Apr 23, 2007 11:01 pm US/Pacific
CBS Radio Shock Jocks Suspended After Prank Call
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Jeff Vandergrift (left) and Dan Lay, hosts of "The Dog House With JV and Elvis"
jvandelvis.blogspot.com
A pair of radio shock jocks who began their careers in the Bay Area find themselves again in hot water over a prank phone call broadcast that offended Asian Americans.
Jeff Vandergrift and Dan Lay, hosts of "The Dog House With JV and Elvis," a show that aired on radio station WFNY in New York, have been taken off the air after protests from the Chinese-American community.
WFNY is owned by CBS Radio, which fired Don Imus earlier this month for his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team on another CBS-owned radio station.
In the WFNY prank call broadcast, a caller is heard speaking on the phone apparently to workers at a Chinese restaurant.
The caller says, "Chinese man, tell me about your tiny egg roll" and is heard placing an order for "very large slimp flied lice."
Ben Fong-Torres is the radio critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. He called for JV and Elvis to be fired and added that it wouldn't be the first time for the duo. They were fired from San Francisco radio station KYLD (94.9 FM) in 2005 for what were characterized as sexist comments.
"It's time to continue to send messages. I know it may never work. But this is the society we live in now. The more people get really penalized for doing this kind of stuff -- this demeaning, insulting, derogatory, racist kind of material in the guise of humor -- the better off we are."
Rev. Jesse Jackson, in the Bay Area for a conference on hateful speech, said, "This kind of Asian bashing has no place among people who are civil."
KGO radio host Ronn Owens is the dean of Bay Area talk hosts, having spent 30 years on the airwaves. Owens thinks the controversy is overblown and not worth JV and Elvis losing their jobs.
"It's juvenile. It's silly. It sounds like a morning zoo, which, apparently, it is," he said.
Owens said the JV and Elvis broadcast does not rise to the level of Imus'.
"In the Imus case, you've got a guy who Time magazine points out talks to senators, presidential candidates, so it's on a different level. These are morning show jocks, and they're just out to be outrageous, and that's what they do. It's silly."
Matty Staudt produces "The Sarah and No Name Show" on San Francisco radio station KLLC.
"Imus happens, and all of a sudden everyone's paying attention to what people are saying on the air again. " 'Oh gosh, JV and Elvis are saying, 'flied lice.' They could have said it a million times before Imus, but right after Imus, everyone's attention is on it."
JV and Elvis have been suspended without pay.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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