Day: July 19, 2006

I just got off the phone with Tim McNamara. Tim is the program manager for The Playhouse radio show and a partial owner of Rose City Radio, which owns KXL-AM and KXJM 95.5.

I assumed Tim had written me off as a rogue, backstabbing blogger (this is what I had heard from other journalists that had spoken with him), but I decided to send him and P.K. one last email to see if we could work things out. I got a call-back within minutes.

Tim admitted that when he heard the comments on Thursday’s broadcast he called the station right away. Tim was absolutely appalled that the show hosts clapped at the story of a cyclist being hit.

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I am growing increasingly concerned that no official organization or agency has made a public statement about this situation.

I have received several emails and many comments about dangerous motorist/cyclist incidents in the past few days. Many cyclists feel they might be targets of drivers who are emboldened by comments made on the radio show and who are upset at the immense response and activism against their show from the bike community.

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The community response over anti-cyclist comments made on a morning radio show continues to grow. The story has moved far beyond Portland and what the show host called “this little underground website.”

• Yesterday, my initial post was voted to the front page of Digg.com, one of the most highly-trafficked sites on the web. Since Friday it has been viewed over 9,000 times.
• The situation has been noted in the KXJM Wikipedia entry.
• The Willamette Week has chimed in, giving the story top billing in its just-released Murmurs column. We can expect several larger stories from the media in the days to come.
• I have heard reports that the City of Portland, the City Council, and the Portland Police Bureau are very concerned about this situation will be making their feelings public in the coming days. They will also apply even more pressure to the station to make the broadcast available to the public.
• Pressure is also building on the show’s advertisers as people are contacting them and asking them to reconsider their relationship with the station. So far, at least two advertisers, The American Red Cross and PGE Park, have responded.

I think the radio station is making things worse for themselves by not releasing the tape. The longer they wait, the more guilty they seem.