Louisville Conservative Radio Host Calls President 'Half-Breed'

One of the radio stations I steered clear of while I was living there was the Clear Channel owned WHAS-AM.

WHAS 84 is the Louisville radio dial home of Rush, Beck and later Michael Weiner (oops Savage) after kicking a long time popular moderate talker off the air.

The host that stepped in it was conservative talker Mandy Connell, who has the lead in show to OxyContin Man. She replaced the late Francene Cuccinello in that time slot, who passed away unexpectedly back in March.

She made the derogatory comment about the president on Tuesday's show.

She quickly apologized for it Wednesday morning according to the Ville Voice, but the fun has already started in Da Ville.

“The only thing I can do is express my embarrassment that was the phrase that came to mind and apologize for the offensive way I was trying to convey my point about the President’s mixed heritage. It was inappropriate, and truthfully, I was shocked when that tumbled out of my mouth. My only excuse is that when talking for three hours without the opportunity to choose words in advance, sometimes my brain doesn’t do the good or right thing. I am human.”

And so is President Obama, Ms. Connell, but you conservatives conveniently forget that on a regular basis.

The controversy has already stirred up progressive Louisville and hit the pages of the LEO and other local alternative media outlets.

This was what I had to say on the LEO's comment page:

Love the people wallowing in vanilla flavored privilege who are too scared to put their names on their disrespectful comments.

African-Americans and other people of color are sick and tired of white conservative people who comfortably and consistently make bigoted and borderline racist comments, especially those who do so on the radio and television airwaves.

Then y'all have the nerve to get your backs up when we call you on it.

You don't as part of the dominant ethnic group with a long negative history in this regard get to tell my community what we should and should not be upset over.

The local NAACP has already commented on it as well. Haven't seen anything official yet from Chris and the Fairness Campaign.

Louisville NAACP president Raoul Cunningham stated in a LEO interview, “I think it was a very poor choice of words. I know she doesn’t care for Obama or his policies, but to refer to him as a half-breed is disrespectful of the office of president.”“And racially, the term is derogatory in today’s society. It’s just not an acceptable term.”

If you wish to have your say, here's the phone number for WHAS-AM Station Manager Kelly Carls at (502) 479-2222 or send an e-mail: info@whas.com.

A better strategy would be as Raoul Cunningham suggested later in his interview would be to monitor Connell's show more closely. If she repeats the negativity toward POC's, then whack her with boycott pressure on the peeps who advertise on her show.

Polar pointed out to me when I lived there that once upon a time WHAS-AM used to have distinguished moderate voices gracing its airwaves such as legendary UK basketball voice Cawood Ledford, Milton Metz, Wayne Perkey, Joe Elliott, and Gary Burbank.

Now it's just all right wing all the time. Except during UK basketball season.

But stations like WHAS-AM have to be shown that pimping on-air bigotry and race baiting isn't profitable.

TransGriot update: Chris Hartman, the chair of the Fairness Campaign sent out a press release Thursday condemning the comment as “an irresponsible racial slur.”

Jeff Johnson Calls Out Black Community Homophobia on TJMS

You TransGriot readers know how much I love the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

The 'Fly Jock' and crew have a listening audience of 11 million predominately African American people that I'm a part of and wake up to during the workweek.

While I sometimes get annoyed with their tendency to be a little too heavy on the comedy at times, TJMS is unabashedly pro-Black. There's also no better friend and supporter to HBCU's than Tom Joyner, being that he grew up in Tuskegee, AL and graduated from Tuskegee University.

TJMS interviews a host of prominent African-Americans across a wide spectrum of our community and other peeps of interest as well.

But I tune in for their chocolate flavored political and social commentary segments from people such as CNN's Roland S. Martin, 'The Revs', Jeff Johnson, Stephanie Robinson and others.

My ears perked up when Jeff's Tuesday commentary touched on the homophobia in the Black community that reared its ugly head once again courtesy of some sellout negro ministers during the final days of Annise Parker's historic mayoral election in H-town.

You can listen to Jeff's commentary here.

Following In Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson's Media Footsteps

If you wonder where I came up with the phrase 'tellin' it like it T-I-S is', I borrowed it from this iconic African-American radio personality and chronicler of Black radio that sadly is no longer with us.

