How you livin’, readers? Are you fine? Or are you just okay? More importantly, has your ire gone away?
Well get ready, I’m about to stir it up again. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
WUSL-FM (Power 99) conceded yesterday that an on-air routine by morning shock jocks Star and Buc Wild was “racially inflammatory” and pulled an audio clip of it off the station Web site.
Community-affairs director Loraine Ballard Morrill, who has fielded more than 130 angry e-mails and phone calls, said the station reprimanded the employee who posted the clip on the Web…
Please understand– I’m THRILLED that mainstream media is picking up on this very important story. I’m also heartened by the fact that Power99 is…um…starting to pay attention.
They are partially correct; the employee who chose to post that clip on the Power99 site wasn’t wise to do so, and it is nice to see the station doing…something.
But something is not enough.
Power99 “conceded”? I don’t need concessions, I need responsibility. Honour. Integrity. If Loraine Ballard Morrill was the ideal Community Affairs Director, she’d sincerely own the station’s gaffe, she’d get it, she’d make amends. But nothing regarding this incident is ideal…
Morrill said station managers have had “extensive discussions” since learning about the clip Thursday with Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, and Buc Wild, his half-brother, Timothy Joseph.
Oh! So they actually took it up with Star? That’s good to hear…
“It was made clear this is not acceptable, and it won’t happen again,” Morrill said.
Excellent. I’m sure the entire civilized world appreciates that.
…The employee who posted the clip on the Internet will undergo sensitivity training, she said. The station also planned to post an apology.
What the–?? The employee who posted the clip gets training? Of course he erred in judgment, but what about the misanthrope who created the content? Why isn’t STAR getting training?
I’m not worried about some middling employee, I’m worried about the shock jock who influences thousands of listeners in several cities.
She said the more serious matter was posting the clip on the Web site. “That probably made it a much more – just a worse situation. Then people could click on it and hear it. That was not cool… . He made a big ol’ mistake in judgment.”
…”Essentially [we’re] apologizing for things on our Web site that were racially inflammatory and insensitive, saying, ‘We took it off our Web site and it won’t happen again.’ “
This is a joke, right?
Morrill is “essentially” saying that the problem was the clip’s availability. So if a racist abuses someone in the forest, and no one is there to hear it…it doesn’t exist? It’s only wrong because they got CAUGHT?
Well then, I’m so grateful for a Power99 employee’s stupidity– were it not for that “mistake”, this unconscionable prank would have gone unavenged. They are sorry for their website? Where is their “sorry” and consummate disavowal of Star’s hatred, misogyny and racism?
Unbelievable.
This isn’t over…not even close.
It looks like Star received very little in the way of ANY repercussions due to this incident. Attacking the web guy is their way of diverting the attention away from Star and crew.
It’s obvious the station still doesn’t get it. “That probably made it…a worse situation”?? Yes, for the station. Putting it on the web site allowed people to hear the clip who wouldn’t have otherwise been able. It doesn’t make the “situation” any worse from the listeners’ perspectives. What happened still happened.
It’s like when someone insults you and apologizes by saying, “I’m sorry my words hurt you.” They’re not apologizing for what they said; they’re just saying that it sucks for you that you were offended. They’re not apologizing at all.
sepia – much props on going after these guys…although they haven’t owned up the way they should, it’s still great to see them getting checked.
hi anna/sepia,
Is there a petition people can sign? or an email address people can send complaint to? I have posted in my blog and i am getting questions from everyone about petition/complaint email
thanks -rav
Anna, send your post (edited for length and clarity) to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Letters to the Editor.
I think the INky does not or has not grasped how quickly this story spread through SM’s posts and IMs and emails, and newsgroups.
Oh yeah, apology not accepted! http://www.turbanhead.com/mt/archives/002439.html#002439
I am working on an Op Ed piece which hopefully is gonna be published. Would someone here know the exact date this show took place and also if besides the Inquirer any other major news org has picked up the story yet?
As someone who has spent his entire life making and hearing offensive comments, I was actually surprised to listen to this and be OFFENDED. It takes A LOT to offend me, and congrats to these guys, because they did it. Imagine if this was a non-black person calling a black person in urban Philly. How many seconds do you think that person would be on the air if he started calling her a “black (insert racial stereotype here) b—h?” Sure, two wrongs don’t make a right, but it seems like these guys need to be taught a lesson. Getting this guy fired will probably create more hate for these self-proclaimed “Original Haters” towards South Asians. I realize that posting all of this on a South-Asian web site is only preaching to the choir, but maybe it’s time we all made a few phone calls to 1-800-585-1051 on weekday mornings. But on a self-contradicting final note, let me just say ,”Let he who is without sin…”, because I’m pretty sure it is a small minority of people who read this site who has never said any denegrating comment about people of another race, jokingly or otherwise (even if it wasn’t on the radio). People do stupid, hateful things everyday, and it is tough to educate those people about the difference between right and wrong, so please don’t spend your lives getting upset at every idiot with a microphone.
