UPDATE: KRXQ Confronted By Advertisers, Media and Community
June 5, 2009 by Andy Marra, Senior Media Strategist @ GLAAD
On May 28, the “Rob, Arnie and Dawn in the Morning” show aired a highly offensive segment that caused a lot of shock and disgust. GLAAD sprung into action and has been working full force on this incident. I thought a recap would be in order for those interested in the story’s evolution.
Radio hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States spent more than 30 minutes making crude and dehumanizing comments promoting child abuse against transgender children. It began when they discussed a story about an Omaha family supporting their transgender child and her transition.
Put off like we were? You can directly voice your concerns to the radio hosts by following this link.
The radio station finally called us back after we issued our first Call to Action. According to the station, hundreds of letters poured in from all throughout the country and even around the world. The station promised Rob and Arnie would respond to their offensive segment.
Dawn Rossi
GLAAD also spoke with with radio host Dawn Rossi who defended transgender people on the highly problematic segment.
On their follow-up show (scroll down on their site), Rob and Arnie failed to apologize for their remarks. GLAAD re-issued our Call to Action (which currently remains active, with constituents still writing in).
That’s when media started to take notice. Outlets like The Huffington Post, PerezHilton.com, The Sacramento Bee, FOX40, Instinct (here and here) and many more started to take a closer look at the show.
So did lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates. Constituents frustrated over the segment and the hosts’ failure to apologize took it upon themselves to make their voices heard. Social networking tools like Facebook were – and still are – being used to contact KRXQ advertisers.
Chipotle announced it had pulled its advertising contract, and Snapple and Sonic followed suit. You can read more about that here.
But today, on June 5, we fielded a massive amount of communication between advertisers and media.
First, Bank of America contacted us to announce they were withdrawing all advertising and provided us with their statement explaning their reasons why. Verizon and the Carl’s Jr. restaurant chain were soon to follow – you can find their statements here.
This afternoon, we received phone calls and emails from Wells Fargo and Nissan. Both companies had statements they wanted GLAAD to distribute.
At 7:29pm EST, we received yet another statement to distribute.
This time it came from AT&T.
AT&T wrote:
The matter was brought to our attention and we have pulled our advertising from the station.
As I write this post, nine companies have now sent GLAAD statements. And all of them have either announced a decision to completely withdraw or not renew advertising contracts with KXRQ because of their offensive radio segment.
Because of GLAAD urging people to contact the station and those who have taken action by contacting advertisers, media have also extensively covered this developing story. The Associated Press, The Advocate, The Sacramento Bee, FOX 40 and others have reported on advertisers withdrawing support from the radio station.
The pressure seems to have caused a stir at the radio station. Today at 5:28pm EST, we received an email from the General Manager promising a phone call this Monday with a possible resolution.
Until then, we continue urging people to voice their concerns with the radio station.
Stay tuned for more details. Please check back with us for updates on this developing story.
Have an update to share with GLAAD? Send us a tweet on our Twitter account @glaad.
Albertson’s is no longer part of Save Mart. People have been addressing the wrong corporation. The current owner of the Albertson’s that is advertising on RAD is Supervalu.
This is the contact information:
SUPERVALU INC.
Investors and Financial Media:
David Oliver, 952-828-4540
david.m.oliver@supervalu.com
or
Steve Bloomquist, 952-828-4144
steve.j.bloomquist@supervalu.com
Since you feel that they were encouraging violence against transgender kids, you should be contacting the police, not Chipotle.
p.s. Your site doesn’t seem to recognize the word “transgender” as a correctly spelled word. It’s underlined in red.
[...] GLAAD just posted a recap of its activity relating to KRXQ and its offensive comments against transgender children. The summary also included a statement from AT&T announcing their decision to pull its advertising from the radio station. You can find all of that plus recent media coverage here. [...]
[...] and Snapple, have pulled their advertising. This has prompted the station to finally contact GLAAD on Monday to discuss how to resolve the [...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/on-air-abuse-of-transgede_b_212121.html
Latest article.
I have seen many people praise or defend Dawn because she objected to the language used by her co-hosts and because she spoke positively about the trans and queer communities. I am sorry but I cannot cut her any slack. The Zoo Crew format often relies on having a token liberal (often a woman) who’s roll is to act as a foil to the right wing/frat boy co-hosts and offer cover. The stations and programs can point to the presence of the token liberal to deflect criticism and claim balance. Without a Dawn, Rob and Arnie would be seen for what they are – even more moronic versions of Limbaugh or Savage and that kind of show would likely be less attractive to advertisers and listeners. I sent an email to Dawn asking she consider her role in this matter:
Dear Dawn,
I feel I must write you directly after listening to some of the clips of the show. I truly believe that you are genuine in your concern for these kids and have progressive values. This is why it is even more disconcerting that your role on this show is to provide cover for the bile spewed by your male colleagues in the name of ‘free speech’.
Inherent in the right of freedom of speech is personal responsibility which your colleagues seem not to understand. I grant you that you know these guys personally and I will have to trust you that they are “good guys” since I hear little evidence of it in the clips posted. What I hear are bullies. Men who bully vulnerable children, men who bully listeners that disagree with them and indeed men who bully you (although you seem a fairly willing victim).
