Members of the University administration, staff, and students convened a private meeting Tuesday to further discuss a controversy stemming from remarks made by talk show hosts on KUGN radio that community members allege are racist. A similar public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. today in the Oak Room of the EMU.
KUGN pays roughly $1 million per year for exclusive local broadcasting rights for all University sporting events. As a benefit, the station is also allowed to identify itself as “the Voice of the Ducks.”
The meeting was declared closed to the public because organizers feared a backlash from nationally-syndicated radio talk show hosts Michael Savage and Michael Medved.
Savage has sued University of California official Troy Duster for what Savage alleges was discrimination leveled in 1996 when the radio personality was not hired as dean of the School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.
The lawsuit claims discrimination on the basis of Savage’s conservative ideology, not a backlash from any specific remarks the radio host made on-air. There is no evidence Medved has ever sued anyone as a result of programming content disputes.
However, participants at the Tuesday meeting said they still feared Savage or Medved could sue them and declined to give any names during the 90-minute discussion. Individuals at the meeting also expressed fears that they might be verbally attacked on-air for criticizing the programming content of the two talk show hosts.
A faculty member at the University said keeping the meeting off the record was essential to protect the attendees, because a civil lawsuit is capable of financially destroying a person. He added that it was his understanding that Savage had said he would sue people who threatened his radio show, “Savage Nation.”
KUGN Program Director Bob Bosche said he has heard Savage threaten to sue people before, but he added filing a lawsuit is an option of defending oneself that everyone has the right to exercise.
“I know that Savage has said if people attack him personally, he will respond with legal action,” Bosche said.
Representatives for Savage did not return phone calls, and the radio host was unavailable for comment himself.
Bosche said there have been no instances of KUGN talk show hosts verbally attacking people at the University by name on the air. Medved and Savage are nationally-syndicated radio personalities and rarely localize the topic of their broadcasts, he said.
Bosche did, however, add that Lars Larson’s show sometimes dealt with University issues because it was locally produced. The show is no longer carried on KUGN.
The meeting on Tuesday offered a chance for University community members to discuss their concerns about the University’s affiliation with KUGN. Many participants said they felt the affiliation with the radio station needed to be broken because of Savage’s and Medved’s programming, which they said insulted minorities.
Students are invited to voice their opinions about the University’s affiliation with KUGN at today’s meeting, which is open to the public.