A radio announcer in Buffalo, New York, was fired after comparing black women’s skin tones to toasted bread, said CBS affiliate WIVB. Cumulus Media, owner of 97 Rock, announced on Wednesday that “Morning Bull” radio host Rob Lederman has been released and his other co-hosts, Rich Gaenzler and Chris Klein, have been suspended after starting a classified conversation black women skin tone.
“Cumulus Media operates on a clearly defined set of programming principles and there is no doubt that Rob Lederman’s comments on The Morning Bull Show directly violate those principles,” said a company spokesman in a statement. to the WIVB. “We fired him quickly and suspended the rest of the show’s talent on the air. We apologize and deeply regret the incident.”
On the show, Lederman said “I would never go at the level of Serena Williams, but I am very comfortable at the level of Halle Berry.”
“I need a little mulatto still going,” he said. In the audio, Brown also mentions the name of “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King.
“Morning Bull” did not go off the air on Thursday morning. The station’s Twitter cover photo showed Lederman and Gaenzler on Thursday afternoon.
Screenshot of CBS News
While the “Morning Bull” episode was no longer available, ESPN’s Buffalo Bulls reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques shared a 45-second clip from the show online. In response to a Twitter user, Louis-Jacques explained the severity of Lederman’s comments.
“There is already an unfortunate and undeserved stigma attached to dark skin – so for Rob to take something undesirable like burnt toast and compare it to anyone’s skin color is reprehensible and feeds that stigma,” he tweeted.
The comments caught the attention of the mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, among others, in which he condemned the comments, calling them “outrageous and intolerable. There is no place in our society for these statements or beliefs,” he said.
Several program advertising partners pulled your ads of the show due to the comments. Pegula Sports & Entertainment he also severed ties with one of the show’s presenters, who served as an arena presenter for the Buffalo Sabers and Bandits.
Lederman told The Buffalo News that he was “horrified” by his words after listening to a recording.
“I can easily see how someone can be offended by this,” he told the news agency. “I understood.”