I don’t believe that either gentleman wishes to truly analyze the kind of show they host or the type of humour they use. Perhaps for profit or because of ideology they have decided that free speech equates with ridicule and abuse. So I guess the question really is, what do you think your responsibility is? You likely feel that you present an alternative voice to this frat house mentality. I would suggest that your participation simply gives cover and enables them, the way that folks often enable addicts.
It is Limbaughian how they (and you) took the response to their bad behaviour and tried to turn it so that they were the victims. And of course that works with your loyal listeners. And maybe your loyal listeners do know its all in jest. But you yourself pointed out that there will be people, parents of LGBT kids or kids in school who will use the hateful tenor of this piece (and seemingly others on your show) to rationalize and justify their own attitudes but worse still their own actions (and yes that includes verbally and physically assaulting LGBT kids and adults).
Hannity had Colmes for the longest time and these two have you. You are the liberal whipping girl that allows them to claim some semblance of balance. I would ask you to seriously consider the role you play in all this.
I am sure that your colleagues will consider my inclusion (in a previous email) of information on the role radio played in the Rwandan Genocide (http://www.idrc.ca/rwandagenocide/ev-108178-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html ) as ‘typical liberal hysteria’. I hope that you will understand that it is really only a matter of a point on a continuum…
Words are not meaningless. Words move people and nations to do great and terrible things. They galvanize people to come together in times of tragedy or war or they lead people to fear and hate those they don’t know or understand. Whenever words are used to marginalize a group, that is the first step in the continuum to genocide. If you don’t believe me, perhaps you and your colleagues should visit the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (www.wiesenthal.com/) .
Tried this once, don’t know if it went through. I wanted to leave a comment not only because of prior outrage with this show and its djs but because of my prior years working with a domestic violence agency. It only takes these insensitive comments by ignorant people to escalate violence. Rob and Arnie will never apologize because they don’t think they did anything wrong, it was just a joke to them. I applaud the companies that have pulled their advertising and hope that many more will follow suit. I contacted a local child abuse agency that advertises on KDOT, who also carries this show, in Reno. I asked that they check into the comments made, the lack of apology and the effect that the comments would have. I suggested that they pull their advertising and support from the station because of this. Since the VP of KRXQ doesn’t seem to think that this show did anything wrong, maybe when he loses all his advertising and people boycott the station, he’ll think twice about it. Thanks for giving me this platform, I’m 100% behind you!
KUDOS to GLAAD and its members for effecting real change! Take that, bigots!
While I think it is a phenomenal response of the advertisers to pull their advertising dollars, I wonder Entercom (parent company) is really taking enough of hit over this?
They have two rock stations in Sacramento–do the advertisers pull their ads from 98 Rock as a show of discontent, only to re-invest in the other station, a Classic Rock? After all, advertisers still have to create business for their companies and if they are after mid age men to advertise to, then the stations to advertise on in Sacto, are BOTH owned by Entercom (parent company of KRXq and KSEG)
Entercom stations:
Austin: KAMX, KJCE, KKMJ
Boston: WAAF, WEEI, WMKK, WRKO
Buffalo: WBEN, WGR, WKSE, WLKK, WTSS, WWKB
Denver: KALC, KEZW, KOSI, KQMT
Gainsville: WKTK, WSKY,
Greensboro: WEAL, WJMH, WPAW, WPET, WQMG, WSMW
Greenville: WFBC, WORD, WROQ, WSPA, WTPT
Indianapolis: WNTR, WXNT, WZPL
Kansas City: KCSP, KMBZ, KQRC, KRBZ, KUDL, KXTR, KKSN, WDAF
Madison: WCHY, WMMM, WOLX
Memphis: WMC-FM, WMC-AM, WRVR, WSMB, WKQK
Milwaukee: WMYX, WSSP, WXSS
New Orleans: WEZB, WKBU, WLMG, WWL, WWWL
Norfolk: WNVZ, WPTE, WVKL, WWDE
Portland: KFXX, KGON, KNRK, KRSK, KWJJ, KYCH
Providence: WEEI
Rochester: WBEE, WBZA, WCMF, WPXY, WROC
Sacramento: KCTC, KDND, KRXQ, KSEG, KSSJ, KBZC
San Francisco: KBWF, KDFC, KOIT
Seattle: KISW, KKWF, KMTT, KNDD
Springfield, MA: WVEI
Wichita: KDGS, KEYN, KFBZ, KFH, KNSS
Wilkes-Barre: WDMT, WGGY, WILK, WKRZ
[...] on Pam’s House Blend about KRXQ’s bashing. As GLAAD new media strategist Andy Marra writes: Outlets like The Huffington Post, PerezHilton.com, The Sacramento Bee, FOX40, Instinct (here and [...]
[...] of people to contact the radion station and voice their concerns. You can read more about that here and [...]
[...] Meanwhile, thank you to all of those who blogged about the issue, called the radio station and even just informed others. Thanks to the advertisers, Snapple, Chipotle, Sonic, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & AT&T who were amongst those who pulled advertising in protest to the anti-trans remarks (as reported by GLAAD) [...]
[...] the vicious, bigoted on-air attack on trans kids by some DJs at KRXQ. The blogging was part of a wave of revulsion, which included nine advertisers — really huge advertisers, like AT&T — either [...]
[...] June 5, GLAAD mediated communication between advertisers and other media, starting with companies Bank of America, Verizon, and [...]