Two Fired from Hot 97

Melissa Hung
February 1, 2005

From: Emmis Communications - WQHT/Hot-97
Dan Klores Communications
For Immediate Release

WQHT/Hot 97 and Emmis Communications
Terminate Two Members of Morning Show Crew
for Displaying Gross Insensitivity and Making Offensive Remarks
Emmis Donates $1 Million to Charity to Aid in Tsunami Relief & Recovery

New York - February 1, 2005: WQHT/Hot 97-FM and Emmis Communications announced today that they have terminated the employment of morning show producer Rick Del Gado for his role in writing, producing and airing "The Tsunami Song," a highly insensitive parody of the 1985 single "We Are the World." Hot 97 and Emmis also terminated morning show personality Todd Lynn for making offensive, racially insensitive comments while on the air. Both terminations are affective immediately.

Simultaneously, Emmis announced that it will make a lump-sum donation of $1 million to Give2Aasia to aid the organization in its Tsunami relief and recovery effort.

An internal investigation by Hot 97 and Emmis determined that the singularly egregious actions of Lynn and Del Gado warranted termination from their employment at the station. Other members of the morning show crew: Miss Jones, DJ Envy and Tasha Hightower have each been given two-week suspensions. The salaries of these individuals will be redirected to Give2Asia for the duration of their suspensions, which will end on Wednesday, February 9. Another member of the morning show crew, Miss Info, has not been suspended.

"The actions of the morning show crew were socially and morally indefensible and the entire Emmis family is ashamed by this," said Rick Cummings, President of Emmis Radio. "Emmis and Hot 97 have investigated this matter thoroughly over the course of the last week. Our decision to terminate Mr. Del Gado and Mr. Lynn while suspending the other members of the morning crew sends a message that this type of insensitivity is utterly unacceptable."

Contributor: 

Melissa Hung

Founding Editor

Melissa Hung is the founding editor of Hyphen. She was editor in chief for the magazine's first five years and went on to serve in many other leadership roles on the staff and board for more than a decade. A writer and freelance journalist, Melissa has written for NPR, Vogue, Pacific Standard, Longreads, and Catapult. She grew up in Texas, the eldest child of immigrants.

Comments

Comments

claire wrote on Wed, 02/02/2005 - 6:09pm
wonder why miss jones wasn't axed. hope someone starts a new petition calling for her dismissal. it's *her* show. *she* was the one who told miss info that she probably thought she was better than the rest of the morning show crew because she was asian.
a questioner... wrote on Wed, 02/02/2005 - 8:19pm
A good question. Hopefully the Jones will keep up and out with Lynn and Del Gado. Sounds like there was some deeper issues and resentments that were brought to the surface with this mess. Can't wait to hear the 'happy reunion' of the morning team. (why do people want to hear that kind of stuff - including Howard Stern - first thing in the morning?)It still boogles the mind that someone didn't say "Ya know, this is really rude and could piss off a lot of people". They should all be fired because they are too stupid to be around operating electrical equipment. Where was the internal '7 second delay'??