Power99’s response to their racist broadcast controversy is a textbook example of corporate weaseling. First, they told the press that the real problem was that they got caught — that they posted the audio clip to their Web site. Then they ducked responsibility by saying the complaints are coming from non-African Americans (duh) and non-Philadelphians.
As pressure mounted, they buried a Web apology on the bottom of the second screen, well below the fold, and refused to apologize on air. And they simply changed the date of an already-planned radiothon and tried to pass it off as a DJ ‘suspension’:
On Wednesday morning, the station broadcast a radiothon for tsunami victims in place of Star and Bucwild. The radiothon was previously scheduled and was only advanced to the show’s slot, Morill said.
Here’s the text of the apology:
The Star & Buc Wild Show prides itself on walking on the edge. On December 15th, we crossed it. We know the pain racial slurs cause and apologize that this comedy segment went too far.
At the same time, it’s also become clear that the abuse of call center workers is more widespread. Check out the Is Your Job Going Offshore? forums (via Times of India):
“… we’re up and running with our call campaign against the BP Motor Club. There are three of us calling on a daily basis to express our displeasure with oursourcing [sic] to the Indian phone center workers. There’s room for you!… Usually, I limit the calls to 60 seconds anyway, so I can call back and really hammer them. I’ve been doing this about 20 minutes a day. It’s great fun!”
Because that’s the rational thing to do when you’re jobless: spend your unemployment benefits on phone calls to India.
You can use the FCC complaint letter below. Here are simple instructions if you wish to draft your own.
Here’s a roundup of news coverage to date:
- Philadelphia Inquirer
- Philadelphia Daily News
- Philadelphia Weekly
- AlterNet
- Hindustan Times
- Times of India 1
- Times of India 2
- Times of India 3
- Times of India column
- Rediff
Previous posts on Power 99: 1, 2, 3
Update:
Asia Media Watchdog has an easy form to complain to the NYC station which is about to pick up Star and Bucwild (via Turbanhead).
More news coverage:
Update 2:
AllHipHop picks up on the story. SOHH, another hip-hop site, says DJ Star actually promised not to do it again, which would be new info (but sounds like a misquote):
Sources say… that station’s head honchos talked to Star and were assured it wouldn’t happen again.
EurWeb quotes station management speaking with the Philadelphia Inquirer as repeating that promise:
… station managers have had “extensive discussions” with Star since learning about the clip Thursday. “It was made clear this is not acceptable, and it won’t happen again,” Morrill told the paper.
For all the hard work that thousands of Indian call centre operators put in, they often have to put up with abject racism from some of their customers oversees… BPO [business process outsourcing] owners say the trend is not new but has definitely become more serious in recent years… Most call centres have now hired psychologists to mentally prepare their employees.
The Inquirer was deceived by the suspension story. See also India Daily’s summary.
Update 3:
The Wall Street Journal editorializes (see Anna’s post).
<
p>
Sample letter:
[Name]
[Mailing address]
Federal Communications Commission
Enforcement Bureau
Investigations and Hearings Division
445 12th St., SW, Room 3-B443
Washington, DC 20554
[Date]
Dear Sirs:
I wish to complain about a profane radio broadcast in which the DJ spewed profane, racist abuse against Indians and Indian-Americans on air (details attached).
This is included under the FCC charter:
The FCC has defined profanity as including language that “denote[s] certain of those personally reviling epithets naturally tending to provoke violent resentment or denoting language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.”
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/obscene.html
Troi Torain (aka DJ Star) at WUSL-FM called a customer support line for Conair, the electrical appliance maker. Upon finding an operator with an Indian accent, unprovoked, he called her a ‘dirty rat-eater,’ a ‘filthy rat-eater,’ a ‘bitch,’ and threatened, ‘I’ll come out there and choke the eff out of you.’
Torain invoked generic anti-Asian stereotypes from the Vietnam War (dog eaters), abused Indians and Indian-Americans because of the outsourcing trend, and advocated violence against women. Torain should be banned from broadcast for life, and the show should be cancelled.
Sincerely,
[Signature]
Call sign: WUSL-FM (Power99), Philadelphia (owned by Clear Channel)
The perfect denoument to this story would be the revelation that he was using Reliance to call India….:-)
“Then they ducked responsibility by saying the complaints are coming from non-African Americans (duh) and non-Philadelphians.”
How do they, or anyone else, know that no African Americans have complained about the racist skit?
hmmm… Shame on you and the station for letting do such inhumane things. It is pepole and stations like this that creates bad image for the majority of the good people in the USA.
You mention “peace on your station’s website. “Walk the talk. If not, do not utter/mention the word “peace” is what so ever manner. Learn to respect and then you can expect the same. You get nothing from hatred. Need an example? Think for a minute about the American bodies returning to our homeland everyday from Iraq even though the great land, the US of A, is trying to help rebuild Iraq.
Be and act responsibly.
Please read a news clip from Yahoo. This may apply to Power 99 as well.
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators on Wednesday proposed a $28,000 fine against Univision Radio for a prank phone call aired without permission of the person receiving the call.
The five-member Federal Communications Commission (news – web sites) ruled unanimously that the call on Oct. 18, 2002, on the “Raul Brindis and Pepito Show” violated a federal regulation that requires a broadcaster to inform a person that a conversation is being aired.
The incident was broadcast on seven FM radio stations, which at the time were owned by Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. Univision Communications Inc. bought Hispanic Broadcasting in 2003.
A Univision spokeswoman in New York said the company is reviewing the ruling.
