Nathan OUTloud interview with Kim Pearson regarding TYFA and the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show"

In Nathan OUTloud episode on June 14th, host Nathan Treanor interviews TYFA co-founder Kim Pearson regarding TYFA and the events from the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show" on KRXQ in Sacramento, California that started with the May 28th show.

Nathan OUTloud is a bi-weekly podcast dedicated to sharing stories from the LGBT community.

Go to the Nathan OUTloud site to listen to: Episode 5 - Kim Pearson from TransYouth Family Allies 36:40 minutes

Find out more about: TransYouth Family Allies (TFYA)

Thank you Rob, Arnie, and Dawn for an excellent show this morning

I listened to the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning" show this morning and I have to say I was very impressed. It was clear that they really got it that they had crossed the line on the show and then made it worse a week later by telling people that it was just a joke.

What seems to have impacted them the most in getting there is that their regular listener audience told them that what they had done and said was not okay.

I could tell that they took time to really connect with people -- to open their minds and hearts to the responses they got -- and it changed them. And they have the guts to go on the air and admit how they screwed up and do a show that really deal with it.

Today they spent from 7:30 AM to 10 AM on the show talking about this. The guests they brought in were Kim Pearson and Autumn Sandeen who were excellent, and they had callers to the show also and handled that very well.

This is what they posted on their homepage http://www.robarnieanddawn.com/ after the show:

UPDATED JUNE 11TH, 2009, 10:45AM

We would like to thank our two very special guests for stopping by and sharing their stories with us. If you would like to learn more about them, please visit the following links.

To learn more about Kim Perason and the TransYouth Family Allies organization visit www.imatyfa.org.

And to read Autumn Sandeen's online contributions visit www.pamshouseblend.com.

If you miss today's show, you can download the full two and a half hours directly from this web site by clicking on the links to the left.

Thank you,

The Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show

Because the show's homepage may change in time I am linking directly to the show that happened today here:

- Hour 1 Of Transgender Response
- Hour 2 Of Transgender Response
- Last Part Of Transgender Response

Doing the show they did today takes guts, and I applaud Rob and Arnie for that - for being willing to publicly not only say that their behavior was wrong, and not just to apologize on the air, but to spend the whole show today talking about it so that other people can learn and understand with them.

Again thank you Dawn for being such a good ally. Your voice in all this was very much appreciated.

And thank you Kim and Autumn for your parts in this whole experience.

It's very good to be able to see something like this turn out for the good. It is an example of what we can hold up to show people that there is reason to hope and to do this work we do.

Updates on "the transgender controversy" and the "Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning" show

Note: this is an update on my June 3rd post below, Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning - "the transgender controversy".

I checked and you can now listen to the entire segment of this show on the player on the GLAAD site here:
http://www.glaad.org/Page.aspx?pid=730

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On June 5th GLAAD posted updated information on their website about ten companies that have pulled their advertising from KRXQ, the Sacramento California radio station that hosts the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning show:

The entire listing of companies include:

• Chipotle
• Snapple
• Sonic
• Bank of America
• Verizon
• Carl’s Jr (CKE Restaurants)
• Wells Fargo
• Nissan North America
• AT&T
• McDonald’s

For more information, read UPDATE: McDonald’s Is 10th Company to Pull KRXQ Advertising on the GLAAD website.

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This was posted today, Sunday June 7, 2009 on >The Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show website: http://robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/ - and because it is posted on their homepage which I expect will change, I am posting the message here rather than linking to it:

UPDATED JUNE 7TH, 2009, 11:50AM

TO OUR LOYAL ROB, ARNIE AND DAWN FOLLOWERS,

WE HAVE FAILED YOU. AS A SHOW, AS PEOPLE, AS BROADCASTERS, WE HAVE SIMPLY FAILED ON ALMOST EVERY LEVEL.

WE PRESENTED OUR OPINIONS ON A VERY SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN A HATEFUL, CHILDISH AND CRUDE FASHION; AND THEN, GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO RETRACT THOSE REMARKS, WE DEFENDED THEM.

SINCE THEN, YOU, OUR LOYAL LISTENERS, HAVE MADE IT CLEAR TO US THAT WE WENT TOO FAR. THE RESPONSE HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING. NONE OF YOU SAID THAT WE COULDN’T HAVE OPINIONS, YET SO MANY OF YOU SAID THAT THE WAY WE GAVE THEM CROSSED THE LINE. FURTHER, YOU SAID THAT OUR ATTEMPT TO MASK OUR COMMENTS AS “JOKES THAT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BY OUR AUDIENCE,” WAS UNACCEPTABLE. I WOULD SAY NOW THAT IT WAS WORSE THAN THAT, IT WAS COWARDLY. YOU HAVE MADE THAT CLEAR.