I used to race my Dad to the mailbox to read his Mello Yello when it was delivered by my friendly neighborhood letter carrier. I prided myself back in high school days of being on the cutting edge of Black music, and reading the Rapper's newsletter gave me the edge I needed to stay ahead of my music loving classmates.

Who was Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson? He was the first voice heard on the first Black owned and operated radio station, WERD-AM in Atlanta when they started broadcasting in 1949. Gibson founded the National Association of Radio Announcers for Black DJs or NARA in 1955 to give the original 13 Black DJ's a voice in the industry.

He published for over a decade the Mello Yello tipsheet that was no holds barred in telling the truth about things that went on in the radio world along with tracking R&B music. Starting in 1977 he hosted an annual convention in Orlando, FL that became a must attend event.

The 'Family Affair' was a convention that not only many R&B music stars, radio personalities and music execs attended, but became a forum that set the stage for many of the major changes in the recording and music industry that allowed African-Americans to advance to leadership roles in it.

It was because of Gibson's work in Black radio that the voice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other SCLC leaders was heard for the first time over the airwaves. He helped Motown get much of the airplay in the 1960's that was the springboard to its success, and was one of the people who gave hip hop and its artists a leg up when they were begging for airplay and attention in the early 80's.

Gibson's work didn't go unnoticed. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C and into the Nevada Broadcasting Hall of Fame when he hosted a Las Vegas radio show until his death from cancer in 2000 at age 79i.

But for me, I'm focused on the truth telling part of Gibson's life. He always told it like it T-I-S is, as he would say in the pages of the Mello Yello, and his love for our people always shone through while doing so.

Those are two lessons of his that I'm proud to carry on in these electronic pages at TransGriot.

Update on KRXQ-FM Hate Jocks

The KRXQ-FM transhaters are feeling the heat from calls and e-mail coming from around the world. Major advertisers are yanking commercials from the show as well.

After a weak azz non-apology for their hateful transphobic comments, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Chipotle Mexican Restaurants and Sonic Corp. Inc have pulled their advertising from KRXQ-FM.

And note to KRXQ-FM fans of the show. You cannot hide behind the First Amendment and advocate violence against transpeople or ANY ethnic minority. As I can painfully tell you from my people's history, when you are part of a minority group, people who advocate violence against you cannot be brushed off with a 'I was making a joke'.

Words even up hurting and killing people. Hateful words unchecked can eventually lead to the genocide of a minority group by the tyrannical majority.

So keep up the pressure. The haters must know that attacking transkids is not going to be tolerated by this community, much less attacks on us.

If you wanna claim the vanilla-flavored cisprivileged right to say whatever you want about transpeople, don't get mad when we exercise the same rights to call your behinds out about it.

KRXQ-FM Jocks Hatin' On Omaha Trans Child

Ignorance abounds about transgender people and their lives, and it's a never ending struggle to get the correct information out there about our lives.

That struggle is only complicated by media people who spew disinformation and transphobic hatred on the public airwaves.

GLAAD contacted me about a problematic May 28 broadcast of the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show. It's heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, and featured this transphobic tirade against transgender children by hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States.

They were discussing the recent story of Kate in Omaha, NE and her parents’ decision to support her transition. The two haters spent more than 30 minutes explicitly making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children.

Among the comments made by the hosts:

ROB WILLIAMS [11:12]: This is a weird person who is demanding attention. And when it’s a child, all it takes is a hug, maybe some tough love or anything in between. When your little boy said, ‘Mommy, I want to walk around in a dress.’ You tell them no cause that’s not what boys do. But that’s not what we’re doing in this culture.

ARNIE STATES [13:27]: If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him. Because you know what? Boys don’t wear high heels. And in my house, they definitely don’t wear high heels.

ROB WILLIAMS [17:45]: Dawn, they are freaks. They are abnormal. Not because they’re girls trapped in boys bodies but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them. That’s where therapy could help them.

ROB WILLIAMS [18:15]: Or because they were molested. You know a lot of times these transgenders were molested. And you need to work with them on that. The point is you don’t allow the behavior. You cure the cause!

ARNIE STATES [21:30]: You got a boy saying, ‘I wanna wear dresses.’ I’m going to look at him and go, ‘You know what? You’re a little idiot! You little dumbass! Look, you are a boy! Boys don’t wear dresses.’

ARNIE STATES [29:22]: You know, my favorite part about hearing these stories about the kids in high school, who the entire high school caters around, lets the boy wear the dress. I look forward to when they go out into society and society beats them down. And they end up in therapy.