Rediff also got the News. http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/11bpo.htm
U can also read my blog http://www.gsharma.com/2005/01/12/58/philly-racist-radio-station/
The interview with Mira Nair that has been posted here in which she talks about Indian racism is very topical. Not least because recent events with the racist DJ suggest that racism cuts both ways between South Asians and African Americans.
Keep on Anna. More power to you.
When your ire goes on vacation, where does it go? I’ll give you a hint – there’s a town called Ennis in that country …
To Star & Buc Wild – In your own language:
You fucking bastard.. Looks like you are very much frustrated with the jobs outsourcing to other countries.. Is that right you mother fucker!! It looks like your sister or mother lost a job due to outsourcing and became a prostitute to earn for her living.. you son of a bith.. You bastard.. You pimp…
You call some other person as Rat-eater.. You are a shit eater. You eat your own shit for breakfast everyday.. You eat your colleagues shit for lunch and finally you eat your neighbours shit for dinner.. You ass-hole..
You are not eligible to live on this world.. You should die in the most ugliest fashion.. your body should be eaten away by dogs and vultures.. You rotten fucker..
I seriously pray that you should die asap..
Go and drink the pee of your dog.. you nasty bastard..
Bastard’s Death Wisher- i don’t think that racial stereotyping is an effective way to oppose racial stereotyping. if you all really want to shut this stuff down, take it to the media corporation as well as their sponsors. ranting away on this blog, especially using this type of language, doesn’t accomplish much.
looks like some action has been taken. SM is mentioned.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/12bpo.htm
Star and Bucwild, the hosts of a popular morning radio show in the United States, were suspended by their station for making an abusive and threatening call to a call centre employee in India.
Power 99 FM in Philadelphia told rediff.com that it suspended the duo for a day, January 12, after receiving an unprecedented number of protest emails.
The live segment occurred on December 15, 2004, when Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, made a call to inquire about a product known as Quick Beads.
The call was handled by an Indian call centre employee who identified herself as Steena.
Midway through the call, Star became abusive, calling Steena a ‘bitch’ and a ‘rat-eater’ before threatening to choke her. (For a complete transcript, visit http://www.edrants.com/reluctant/001697.html or hear the entire segment here: http://www.sideangleside.com/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?dest=http://www.sideangleside.com/sas/media/power99_call_to_india.mp3)
There was little immediate fallout.
t was only last week, after a station employee posted the segment on the station’s Web site, that listeners began to mobilise against the station.
A number of blogs, including TurbanHead, DesiBlog and SepiaMutiny followed the story, as did members of the list serve for the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, and posted contact information for the radio station’s personnel.
According to the Power 99 FM’s News and Community Affairs Director, Loraine Ballard Morrill, the station received more protest emails and phone calls than it had for any past incident.
The vast majority of the emails came from outside the Philadelphia area. However, as of midday Tuesday, Morrill said no disciplinary action was intended for the duo. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the only disciplinary action being considered initially was for the station employee who had posted the segment online.
By Tuesday evening, the station had changed course. Morrill indicated that Clear Channel, the station’s parent company and by far the largest owner of radio stations in the US, had pushed for the suspension.
In addition to the suspension, the station posted a public apology for the segment on its Web site:
‘The Star & Bucwild Show prides itself on walking on the edge. On December 15th, we crossed it. We know the pain racial slurs cause and apologise that this comedy segment went too far.’
No further information about the segment was given on the station’s Web site. Neither was it clear whether the suspension would be explained to listeners. General Manager Richard Lewis was unavailable for comment.
This isn’t the first suspension for Star and Bucwild. In 2001, after the death of R&B music star Aaliyah in a plane crash, their show made light of the incident by broadcasting the sound effects of a plane crashing and a woman screaming. Their employer at the time, New York’s Hot 97 FM, suspended them shortly thereafter.
Despite the current controversy, the two are likely to additionally be carried on New York’s 105.1 FM in the near future. They are also syndicated in Hartford, Connecticut. In the Philadelphia market, they are #2 in the 18-34 age demographic, behind another shock jock, Howard Stern, who last year received the largest fine in broadcasting history for violating the Federal Communications Commission’s decency standards. In that incident, Clear Channel was forced to pay $1.75 million in penalties.
According to Times of India, Star and Buc Wild got suspended for a day for their antics, thanks to all our complaints via blogs, letters, etc…
Yesss!!
