NHMC keeping the pressure on Clear Channel (audio)

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NHMC / National Hispanic Media CoalitionAlex Nogales, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, has been leading an effort to have “The John and Ken Show” taken off the air by Clear Channel’s KFI-AM Los Angeles, accusing the duo of broadcasting hate speech against minorities. Nogales was also displeased with RBR-TVBR’s recent story on KFI’s addition of two minority hosts in weekend slots. So we got him on the phone for an 11-minute interview.


First, unedited, here is the news release from the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The audio interview of Alex Nogales by RBR-TVBR Executive Editor Jack Messmer is immediately below the NHMC release.

NHMC Responds to RBR-TVBR’s Article,

KFI Debuts Diversity Programming Moves

KFI’s Decision Is Neither Rare Nor Laudable –

The Los Angeles Community Deserves Better

PASADENA, CA – April 12, 2012 – On April 9th RBR-TVBR, a trade publication covering the broadcast industry, ran an article about KFI AM 640’s recent decision to introduce two new hosts – David Cruz, a Latino, and Morris O’Kelly, an African American. The hosts will fill obscure weekend time slots when listenership is incredibly low.

The article suggests that this move responds to concerns raised by the Los Angeles community regarding KFI’s infamous program, The John and Ken Show, which runs Monday through Friday during evening rush hour. But this could not be further from the truth.

The following statement may be attributed to NHMC’s President and CEO, Alex Nogales:

“It appears that the reporter has failed to contact anyone in the Los Angeles community regarding this Los Angeles station. Instead he relies on David Honig’s assessment of the situation. David Honig is a Washington, DC insider – he is not a member of the Los Angeles community and, in this case, he does not represent our interests. His claim that this move is ‘rare and laudable’ is fatuous and I’ve taken David to task over it. Although I am happy to see two more people of color on Los Angeles’ airwaves, let’s be clear about one thing: adding Cruz and O’Kelly to KFI only on weekends when hot levels (the number of people listening) are immensely small is tokenism, at best. This has been done before and these slots have not led to weekday shows with large audiences and meaningful compensation. Clear Channel’s move is cynical and underhanded and does nothing to alleviate KFI and Clear Channel Radio’s pattern of hate against people of color, LGBT people, women and others. KFI haters John and Ken, Rush Limbaugh and Bill Handel air every weekday to large audiences, but nobody listens to KFI on the weekends. This in no way makes up for the regular menu of hate that KFI and Clear Channel serve up weekly. KFI is throwing us scraps and expecting us to smile and pat them on the back. But in a community as diverse as Los Angeles, where 2/3 of all residents are people of color, we deserve better. John and Ken must go! And if KFI and Clear Channel are serious about diversity and inclusion, which I suspect they are not, they should feature women and people of color at times when the community is actually listening.”

[audio:Alex-Nogales-041212.mp3|titles=Alex Nogales]

 

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