Thanks to co-host Dawn Rossi who stood up to Williams and States during the segment despite her lack of familiarity with transgender issues.

She repeatedly defended transgender people and made an on-air apology for her colleagues’ defamatory remarks.

Okay people, y'all know what to do. Let the transbigots Rob and Arnie and their management know that attacking a trans child ain't cool and thank Dawn Rossi for standing up for us.

Please contact KRXQ management in Sacramento, CA where the show is produced and respectfully demand that radio show hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States publicly apologize.

Call on KRXQ to hold Williams and States accountable for their remarks and establish clear standards to ensure their media platform will not be used to condone or promote violence against any parts of the communities they serve.

And if that doesn't get their attention, for those of you in the Sacramento, CA metro area, you can lodge protests when their FCC broadcast license comes up for renewal.


John Geary
Vice President & General Manager
KRXQ-FM
(916) 339-4209
jgeary@entercom.com

Arnie States
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rad@robarnieanddawn.com

Rob Williams
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rwilliams@entercom.com

Oh Oh Oh-Love The Tom Joyner Morning Show

When my alarm clock radio turns on, Magic 101.3 is the local station it's tuned to. In addition to hearing my fave classic and current R&B songs, from 6-10 AM I join 11 million African-Americans in getting my early morning news, laughs, commentary and information from radio hall of famer Tom Joyner and crew.

Tom Joyner is a radio legend and icon in our community. He's an unabashed HBCU supporter who puts his money where his heart is with his foundation that sends and keeps African-American kids in HBCU's. The Fantastic Voyage cruise that funds the foundation is always sold out and it's one of the things the TransGriot wants to experience. The Tom Joyner Family Reunion in Orlando on Labor Day weekend is fast becoming a must attend event in Orlando.

And this website, BlackAmericaweb.com, is where I and other African-Americans can peruse commentary on various issues geared toward our community. Every now and then I'll paste some of those commentaries to this blog since I feel you need to know what my America is thinking and feeling.

The other cool thing about it is that prominent African-Americans also pop in from time to time to talk about various issues. Tom was also an early and proud supporter of Sen. Barack Obama.

As the child of a retired radio professional, I know how important Black radio has been and still is to the advancement of my people. Dr. King even commented that without Black radio and black deejays, the Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60;s wouldn't have happened. Tom Joyner and Cathy Hughes have been the driving forces toward carrying that proud legacy forward into the 21st century.

And me and 11 million other African-Americans enjoy every entertaining minute of it.

WHAS-AM Regresses

I was shocked to find out that WHAS-AM dismissed 4 employees and longtime talk show host Joe Elliott on Thursday night. For 14 years Elliott has ruled the 9 PM-midnight shift at the station with his moderate brand of talk. The dismissial of Elliott has generated an avalanche of negative calls and comments.

Elliot is one of those sweet success stories. He was told on two separate occasions by a college professor and a radio/television personality that he'd never make it in radio. The other interesting thing that many of us discovered only with his termination was that he is blind.

He replaced another Louisville legendary radio personality in Milton Metz, who pioneered the radio call in show format. Elliott started by filling in at the station in 1988, then getting a full time show later. There are times he pissed me off, there are times he pissed the other side off. But that's better than what Clear Channel (who owns the station) is going to replace him with: Michael Savage.

A reasoned, thoughtful moderate is going to be replaced by a gay-hating transphobic bigot. Gee, what an improvement. No wonder your ratings are headed to the toilet. But it's a sad commentary on the state of radio these days. Local shows are falling victim to corporate cost cutting. The sad part about it is that WHAS-AM's 50,000 watt signal covers 40 states and can be heard in much of Canada as well.

According to Doug Profitt's WHAS-TV blog, Elliott’s currently working on a severance package with Clear Channel. He also says that they've offered him part-time work to continue as host of the Sunday morning talk show, which he's still mulling over.

Milton Metz told WHAS-TV late Thursday night he was sad, saying the show he created served a purpose for people who wanted to express their opinions in a neutral field, on the air.

Thank God we have an award winning NPR station here in WFPL-FM and its excellent State of Affairs program. Buying an XM radio just gained a higher priority for me next year as well.

Sign Of The Apocalypse-Me and Rush Agree

TransGriot note: I never thought I see the day when Rush Limbaugh and I actually see eye to eye on something. Here's a transcript from OxyContinin Man's November 8 show about the ENDA mess.