The FCC (news – web sites) proposed a fine of $4,000 for each of the seven stations that aired the show. Univision has 30 days to pay or appeal.
According to the FCC, Brindis called an employee at Hispanic Broadcasting and pretended to be a man who had met the employee at a local club. “After a flirtatious conversation, Mr. Brindis revealed the joke to the complainant on the air,” the FCC said.
The commission rebuffed Univision’s argument that Brindis didn’t have to divulge he was broadcasting the conversation since the caller also worked for Hispanic Broadcasting. Commissioners also rejected Univision’s claim that it should not be responsible for an incident that occurred before the company took over Hispanic Broadcasting.
I heard the mp3 and found it to be very offensive. Such behavior should not be tolerated and infact, the people who were responsible for such an act should be taken to prison. The media (radio, TV etc.,) cannot be used openly to practise rascicm.
please take the racist trash out of the society and keep it clean
After reading FCC’s reply seems like they wont do anything as calling out racial slures is not illegal!!!! I am surprised. Well if that’s what the law says then let be it.
There are couple of action that can be taken. On behalf of the Customer Service Personnel the call center company should file a case with FCC for airing the phone call without the Customer Sevice Personnel’s permission. AND/OR Report this as a Hate crime with the FBI. I am not sure whether this would be considered a Hate Crime. AND/OR Take this issue to the local Congress Person and Senators. Would Bobby Jindal like to get his hand dirty in this issue?
“Then they ducked responsibility by saying the complaints are coming from non-African Americans (duh) and non-Philadelphians.”
How do they, or anyone else, know that no African Americans have complained about the racist skit?
Excellent point, blameindiawatch. African-Americans are usually extremely sensitive to issues of race, and from what I have seen, I would expect African-Americans, in general, to be nothing less than outraged. BTW, admirable work, blameindiawatch. I’m a big fan!
I have lodged a complaint as other should with the FCC. Address is here for filing one online. http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
This is an unfortunate incident. With all do respect it was a joke taken too far. I believe they should be find heavily for this and apologize on radio to the world for such remarks. This is not a race issue, its a problem with American society and how things tend to have a thin line between acceptable and unacceptable. Due to ratings providing money for the station and the djs themselves this was allowed. Unfortunate.
To be effective against these folks you need a protracted campaign focusing on the companies that advertise on these radio stations. Hit them where the bucks are. Who cares about the apology – that is as good as the mouths from which it comes – and we know the quality of those mouths. Go after the business interest – they will automatically shut down Star and Buc Wild when they don’t make any more money.
These guys are #$%@in idiots of the first order. In fact, they are probably the biggest chart climbers hitting number 1 spot in the top 10 global racist morons. And the station will always back their back obviously. Below is a mail exchange between me and them. FCC wont do anything about it. They’re all a part of the stupid system.
—– Original Message —– From: Pranay Mehra To: Michael.Powell@fcc.gov ; Kathleen.Abernathy@fcc.gov ; Michael.Copps@fcc.gov ; KJMWEB@fcc.gov ; Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov Cc: oraineballardmorrill@clearchannel.com ; richardlewis@clearchannel.com ; theamitchem@clearchannel.com ; Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 4:50 PM Subject: Outrageous
Please listen to the following mp3 of a phone call made by the morning DJs – Star and Buc Wild on Philadelphia’s Power 99 FM radio station to a call center operator in India. http://www.pressedwool.com/Power99_Call_to_India.mp3 I think the clip speaks for itself. I am outraged by such blatant racism. What this DJ & Power 99FM did is intolerable. This mail is also being circulated to as many media publishing houses. Even if they remove the link, tons of us have it saved on our pcs and will be circulating it as an attachment. The original message is posted here: People are urged to send this to as many people they know, as well as in the media http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/pol/54663798.html You can have your share of fun, but not at someone else’s expense and definitely not abusing an Indian for no rhyme or reason. UNACCEPTABLE
This is what the idiots replied
—– Original Message —– From:
Okay India is doing America’s dirty work so I would just shut your mouth if i were you because they do more damn work than you and you should be bitchin’ at the American companies that are outsourcing and not the people that have to work for a living. Have some respect and your ass might not get whipped! FUCKIN’ IDIOTS!
I find it interesting that in the second line of your report on the Power 99 racial comments you wrote “Then they ducked responsibility by saying the complaints are coming from non-African Americans (duh) ” as if to imply that African-Americans are incapable of recognizing unacceptable behavior and complain about it. Racism is totally unacceptable in any form be it belittling on a radio station or tongue in cheek humor directed at an entire race.
I got linked to this from Kal Penn’s site…and it appalls me to find out that BOTH these guys and Ms. Tarsha are African-American and promoting these hideous stereotypes of black people…being that I’m black myself. They are promoting the stereotypes of black people being “rude,” “uncouth,” “belligerent,” “ignorant,” etc, by making these comments about Indians. Now after all we’ve been through to fight for equality and respect, these clowns are on their radio shows making comments about Indians? Two wrongs don’t make a right. I know good and damned well that if someone made comments about black people similar to the ones these fools made about Indians, then they’d have a huge fit. It’s sad, and a damn shame.
The inexcusable Star/bucwild conduct is terrible, but I have received the same abuse from Indian telemarketers who call my house at midnight (which is illegal) for an online pharmacy. I tell them to take me off their call list and registered with the do not call registry but they just keep on. they either hang up or tell me to go f*** yourself when I tell them don’t call.
point is, abuse comes from all sides.