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WQRI Talk show hosts cry censorship & want an apology

R

Runrigger

Dana Peloso & Jon Porter, 2 conservative talk show hosts on WXRI (Roger Williams University's station) have been taken off the air for repeating Imus' comments during a news program during which they say they were ridiculing Imus. PD Mike Martelli says this was in response to a direct order not to use the infamous phrase rather than an instance of censorship. The 2 are off the air while the incident is being investigated, but they are claiming all they did was cover the news story the way other outlets did. They're claiming this is censorship, want to be put back on the air, & want an apology.

With all due respect guys: censorship, put us back on the air, apology? Do you want to be welcomed to the real radio world now or after graduation?
 
Has every programmer in the country gone out of their minds? Talk about a bunch of sheep who can't think for themselves. Since CBS and NBC fired him, what Imus said must be so wrong that those words can never be repeated again. What a bunch of crap. Imus was fired because a couple of religious nutcases took something out of context and decided to go after an old man because they felt he would be an easy target. Stern has said much worse. Sharpton never went after him. Someone tell me a valid reason why?

Not only wasn't it bad enough that the Networks made a bad call. But now you have every absent minded programmer in the country duplicating the bad decision because they are simply to dumb to think for themselves.

I weep for the future of broadcasting. Free speech on the public airwaves is clearly a thing of the past.
 
Skynet74 said:
Has every programmer in the country gone out of their minds? Talk about a bunch of sheep who can't think for themselves. Since CBS and NBC fired him, what Imus said must be so wrong that those words can never be repeated again. What a bunch of crap. Imus was fired because a couple of religious nutcases took something out of context and decided to go after an old man because they felt he would be an easy target. Stern has said much worse. Sharpton never went after him. Someone tell me a valid reason why?

Not only wasn't it bad enough that the Networks made a bad call. But now you have every absent minded programmer in the country duplicating the bad decision because they are simply to dumb to think for themselves.

I weep for the future of broadcasting. Free speech on the public airwaves is clearly a thing of the past.
Click to expand...

While I don't quite understand why they were ordered not to repeat the comment Imus made, I do think that managment is justified in this. They were told not to repeat it and they did. End of story.
 
Exactly Nizam. In this case it's not a matter of whether or not the Imus incident was blown out of proportion. In fact there's a market in Pa where a morning man was canned because he used the infamous line as some sort of phrase of the day. In this case it's a matter of the staff being told not to use the phrase & these two did. This is a matter not of censorship but of breaking a rule. Good & bad rules are set at every radio station & people who break them pay the consequences. Forget the phrase itself. Call it what it is. You're told not to use the term. You use it anyway. Whatever happens to you,deal with it. Other talk show hosts in commercial radio deal with it. College students can too. Notice I avoided using terms like "self entitled" when referring to the students in question. Oh wait. I just used it.
 
Jockitch, Nimaz,
You are both Free speech posters. Think about it this way.
You go on air and repeat " I love my nation under God" or,
" Two Gay men should be able to marry " Suppose the P.D.
says "Thats enough of that"? . Then what?

You guys may look at this
as a Policy issue, but the 'Nappy Hoes' comments are in a
special new frontier,, The new found power of the Politically
Correct.
Is Nappy the new 'N' word ?
Is Hoes the new 'H' word?
Do you not understand this is nothing less than all out War
on free speech? Media Matters, a Clinton, Soares group,
'studies' each and every broadcast any 'targeted'
talk host makes. George Soares gives Media Matters over 2 million
dollars a year to do just that.
I heard the two hosts on Yorkes show, they weren't that great, but
I'll error on the side of Free Speech over the Radio air waves most ANY
day of the week. Walter.
 
Keep in mind this is a college radio station, while I don't condone censorship, who knows what esle these two have been warned about in previous shows....these guys could be graduating at the end of the year and be gone leaving a mess for the station to answer to university officials with....
 