Here’s a story about it – first story on the Times of India (we’re going global, baby!):
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/988659.cms
and here’s a little blurb about it in Philadelphia Weekly (yours truly is quoted and mr.Turbanhead himself is mentioned:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=8773
I hope somehow that the call center employee who took this jerk’s call was able to see that at least she got an apology out of this. Not from Star himself of course, but it’s better than nothing. Back in college I worked at a call center for a short time and know firsthand that callers as rude and abrasive as Star made it really hard to go into work (which is why I quit after only 3 weeks). This type of thing really helps you develop a thick skin, but the cost is being incredibly miserable for 40 hours a week.
suspended with or without pay?
It’s amazing that the station doesn’t think it’s a big deal when a dj threatens to choke someone. Are death threats now acceptable?
It’s amazing that the station doesn’t think it’s a big deal when a dj threatens to choke someone.
do you really think that was a real threat, considering she was in india?
do you really think that was a real threat, considering she was in india?
It’s not that threat was possible across the pond, but it was made because she was an Indian person working at company taking outsourced calls. It’s a dehumanization process that allows others, and there have been many such incidents since 9/11, to say it’s allowable to treat people from another country in this manner; whether they live in the USA or not…
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awesome! let’s keep spewing more hate. that’s real productive. maybe now black people will read this site and write letters in protest. and then being the self-righteous desis we are, we’ll accept absolutely no responsibility in checking ourselves, but instead declare ourselves the world’s greatest truth n’ justice crusaders. dope.
k, what exactly is your point? It’s self-righteous to be concerned about the poor treatment of another individual? I’m not PC crusader and I don’t believe in using the FCC for this sort of thing because I don’t think the goverment should be involved. But I didn’t realized I had no right to be concerned, or offended, and to register that concern. What do you mean ‘check’ ourselves?
I would have been equally horrified by what that dj said whomever he berated in that way: white, black, brown, male, or female.
MD – I think that comment was directed at White Dog, not at you. I read the comment before it was deleted and it was just more racist bullshite. I kind of understand Ms. World’s position; obviously some people are using this as an opportunity to lash back with anti-black racism, and some of them may be brown and others may not be (White Dog… is that what you own or what you are?).
This is not the time or the place for that – as if there ever was one. Why sink to Star’s level? It’s good to be outraged, but even better to express it without hitting below the belt. As my mom always said: that just makes you as bad as they are.
Plus, it has a more lasting effect to hit them in the wallet than to call them a pootyhead or whatever the mean term of the hour is. So that’s what we should do. Call up those advertisers. ESPECIALLY YOU IN PHILLY. They don’t give a rat’s backside about the rest of us, sadly. Notice the list of advertisers so far is mostly local (except for University of Phoenix, which obviously has an unlimited advertising budget.) So Philly – represent.
I would have been equally horrified by what that dj said whomever he berated in that way: white, black, brown, male, or female.
I doubt that this blog would take the type of “action” it did if an Indian DJ said something like that to a black woman. In that case, people would emphasize that it was an incident involving ‘individuals’ rather than an attack by a member of our community on the entire black community. You can’t just play the victim and make people’s race into a political issue when its convenient.
Blog’s are now an entity? Since I’m not a an “all knowing”, “all perceptive”, “all thoughtful” being just exactly how would you suggest I be simulateneously everywhere and be aware of everything wrong in the world, and then simulateneously act on it?
I think the point the people on SM are trying to make is that it is indeed the action of two individuals and that they need to pay for it. When you randomly select an Indian and spew hate, it is difficult to characterize it as between “individuals”.. If these people knew each other before hand, maybe then…
The crux of your message is what a group of people would do if situation X existed… How well do you know each person who posts at SM?
The crux of your message is what a group of people would do if situation X existed… How well do you know each person who posts at SM?
i love how everyone ASSUMES that if the situation were indian DJ vs black woman or x vs y, or y vs z, that this blog would read differently. bravo, word. thanks for reminding some misguided, potentially well-intentioned people that they may not know everything.
instead of appreciating what others have done, keep trying to carp about it, second-guess or delegitimize it. you must be so proud.
how ’bout we fix WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED and once that’s done with, we address some of these other questions or imaginary possibilities? too logical/productive for you? thought so.
Thanks, andrea, I didn’t realize that.
And to the cynical poster identified as ‘oh, really’. Yeah, really. I would be just that offended if an Indian dj were to be that abusive to a black woman.
I oppose affirmative action, I don’t call myself a feminist, and I don’t support using the FCC for this protest, although I respect those who choose to do that. So clearly, I am all about using my browness to be a victim.
