toledoblade.com --

A local Asian-American group has threatened a boycott and other action against WTWR-FM (Tower 98) if the station does not respond to demands to fire a disc jockey for alleged insensitivity in at least two calls to Asian restaurants during his nightly program.

Asian Communities United, or ACU, is a student organization based out of Bowling Green State University, but it includes numerous supporters of the local Asian-American community, said member Theresa Mah, an ethnic studies professor at BGSU.

The ACU alleges that Tower 98 disc jockey "Lucas," whose real name is Josh Garber, made racially insensitive remarks during a portion of his radio show where he called an unidentified Japanese restaurant and made fun of the person who answered the phone because he or she didn't speak English well. The date of the first call is not known, but it is alleged to have happened before May 22.

In a second incident on May 22, ACU members allege that Mr. Garber called an unidentified Chinese restaurant and made a comment to the effect that a white person must have been working there because the person who answered the station's call spoke English fluently.

Mr. Garber works the 7 p.m. to midnight shift Monday through Friday at WTWR, a Cumulus Broadcast station that plays contemporary hits/pop music and targets the 18-to-34 age demographic.

'Lucas'

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"We believe that Asian-Americans, whether they speak standard English or not, are valued members of the community and should not be subject to humiliation and harassment on the air for the sake of entertainment or ratings," states a petition the ACU posted on a Web site called www.petitiononline.com.

The petition, with more than 1,000 signatures, was mailed last week to Chris Taylor, market manager of Cumulus Broadcasting in Toledo, which owns WTWR-FM, and to Lewis Dickey, Jr., chief executive officer of Cumulus Media Inc./Cumulus Broadcasting, Inc., the parent company in Atlanta, Ms. Mah said.

Mr. Garber could not be reached for comment, with a call from The Blade referred to Brent Carey, the station's program director. Mr. Carey last week directed all questions about the issue to Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor has not returned several calls from The Blade seeking comment.

Members of ACU have filed written complaints with the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, Ms. Mah said. She said letters also have been forwarded to the Toledo Board of Community Relations.

Ms. Mah said ACU has set a June 27 deadline for the station to respond. She said there is a planning meeting among ACU members at BGSU tonight to map out a strategy, including organizing a boycott of the station's advertisers, if the station does not respond favorably.

Ms. Mah said the group wants Mr. Garber off the air, along with a public apology for the Chinese restaurant incident, and a promise that the incidents will not continue.

Ms. Mah, a member of the Toledo Fair Housing Center board of directors, said American Citizens for Justice, a civil rights organization out of Detroit, has joined in the protest against the disc jockey. She also said ACU plans to approach other local civil rights organizations about the matter.

"We wanted to send a message that this is not just [ACU]," she said. "This is a community-wide effort and there is a broad range of people who are upset about this issue and are prepared to take action."

Errol Lam, a retired BGSU employee and a member of ACU, said the incident has motivated the usually quiet organization to take action because they felt the incident was so offensive.

"Our group has not been active in matters that are, for lack of a better word, confrontational," Mr. Lam said. "We've sponsored [racial and ethnic sensitivity] programs, but have done nothing like this issue. I was kind of excited when people started to bring this up."

Dennis Chung, owner of Kotobuki Japanese Restaurant in Sylvania, said yesterday he was aware of the radio station calls, though neither involved his restaurant or employees. He said the restaurant receives "crank calls" like that from time to time. "I usually get the best of them, so they don't call back," he said.

Mr. Chung said he personally would not have been offended by a call from a radio station, but understands why others would.

"I grew up here, so I've heard things like that my entire life," he said. "I don't believe [Lucas] should lose his job, but the station should at least apologize."

Contact Clyde Hughes at:
chughes@theblade.com
or 419-724-6095.

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