtMule1979]

You may not personally see it as offensive, but, surely you can understand how some people who depend on the news, and might have relatives or friends who have perished, would find that insensitive.

Do you think glib commentary in news should be used freely? tragedies or not? Just as long as it doesn't affect U.S. soil or it's citizens directly that's okay?

Coming from the source, I don't find it the least bit offensive. I don't think Rod Fritz is the kind of guy who would try to offend someone. It's not like he's some kind of shock jock looking to hurt feelings. I could see how reporting news could give you a gallows sense of humor. Every day he talks about shootings, death, earthquakes, the economy falling apart, the Red Sox only having 2 wins.... and on and on. He made a couple of puns reporting on aftershocks. Not a big deal.

 

[Cap-n Spackle]

Who's the lady on WRKO who reads the news? She always sounds like she's happy about whatever she's reading, whether it's about hundreds killed by a flood or a fireman rescuing kittens.