(Sorry to prolong this thread with all this back and forth, sepiamutineers. I know you don’t like threads that degenerate into back and forth squabbles, so I promise I’ll be good after this 🙂 ).
“Disgusting Display of Racism” is exactly what it is. It also happens to be the opinion of one individual homophobic person, who unfortunately was in a position to announce his personal demons on the air to all of Philladelphia. This open show of hatered will not be tolarated by the Indian community in India or in the USA, or by a large portion of the American population. Outsourcing is an issue that has been happening for a long time starting with outsourcing to china for almost all the elctronic goods now available in the USA along with clothes, plastic, silk …you name it. But the self appointed guard dogs (read under-qualified-radio-show-hosts) of the american economy have not figured that out. However America has benefitted immensely by this. People of the USA can afford to live in comfort because almost everything available in your local super-market is manufactured at the lowest costs at a country other than america. Please citizens of the USA take the time to go to the nearest store and look at the label to where things are sourced from. Outsourcing is a good thing. Do you ever wonder why you pay so little for that 3 year warranty that includes free technical service that you gladly use when you are tearing your hair out at your computers latest breakdown. Outsourcing helps improve the standards of living for the americans. Everyone knows that. Why waste time listening to the ignoramus rushing towrds a Tsunami. However we cannot ignore the intent and purport of the comment by the infamous radio show and the fact that it was used to incite people against Indians.
You oppose racism and affimative action in the same sentence? isnt it a kind of contradiction?
EOFIA, i think you are being unduly flagrant in response to the criticism. the fact is that what you choose to report, and how you choose to report it, is as important as what you choose NOT to report. people should be able to point it out if their perspectives or priorities are not being reflected here, since it seems like many people here participate in deligitimizing certain perspectives and things that others are offended by. sure it’s not possible to make everyone happy, but the same goes for the mainstream media that many of us criticize for excluding us. being a brown media of sorts, you have to be willing to accept similar scrutiny. that said, i understand the difficulty in dealing with so many posts and opinions, and others should bear in mind that it’s a difficult task before making various demands.
In that case, people would emphasize that it was an incident involving ‘individuals’ rather than an attack by a member of our community on the entire black community. You can’t just play the victim and make people’s race into a political issue when its convenient
where on this blog have we ever made it seem like it was anything BUT two individuals who were at fault? there have been no blanket pronouncements or condemnations against the entire Black community on this site, by its bloggers.
this was never about Star being black. EVER.
if, however, this is about me being an indian woman feeling outrage on behalf of another, “individual” indian woman, then i’m sorry to disagree with you, but that is nothing for you to call out. whether i share the ethnicity of a victim or a perpetrator, that doesn’t diminish my right to be offended.
the reason why we started this campaign with turbanhead et al is because Star didn’t know Tina personally. he made those remarks based on her ethnicity, and that means i am allowed to hurt, too.
i’m dejectedly starting to feel that despite our best efforts and intentions, we just can’t win with some of you, can we?
that said, i understand the difficulty in dealing with so many posts and opinions, and others should bear in mind that it’s a difficult task before making various demands.
sigh.
yes, please.
Am sorry guys, Its Star and Buc, and star and buc will be star and buc, the more people make this a big deal, the more people listen, the more stations pick them up, the more they get sindicated…don’t you see the pattern here? and given the satellite radio, they will still find an audience (guys remember opie and anthony? they are on XM!). Just ignore this guys. gotta admit though, they are funny.
http://www.badmash.org/
Well , I believe we are missing the fact that the radio station is getting so much publicity and possibly many more listeners after this incident. No wonder they are going soft on the duo .
Well , I believe we are missing the fact that the radio station is getting so much publicity and possibly many more listeners after this incident. No wonder they are going soft on the duo
so very true. my mistake. we should have remained quiet about the station’s non-apology b/c hey…we wouldn’t want to give them publicity. THAT’S how we win.
why care about us? why stand up for anything? we don’t matter at all, do we…the point is, if we had just shut up and “listened well” per that jackass Star’s expectations, THEN we would have accomplished something. it’s all about THEM.
um, yeah.
if an asshole attacks my mother, and they’re a famous asshole, thanks to you, i now know that i shouldn’t say anything to or about him, b/c i wouldn’t want to, um, you know, give him publicity.
it is BAD publicity.
remember that if you tell people about a bad experience at a shop you can effect ten times the power you will have if you tell them about a good experience.
star will get his in the end. be patient. and be active.
so very true. my mistake. we should have remained quiet about the station’s non-apology b/c hey…we wouldn’t want to give them publicity. THAT’S how we win.
Hey dumb-ass , the point was , instead of giving them publicity and petitions why don’t we take more drastic measures like – sue the radio station . Thats the only language they understand.