John DePetro, WRKO, Boston

SUSPENDED

After Slur, WRKO's DePetro Off The Air





*** 3 November 2006: see main page for John DePetro news ***


Tonight your Radio Equalizer is in the odd position of both reporting on an incident involving WRKO / Boston host John DePetro and filling in for him during his two- day suspension.

With that in mind, why don't we leave the rest of it up to the Boston Herald's Jessica Heslam:

Shock jock wannabe John DePetro has been yanked off the air for two days and ordered to apologize for calling embattled Big Dig chief Matt Amorello a “fag” yesterday on his morning radio show.

“This corporation has zero tolerance for racial intolerance. Mr. DePetro has 72 hours to think about it,” said Jason Wolfe, vice president of programming at WRKO (680) and WEEI-AM (850).

DePetro referred to Amorello - who is married to a woman - as “Fag Matt.”

“And I don’t mean gay fag, I just mean the way when you’re a sophomore, juvenile, in grammar school and somebody would say you’re like a sissy boy fag,” DePetro said on-air. “I don’t mean gay fag. I mean like sissy boy. He’s a little sissy boy. Wife wears the pants.”

Amorello, who has faced calls for his resignation since last week’s deadly Big Dig tunnel collapse, declined to comment on DePetro’s remarks.

But the radio host’s comments incensed gay advocates. “It’s extremely offensive. It’s childish. It’s incendiary,” said Emily Pitt, ofFenway Community Health.

“As far as I know, Matt Amorello is not a gay man, but even if he were, it’s just ridiculous,” said Pitt, who didn’t hear DePetro’s show but received e-mails about it.

“It’s pathetic,” added Massachusetts Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios (D-Cambridge), who is openly gay.

Wolfe was program director at WEEI in 2003 when co-hosts John Dennis and Gerry Callahan were suspended for two weeks for comparing an escaped gorilla to an inner-city Metco student.

DePetro, who is suspended and off the air today and tomorrow, did not return a call. It’s unclear whether he will be docked two days’ pay.

With a story by Mark Shanahan, the Boston Globe has also now weighed in:

WRKO host suspended for calling Turnpike chief a derogatory slur

WRKO suspended talk-show host John DePetro today for using a slur for "homosexual" in reference to Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello.

The morning host, who calls himself "The Independent Man," was suspended for two days after using the epithet on the air during a discussion of Amorello's conduct following the ceiling collapse of the I-90 connector. DePetro called Amorello "[expletive] Matt," adding, "I don't mean gay [expletive]. I mean like he's a sissy boy. He's a little sissy boy."

Neither DePetro nor Amorello returned calls late today, but WRKO program director Jason Wolfe said the station has "zero tolerance for racial intolerance... Mr. DePetro has 72 hours to think about this." Wolfe said he purposely chose the word "racial" because "people will lump everything in together."

The conservative talk-show host, who's been on the air at WRKO for three years, made the comment while talking about Amorello's decision to bring his wife, Charlotte, and spokeswoman, Mariellen Burns, to the funeral of Milena Del Valle, the woman who was killed when the ceiling panel collapsed. DePetro said his WRKO colleague Howie Carr calls Amorello "fat Matt" and then said it should "[expletive] Matt."

UPDATE: DePetro returned to WRKO today (Friday) and your Radio Equalizer now resumes regular posting.

FRIDAY: The Herald's update by Jessica Heslam has just been posted. Here's an excerpt:

“On Tuesday, the language that I used was offensive. It was stupid, there was no excuse for it and I apologize,” DePetro said. “There were many, many members of the local and national community who were offended by that language.”

“I apologize to those people. I apoligoze to the management and listeners - you - of WRKO,” he said. “That is not the type of language that should be used on any show and certainly will not be used on my show ever again.”

“We discuss topics very passionately on this show, but we should never allow, and I should never allow, offensive language to enter into our discussion no matter how intense that it gets,” DePetro said.

DePetro was pulled off the air because of his comments Wednesday and yesterday and ordered to apologize.

At least one caller today tried to bring up the incident, telling DePetro he was the “second best” at WRKO-AM (680) and “what they did to you was disgusting.”

DePetro said he appreciated the support but was moving on.

The morning talk jock has not returned calls for comment.

On Tuesday, DePetro called Amorello - who has faced calls for his resignation in the wake of the July 10 deadly tunnel collapse - “Fag Matt.”

“And I don’t mean gay fag, I just mean the way when you’re a sophomore, juvenile, in grammar school and somebody would say you’re like a sissy boy fag,“ DePetro said on the air.

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DePetro photo: Boston Herald library