Asians cheer Hyundai and Cingular for dropping NJ 101.5

By Suleman Din
©2005 Newark Star-Ledger
May 11, 2005

Hyundai Motor America has suspended advertising on NJ 101.5 in response to complaints that a recent broadcast of "The Jersey Guys" afternoon drive-time show was offensive to Asian-Americans.

Cingular Wireless has also pulled advertising from "The Jersey Guys" show after hosts Craig Carton and Ray Rossi ridiculed Edison mayoral candidate Jun Choi, who is a Korean-American. Carton also mimicked Asian accents, complained about too many Asians at Atlantic City's gaming tables and said Americans should vote for Americans.

Asian-American activists, who have been putting pressure on the station's advertisers, hailed the decisions to pull the advertising, saying it signals a newfound maturity and strength in the community.

"Asian-Americans have always been seen as a passive group that won't speak up too loudly," said Veronica Jung, executive director of the Korean American League for Civic Action. "This flies in the face of that. The message is that we will no longer be the voiceless model minority. We represent significant buying power and a large consumer base, and we'll use that weight."

Earlier this year, Asian groups pressured advertisers to pull ads from New York radio station Hot 97 FM after a show played a song that mocked the Asian victims of the December tsunami. A Philadelphia radio station was also pressured to suspend two hosts for racial slurs made on the air against Asian-Indians.

Jung's group is one of 32 organizations that have formed a coalition to demand radio station WKXW-FM take a number of steps to address the matter, including personal apologies by Carton and Rossi, and to pressure the station's advertisers.

Andrew Santoro, group vice president and general manager of Millennium Radio, the parent company of New Jersey 101.5, said company policy did not allow him to discuss the station's advertising losses.

He said those upset at the station "were taking things out of context."

Santoro said the station has received hundreds of threats and has contacted local and state police and the FBI.

The wave of protests caught the radio station off guard, Santoro said. The station has a meeting with Asian-American activists scheduled for May 19.

"We have no option in this; they started their press releases and Web campaigns before we even sat down," he said. "I was really surprised that happened."

Asian-American activists have also found support from elected officials. U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.) fired off a letter yesterday to the Federal Communications Commission calling for the agency to examine the broadcast and "take any and all actions consistent with applicable rules and regulations."

"It is my profound wish that those entrusted with the power to broadcast their speech to thousands of listeners earn that trust by policing themselves and by refraining from engaging in hate speech," Rothman said in the letter.

Lora Fong, an Edison attorney and past president of the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of New Jersey, said the response from corporations and politicians shows the Asian-American community is organized and willing to speak out.

"Twenty years ago, this wouldn't have happened," Fong said.

Fong said Asians have also reached out to representatives of other historically persecuted minority groups, such as the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, both of which have denounced the broadcast.

Considering the Asian-American experience with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the internment of Japanese in World War II, and most recently with racial profiling after Sept. 11, there always has been "a feeling that you're not good enough to be an American," said Deepa Iyer, executive director of South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow.

"Asian-Americans have always been perceived as the perpetual foreigner," Iyer said. "No matter how long you have lived here, people still perceive you as the other, not Americans."

Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford said that as a result of Carton and Rossi's comments, the Korean automaker has indefinitely suspended advertising on the radio station.

"Hyundai Motor America shares the outrage of many in the Asian and general communities about the racial slurs made on radio station WKXW on 'The Jersey Guys' show on April 25," the company said in a statement.

"Because of those statements, Hyundai Motor America has suspended its advertising on WKXW. The company has communicated its extreme dissatisfaction to the radio station and asked for assurances these offensive comments not be repeated."

Cingular Wireless pulled its advertising from "The Jersey Guys" immediately after the incident, company spokeswoman Ellen Webner said.

The company still is maintaining its advertising on the radio station's other daytime broadcasts, but if there is no appropriate response to the concerns of community organizations, Webner said, Cingular will pull all its advertising.

"Of course, we do not condone any disparaging remarks made about any segment of the population," Webner said.

Neither Hyundai nor Cingular would say how much their decision to pull advertising would cost the station.

Local Hyundai car dealers were trying to figure out what the automaker's decision meant for their businesses.

Brad Benson, owner of Brad Benson Hyundai and Mitsubishi in South Brunswick, said his dealership depends on the radio advertisements to reach buyers, and wanted some clarification from the automaker.

Benson said the motor car company hasn't asked him to stop advertising on the radio station. He said he disagreed with what Carton and Rossi said on the air.

"I cannot condone what they said," Benson said. "If my children made those statements, they'd be severely reprimanded."