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Media
LA station promises ‘cultural sensitivity training’ for DJs after Houston remarks
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 5 March 2012
A radio station in LA has announced it will put two of its star presenters and key execs through a programme of “cultural sensitivity training” after the DJs in question garnered outrage by referring to Whitney Houston as a “crack ho” just days after her death, adding that the pop star had been “cracked out for 20 years”. Remarking on the singer’s premature demise, the observed: “really – it took this long?”
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, hosts of the popular ‘John & Ken’ drive time show on KFI AM 640, rarely shy away from contentious commentary on their radio programme, but it seems such disrespectful language to the late pop star pushed things just too far. Amidst the outrage the comments caused station management suspended the DJs for ten days, and had them issue an apology admitting their comments were “inappropriate” and that they accepted the grounds for their suspension.
Detractors of the KFI duo, who argue that a lot of the two men’s output is misogynistic and racist, said the pair’s Houston remarks demonstrated ingrained racism. The DJs, for their part, denied their comments were in anyway racially motivated, insisting they were trying to lampoon the hypocrisy of Planet Celeb.
But KFI bosses clearly recognised it was LA’s black community who were most outraged, and met with reps of that community last week, promising the aforementioned “cultural sensitivity training”, and to involve more members of ethnic minorities in its operations, which – opponents say – are currently totally dominated by white men, meaning the station is out of touch with the population it serves.
While insisting that Kobylt and Chiampou, and the execs they report to, would have a better “awareness of the cultural melting pot that is Southern California” after their enforced training, KFI management also said: “While our plans are still developing, we anticipate creating unique programming to reflect important issues to our multi-cultural community. This will be a great launching pad for identifying talent for future opportunities”.
