Tuesday, February 05, 2013

STUPID DJ TRICKS: Part 23

This wasn't even funny. It was just mean and made everyone at the radio station look unprofessional and vindictive. It's not the worst thing they've ever done but probably the most petty. The short version is that In 2011, the John and Ken Show gave out live on air the cellphone number of an immigrant rights activist and urged their angry, bigoted listeners to harass him. There was no way that was going to go right. It was a miracle they didn't get sued. More here.

John and Ken already had a history of "incidents" that slighted and/or victimized minorities. In 2005 the duo urged their listeners to send toilet brushes to the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office. Thousands were received. They've taken actions against candidates running for office which has resulted in complaints being filed at the Federal Elections Commission.Suffice it to say... they are not classy people.

The John and Ken Show is hosted by John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou. They became a duo at WMGM-FM in Atlantic City, and caught a little press then for pranking WAYV during their holiday food drive. In 1990 they took over the drive-time slot on WKXW-FM. They quickly became the scourge of New Jersey and left for KFI two years later. They were fired 5 years later over a "contract dispute."  They moved to KABC-AM who tried to house break them with mandatory diversity training.  Eventually they were fired over their poor ratings. For some reason KFI hired them back in 2001.
Jorge-Mario Cabrera is an immigrants rights activist. He's the director of communications at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). In that role he gets interviewed sometimes for that viewpoint like any other talking head. So it is not unusual that a media outlet have access to his contact information.  It is unusual for radio hosts to give it out and to direct their listeners to harass that person.

By his own tally, Cabrera got more than 400 very angry, racist and threatening calls and had to change his phone number.  John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou were campaigning against the California Dream Act. But this was just a personal attack not material to the argument. Several rights groups threatened to boycott the show's advertisers. KFI cried censorship. In the end Kobylt publicly apologized on KMEX-TV. More here. In covering the event, James Buchannon did write a spirited defense of "non-Jewish White talk show hosts" on the David Duke website.

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