Racism on the air

Racism on the air

Free speech is good as is humour. But racism in the guise of humor is not funny. Here are a couple lines from Philadelphia-based Power 99 RJed by Star and Buc Wild.

Star (to customer support rep in India): Listen to me, you dirty rat eater. I'll come out there and choke the eff out of you (laughter).

Star: You're a filthy rat eater. I'm calling about my American six-year-old white girl. How dare you outsource my call? Get off the line, bitch (laughter, applause, end of call).

Heres a news article on this. The sound clip is available here. Other blog posts here and here.

After the death of the R&B singer Aaliyah in 2001, their show attempted to make light of the tragedy by playing the sound effect of a plane crashing, along with the sound of a woman screaming. That incident got them fired.

Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, was upset with J Lo when she used racist words in her song. But on his show, he sings a different tune.

Update (Jan 12): Star and Buc Wild were suspended by the station for making the offensive call to the call-center after it received more protest calls and emails than it had for any past incident.