Star and Bucwild Suspended in Philly, Bringing Their Bigotry to NY

5/10/06 EDIT: If you're looking for news on Star's suspension today (May 10th, 2006), that news is here. The information below is from a previous suspension.

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After months of speculation, Star and Bucwild are reportedly returning to the NY airwaves on January 17th, when they take over Power 105's morning show. In case you've forgotten what to expect from these fine citizens, today's news has a reminder for you:

Radio hosts suspended for abusing Indian

Star and Bucwild, the hosts of a popular morning radio show in the United States, were suspended by their station for making an abusive and threatening call to a call centre employee in India. Power 99 FM in Philadelphia told rediff.com that it suspended the duo for a day, January 12, after receiving an unprecedented number of protest emails.

The live segment occurred on December 15, 2004, when Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, made a call to inquire about a product known as Quick Beads. The call was handled by an Indian call centre employee who identified herself as Steena.

Midway through the call, Star became abusive, calling Steena a 'bitch' and a 'rat-eater' before threatening to choke her. (For a complete transcript, visit http://www.edrants.com/reluctant/001697.html or hear the entire segment here: http://www.sideangleside.com/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?dest=http://www.sideangleside.com/sas/media/power99_call_to_india.mp3)

There was little immediate fallout. It was only last week, after a station employee posted the segment on the station's Web site, that listeners began to mobilise against the station.

A number of blogs, including TurbanHead, DesiBlog and SepiaMutiny followed the story, as did members of the list serve for the South Asian Women's Creative Collective, and posted contact information for the radio station's personnel.

According to the Power 99 FM's News and Community Affairs Director, Loraine Ballard Morrill, the station received more protest emails and phone calls than it had for any past incident.

The vast majority of the emails came from outside the Philadelphia area. However, as of midday Tuesday, Morrill said no disciplinary action was intended for the duo. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the only disciplinary action being considered initially was for the station employee who had posted the segment online.

By Tuesday evening, the station had changed course. Morrill indicated that Clear Channel, the station's parent company and by far the largest owner of radio stations in the US, had pushed for the suspension...

Awesome, sounds like their return to NY should be a wonderful thing (FMTPO)

Note that nothing came of the incident until blogville picked up on the story weeks later. More reaction from the Times of India

And just for the record, this is all Ayn Rand's fault.
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*FMTPO - For Me To Poop On