Democrats Shaft Transgenders

RUSH: By the way, this next stuff is great. Let me preface it by giving you a little story here of what's going on out in San Francisco. "National civil rights organizations are celebrating the passage by the House of legislation that would add 'sexual orientation' to a list of federally protected classes, but some San Francisco groups refuse to take part in the party." They're not happy about it.

They are the transgender and transsexuals, and they're at the back of the bus on this civil rights issue. "The vote Wednesday on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA...was ultimately revised to remove protection for transgender workers, which upset gay rights groups here and across the country.

'People are livid,' said John Newsome, co-founder of And Castro for All, a bias awareness group. 'If the first step out of the gate leaves people behind, it is an ill-conceived first step.'" Barney Frank was getting tarred and feathered over this, and he told the transgenders and the transsexuals (paraphrased), "Just take your time. You're going to screw up this whole thing. We'll get this done in steps," but they're not listening. They're not happy. Here's John Lewis, who marched with Dr. King and got beat upside the head several times in the Selma march and so forth, late yesterday on the floor of the House of Representatives.


LEWIS: I, for one, fought too long and too hard to end discrimination based on race and color, not to stand up against discrimination against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. During the 1960s, we broke down those signs that said "white" and "colored." Call it what you mean, to discriminate against someone because they are gay, is wrong, it is wrong! It is not right. Today we have an opportunity to bring down those signs! Now is the time to do what is right, what is fair, what is just! The time is always right to do right. Let us pass this bill.

RUSH: And next up, Barney Frank, a portion of his remarks.


FRANK: I feel an obligation to 15-year-olds dreading to go to school because of the torments, to people afraid they'll lose their job in a gas station if someone finds out who they are. I feel an obligation to use the status I have been lucky enough to get to help them, and I want to ask my colleagues here, Mr. Speaker, on a personal basis, "Please, don't fall for this sham. Don't send me out of here having failed to help those people." Yeah, this is personal. There are people who are your fellow citizens being discriminated against. We have a simple bill that says, "You can go to work and be judged on how you work, and not be penalized." Please don't turn your back on them. (applause)

RUSH: Yup. San Francisco values have to be brought to the House of Representatives here, and guess who the speaker is? Speaker is Nancy Pelosi.


PELOSI: It's not that we're tolerant in my district in California and San Francisco. It's that we have so much respect for the role that each person plays in our society. So tolerance, maybe. Respect, definitely. But let me also add, that it is the pride that we take in that diversity, and it is the pride that I take in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community that brings me to the floor today to urge a "yes" vote on this important legislation.

RUSH: But it left out the transgenders! It left out the transsexuals, and they're casting this as a civil rights issue. The transgenders and transsexuals were told by the House of Representatives to go to the back of the bus. That's what your House of Representatives was doing yesterday, ladies and gentlemen.

Tom Joyner's Father Passes Away

October 23, 2007
Hercules L. Joyner, 89, passed away Sunday in his Dallas home.
A native of Plant City, FL, Joyner is father of Tom Joyner, the nationally syndicated radio personality, and Albert Joyner, owner of McDonald’s franchises in Jackson, MS.

“I really appreciate all of the sympathy and prayers expressed by all of my close friends and my listeners,” Tom Joyner said. “Those that ever had the pleasure of meeting Pops know what an inspiring life he lived and what a proud man he always was. My family and I are thankful for all of your prayers.”

Known for his dry wit and gentle ways, ‘Pops’, as he was affectionately called by family and friends, graduated from Florida A&M College with as B.S. in Chemistry. While at Florida A&M, Joyner pledged with the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. and became an avid golfer. In later years, ‘The Herc’ Golf Tournament was named after him.

After he enrolled in the program to become a Tuskegee Airman, he decided to switch from a military career and instead became an accountant, later spending much of his career working for the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Tuskegee.

Joyner was the only child of Dr. Oscar Albert and Ruth Griffin Joyner, and married the late Frances Dumas, a graduate of Tennessee State University.

To share his passion for black colleges, Joyner was an active member of the Tom Joyner Foundation, created by his son in 1998 with the sole mission to help keep students enrolled in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made on H.L. Joyner’s behalf to the Tom Joyner Foundation, P.O Box 630495, Irving, TX 75063.