THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
HAS HAMPTON ROADS radio sunk to murky new depths of bad taste bordering on outright bigotry? Listening to a few local stations lately, you'd have to assume it's so.
The Rev. Jesse Smith of Virginia Beach reached his tastelessness-tolerance threshold late last week while listening to a call-in talk show on WNIS, 850 AM. Conversation on the Thursday afternoon program, hosted by Mike Welsh (subbing for regular host Perry Stone), revolved around the ubiquitous O.J. Simpson case.
After touching on the role that race has played in the case's media coverage and the possibility that Simpson might have been set up, discussion turned to sentencing, with callers suggesting that if Simpson is found guilty he should be given the death penalty ``and that it should be a public spectacle, that viewers should be allowed to see the juices that come from him as he's being electrocuted,'' Smith complained, recalling the radio blab.
Welsh also suggested, according to Smith, ``that if O.J. Simpson were found guilty, then there ought to be a public viewing and that monies gathered from this spectacle should be given to his children, charities and other organizations.
``I am very offended,'' continued Smith, who has hosted his own weekly radio show on WPCE for much of the last decade. ``I cannot stop you or anybody else from feeling what you feel about an issue - however decadent it is, or nasty or inhuman - but when a person begins to air those comments to a public then it takes on a different kind of purpose.''
Like disrespect. Hatefulness. Divisiveness. Intolerance.
That incident was only one in a seemingly perpetual torrent of intentional viciousness and imbecilic poor taste on local airwaves.
Last month, Perry Stone and his sidekick Pasquale, the morning team at 96X, WROX, devoted an entire a.m. drive-time to the torture and execution of (no kidding) lobsters. The show, broadcast live from Legends of Norfolk at Waterside, was to protest animal rights ``morons'' (Stone's phrase) who'd picketed NBC-TV for boiling live lobsters during a cooking segment on the ``Today'' show.
Amidst snickering comments about lobster genitalia and inane antics like ``lobster porn,'' the tough guys gleefully presided over the gutting and boiling of a batch of crustaceans by an on-site chef.
Things went from mindless to downright malicious when Stone got a representative of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on the phone. When the woman commented that lobsters have central nervous systems and therefore feel pain, then refused to answer questions regarding abortion, Stone shot off the admonition ``You need a man on top of you,'' and called her a ``bitch'' and a ``wench.''
A few days earlier, listeners of FM-99, WNOR, were treated to a live, on-air vasectomy procedure performed on morning personality Tommy Griffiths. Between bad puns and bad song parodies, Dr. Joseph J. Konefal of Tidewater Urology supplied snip-by-snip narration while Henry ``The Bull'' Del Toro provided descriptive commentary.
Granted, the whole affair was mildly amusing in a Beavis and Butthead sort of way, and could, I suppose, be construed as some sort of public service message for males assuming birth control responsibility. But does the radio-listening public really need to know as much as the deejay banter supposedly revealed about Griffiths' anatomy? Some things are best kept mum.
FM-99's toeing the line of good taste has cost the station in the past. In 1992, Griffiths, Del Toro and several other WNOR staffers were suspended without pay for two weeks for an April Fool's Day hoax that brought admonishment from the FCC. Last year, a jury awarded a Hampton woman who was the target of one of Del Toro's on-air phone pranks $20,000 in compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages.
Why all the viciousness, vulgarity and downright idiocy? Simple. Ratings. As Stone proudly trumpeted from his lobster-kill - just before denouncing a vegetarian caller as a ``buffoon'' and moments after informing a female protester, ``You've got nice breasts for an old chick'' - ``I did this bit. . that?''
Imagine if the energy and high-profile airtime expended on these sophomoric shenanigans were put to some productive use: Say, raising money for a worthy charity, helping people in need, maybe even intelligently (which doesn't necessarily mean humorlessly) discussing significant matters.
Perhaps these shock radio hosts should heed the comments of many who recently called the Soundcheck Talkbox - 640-5555, category 3277 - with their opinions about local radio. They say they want more music (hey, ain't that what radio's all about?), fewer obnoxious and sexist deejays. When they find a radio station offensive, they turn it off. And, boy, it's hard to get ratings if nobody's listening. ILLUSTRATION: WROX's Perry Stone devoted a recent show to lobster torture and
execution.
Tommy Griffiths had an on-the-air vasectomy.
by CNB