Another month another naughty talk host canned at KIFR
CBS Radio talk KIFR (Free FM 106.9) San Francisco has fired a talk show host and two staffers after an on-air reward was offered to have fellow station talker/comedian Penn Jillette killed.
Local host John London, his producer Dennis Cruz and sports reporter Chris Townsend were suspended last Friday (4/7) and subsequently fired over weekend, according to the San Jose Mercury News, for spending two hours on April 5 complaining about Jillette’s Free FM syndicated show where he labeled Mother Teresa a fraud. At the beginning of his show the following day, London remarked, “$5,000 to the person that kills Penn Jillette. If he suffers, I’ll make it $7,000.”
Jillette’s remarks centered on a bit where claimed that Mother Teresa has set up refuges for dying people for her own “sexual kink” and “sexual kicks.” He also said, “Mother Teresa is a bad person” and called Paris Hilton “much too moral” to play the deceased nun in an upcoming movie.
London told the Mercury News his offer was “obviously sarcastic,” and that he was “sickened” by Jillette’s remarks. “What he said wasn’t satire. He raped her morally, when she couldn’t respond.”
The fired talk show host said he was told that Jillette, whose show preceded London's, received death threats as a result of his own words about Mother Teresa and claimed that the station had a “dump button” and could have edited his (London’s) remarks.
“What I said may have been in bad taste,” London added. “But it wasn’t illegal, as they are claiming.”
A spokesperson for the station declined comment and told the paper, “It’s a personnel issue and we don’t comment on them.”
Just last month, KIFR fired local host Darian O’Toole after allegedly rambling in what some have referred to as an incoherent state and falling asleep on her show.
Billboard Radio Monitor, April 11, 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment