Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 15, 1994                   TAG: 9404150076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press Note: below
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DJS' ANTICS MAKING WAVES, RAISING QUESTIONS OF ETHICS

A Chicago disc jockey reportedly suggests to listeners that a TV anchorwoman - and recent widow - is pregnant by a Chicago Bulls player. A judge refuses to dismiss her defamation lawsuit.

A Texas radio station announces it has hidden money in Fort Worth's library. Hundreds storm the building, tearing out pages, tossing books on the floor.

Responsible radio? At a time when New York shock jock Howard Stern wins fame, fortune and whopper ratings, the antics of lesser-known disc jockeys are raising questions, too, about what can - and should - be uttered on public airwaves.

In cases such as last week's library ransacking, it's simply a promotion gone amok. In instances such as last month's tragedy in St. Louis, it's a trickier issue - the privacy rights of public personalities.

``It's really difficult because a public figure will take all the positive publicity they can get, take you into their homes, show you their furniture and tell you their hobbies, but when they do something wrong, they want to slam the door,'' argues Bill Viands, general manager at WKBQ in St. Louis, which aired the weatherman's tape. ``You can't have it both ways.''

TV tabloid journalism, Viands says, also has altered the landscape because ``the public has come to expect ... the intrusive type of coverage on people.''

Jim Hoyt, a broadcast journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agrees that the rules have changed.

``Stations are attempting to push the kind of generally accepted format further,'' he said. ``I think the stations may be playing with fire.''

One questionable incident arose March 22 when WKBQ morning drive DJs Steve Shannon and D.C. Chymes interviewed a woman named Donna Henry. She had secured a protective court order, claiming St. Louis TV weatherman Bob Richards was harassing her after she broke off an affair.

Those charges, denied by Richards, were reported in the news media.

She then played for the DJs answering machine tapes, one in which a man she identified as the married Richards declared his love for her. Shannon and Chymes repeatedly said she was making allegations; Richards didn't accept the station's offers to respond.

Guy Phillips, a St. Louis broadcaster and Richards' friend, said the weatherman was frantic, saying his career was over.

Shortly after midnight, Richards' private plane crashed. The crash is being investigated, but no mechanical problems have been detected. Phillips and others believe it was a suicide.

``Did they have a right to run the woman's interview?'' Phillips asked. ``Yes. Did they have a right to run the tape? Yes. Is it the right thing to do? No. ... They didn't kill Bob Richards, but I think they were some sort of catalyst in his behavior.''

Keywords:
FATALITY