Am I to believe that because I work at a rock station, people are to expect that kind of behavior from me (saying nappy headed hoes multiple times, in jest of course), because I've done a lot worse, and I SITLL haven't recieved this type of media attention! I hope the TV crews come to my station looking for "the other college radio station's" opinion ;D
 
Hey Jazzy, What are you, THE SPELLING POLICE!
'They' spell it Hoe. Ball buster! lol.
 
wc3434 said:
Hey Jazzy, What are you, THE SPELLING POLICE!
'They' spell it Hoe. Ball buster! lol.
Click to expand...

All together now: back when a ho was a hoe, a screw was a screw...oh never mind. But seriously...
My original post wasn't even about use of the term. The Imus thing is over & done from the point of view of whether or not he should have used it or expected repercussions. Forget censorship. Frankly, I think barring the term in the context of discussing the controversy. If there had been no station ban on using it, then I think these guys would have been justified not pussyfooting around the 3 dreaded words. The fact is there was a programming directive & they ignored it. College radio or commercial radio, you play by the rules & if you choose not to then you don't ask for apologies when you get suspended. I think after the suspension they should be put back on the air unless there's any indication they plan to keep bucking the system. No one likes the system in all cases, but you might as well get used to it in college or the rest of your life is going to be one long hard road.
 
Runn,
At the station I work at, our Program Director is being given directives from above. Since the Imus and Depetro incidents. Alott of them!
Question, Is there a point where we in radio say ,Stop? I'm not even talking about College radio, I'm talking about us having to really watch everything we say.
90% of the things I may say are off the cuff. I need my Freedom of Speech. Know what I'm trying to say?
 
awardmrnobody said:
Runn,
At the station I work at, our Program Director is being given directives from above. Since the Imus and Depetro incidents. Alott of them!
Question, Is there a point where we in radio say ,Stop? I'm not even talking about College radio, I'm talking about us having to really watch everything we say.
90% of the things I may say are off the cuff. I need my Freedom of Speech. Know what I'm trying to say?
Click to expand...

Then you get out of radio and you blog. Talk radio aside other than HJY no one is saying much of anything anyway. Maybe morning teams have to know where the line is. Back to HJY, Charles is a good example of someone who knows there's a line and when not to cross it. He can do it because he's Charles. He also blogs.
 
Charles has gotten into trouble more than once for crossing the line.

Geoff Charles is just the kind of host we're talking about. I think he is
way over the top about Drugs, 911, Bush, and sex, but HE SHOULD
NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING HE SAYS, FROM
HERE ON IN. Walter.
 
And the insanity continues...

This "suspension" is a good indication that those two guys will succeed in broadcasting someday. How do I know? Think of all the popular talkshow hosts who have gotten in trouble at their college stations... way too many to mention! My only complaint is that they didn't do enough to get themselves fired! But they did get their names in the paper... that's a good start.

The "PD" at WQRI needs to get off his high horse and remind himself that it's COLLEGE RADIO. Nobody is listening, and nobody cares. Had "management" not suspended them, nobody would have even known that the comments were made.
 
Have you ever noticed the lack of "balance in broadcasting" lately?

Everything is either LEFT or RIGHT...depending upon who is in charge of the radio station or what "superior" might be going through a panic mode?

Most crisis situations were covered on the 6 and 11pm television news...but today any broadcaster CAN SPIN CHAOTIC at the drop of a hat! :eek:

argytunes
 
This whole Imus situation may go down as the one single thing that got most blown out of proportion in the history of radio!
 
jeffryan said:
And the insanity continues...

This "suspension" is a good indication that those two guys will succeed in broadcasting someday. How do I know? Think of all the popular talkshow hosts who have gotten in trouble at their college stations... way too many to mention! My only complaint is that they didn't do enough to get themselves fired! But they did get their names in the paper... that's a good start.

The "PD" at WQRI needs to get off his high horse and remind himself that it's COLLEGE RADIO. Nobody is listening, and nobody cares. Had "management" not suspended them, nobody would have even known that the comments were made.
Click to expand...

I do agree with a lot of what you said Jeff except that times have changed now & especially for people who are green. If they had just come on & done something outrageous or potentially offensive then I'd agree with you but in a case of blatantly defying a PD's orders it's something else that points to the problems a commercial radio PD might have with them. I think the issue here isn't doing something that might irk listeners or the powers that be but ignoring station policies.
 
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