Iowa Broadcasters Fired For Racial Comments At High School Basketball Game

Two people from a Forest City radio station are out of work following comments they made in the middle of a high school doubleheader last Tuesday between Forest City and Eagle Grove.

The two, a man and woman, can be heard in the video below talking about the ethnicity of members of the Eagle Grove basketball team. They're nothing short of disgraceful. View the video HERE if it does not display properly below.

On their website, KIOW posted this message today under the heading "KIOW Statement in regards to video feed incident on November 28th":

On Tuesday, November 28th, two employees of KIOW made comments that were insensitive, thoughtless and degrading to others. These comments were deplorable, and the staff and management of KIOW in no way condones or supports these comments.

These comments never aired on KIOW Radio. They did, however, appear on a video feed that appeared on a school website.

That night when we learned of these comments, we were in contact with the Eagle Grove School District and gathered information about the incident. On Thursday morning, November 30, a letter of apology was sent to school officials, along with details of our actions in regards to the two employees involved.

As a result, both employees have been fired from their positions with the station.

KIOW Radio has a long history of promoting and supporting student athletes, coaches and schools. As a company, we take great pride in spotlighting the great efforts of our local citizens, schools and communities, and we will demand that all company employees adhere to this policy.

KIOW Management

According to Deadspin, the broadcast is believed to be an online stream from the radio station, that wasn't part of the radio broadcast, itself.

As someone who has done high school and college games for years, I'm almost positive that conversation was between the broadcaster at the game and his board operator back at the radio station. I say that only to give clarity to exactly when it happened, as you can clearly see one of the boy's teams warming up prior to the start of their game. What was said is, as KIOW says in their statement, deplorable. Period. When it was said doesn't matter one iota.

[via Globe Gazette and Deadspin]