Radio Show Pulled Off Air After Insensitive Comments

The trio known to KRXQ listeners as "Rob, Arnie & Dawn" will not broadcast live again until Thursday, when they will "say what needs to be said" about references they made on air about transgender people.

Gay, lesbian and transgender advocates had demanded an apology after hosts of the morning show called transgender people freaks with mental disorders. AT&T, Bank of America, CKE Restaurants, Chipotle, Guitar Center, McDonald’s, Nissan, Snapple, Sonic, Verizon, and Wells Fargo have all pulled commercial spots from the Sacramento, Calif. station.

In a letter posted on the show's Web site, Rob Williams reacted to critics, stopping short of apologizing but saying contritely: "We have failed you. As a show, as people, as broadcasters, we have simply failed on almost every level."

Williams wrote that overwhelming response from listeners had "made it clear to us that we had gone too far" and that the hosts had handled a sensitive topic in "a hateful, childish and crude fashion."

At the middle of the controversy is a May 28 show during which co-host Arnie States said, "If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him."

Williams suggested transgender people suffered from a mental disorder.

"They are freaks. They are abnormal," he said. "Not because they're girls trapped in boys bodies, but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them."

Another of the hosts said he would tell a boy he was "a little idiot" if he asked to wear a dress.

In response, transgender advocates and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation sought an apology from States and Williams and from station owner Entercom Communications Corp., based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

"At the end of the day, our issue here is that Rob and Arnie advocated violence against children because of who they are and have failed to take responsibility for their dehumanizing and defamatory words," said Rashad Robinson, senior director of programs at GLAAD.

The alliance said it was not criticizing the third host, Dawn Rossi, because she defended transgender people on the show.

During a follow-up show, States said he never advocated abuse. He said that his comments were meant only as a joke and that he had done nothing wrong.

Williams' letter offers a different take: "The word apology appears nowhere in this letter for a reason. We already hid from doing the right thing once, and we're not going to make that mistake again. Apologizing in a written, posted statement is a form of cowardice. We will say what needs to be said Thursday."

The show has been taken off the air until Thursday when they will address the matter. It's being reported that a transgender guest will join them.


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