WE HAVE REACHED OUT TO VARIOUS GROUPS AND ASKED FOR A CHANCE TO MAKE THIS RIGHT; TO RESPOND, WITH THEIR PARTICIPATION, TO THE EDUCATION THAT OUR AUDIENCE HAS PROVIDED US. THAT OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN GRACIOUSLY GRANTED THIS THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 11TH. AT 7:30 A.M.

THE WORD APOLOGY APPEARS NO WHERE IN THIS LETTER FOR A REASON. WE ALREADY HID FROM DOING THE RIGHT THING ONCE AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. APOLOGIZING IN A WRITTEN, POSTED STATEMENT IS A FORM OF COWARDICE. WE WILL SAY WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID THIS THURSDAY.

ON A FINAL, PERSONAL NOTE, AS THE LEADER AND OWNER OF THE SHOW, I HAVE MADE THE DECISION THAT WE NEED TO REFRAIN FROM BROADCASTING NEW EPISODES UNTIL WE CAN ADDRESS THIS ON THURSDAY . WE WILL RETURN TO THE AIR AT 7:30 A.M. JUNE 11TH.

ROB WILLIAMS
ROB, ARNIE AND DAWN

So since thier show is broadcast out of Sacramento California, that will be 7:30 AM Pacific time this Thursday.

Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning - "the transgender controversy"

I've been following a story I first heard about on a PFLAG listserv and Facebook about the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning show that airs on KRXQ - 98.5 FM Sacramento, CA..

The hosts are dealing with what they refer to as "the transgender controversy" after a recent show.

I found some information on the GLAAD website:

June 2, 2009— In a lengthy May 28 tirade on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States verbally attacked transgender children. While discussing a recent story about a transgender child in Omaha, Nebraska and her parents’ decision to support her transition, the two hosts spent more than 30 minutes explicitly promoting child abuse of and making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children.

Read the whole action alert here on the GLAAD site:
TAKE ACTION: Demand that KRXQ Radio Hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States Apologize for Encouraging Violence Against Transgender Children

The link to the audio file was only a 17 second clip, and I was unable to find the whole show.

But I did find this June 2nd article by Michael Rowe on Huffington Post:
KRXQ Sacramento Radio Hosts Encourage Violence Against Transgender Children.

Then I went to the homepage for the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning show:

http://robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/

The show is described there as:

A five hour, listener interactive radio program that many people describe as just three regular people sitting around the breakfast table trying to make sense of the world. We prefer to think of it as three really abnormal miscreants of society who have stumbled upon this line of work and are making everybody else pay for it.

I scrolled down to this:

• Listen to Rob, Arnie & Dawn's response to the transgender controversy by clicking on the audio file links below...

and I did that.

I had to download the audio files to my computer (an option with RealPlayer) in order to listen to them because when I tried listening to them online the audio was skipping and I was missing hearing parts. But that may have been when there was a lot of traffic on the site.

Here are the audio files:

06.03.09 - The Rob & Arnie Transgender Controversy 49.09 minutes

06.03.09 - Transgender Controversy Continued 22.46 minutes

06.03.09 - The Evolution of Tolerance 6.42 minutes

06.03.09 - Haters & Supporters of Rob & Arnie 5.58 minutes

06.03.09 - Seperating Transgenders & Mental Patients 7.50 minutes

06.03.09 - More Listeners React To Transgender Controversy 9.04 minutes

06.03.09 - Listeners Still Love RAD 6.01 minutes

Wow. It's a twisted time talking about gender identity, about bullying, hate speech, hate crimes, freedom of speech and much more - from more than one side. I found it a disturbing and in an almost clinical way an interesting look at how these three particular people hashed the subject among each other, with callers to the show, and sharing emails they have received.

I was SO glad that Dawn Rossi was part of the show because she is an outspoken ally. Thank you Dawn.

Anyone else have something to say on this? Please comment here.

And if you want to respond to the folks at the show, this is from the GLAAD Alert:

TAKE ACTION NOW!
Please contact KRXQ management in Sacramento, California, where the show is produced and demand that radio show hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States publicly apologize. Call on KRXQ to hold Williams and States accountable for their remarks and establish clear standards to ensure their media platform will not be used to condone or promote violence against any parts of the communities they serve.

John Geary
Vice President & General Manager
KRXQ-FM
(916) 339-4209
jgeary@entercom.com

Arnie States
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rad@robarnieanddawn.com

Rob Williams
On Air Personality
KRXQ-FM
(916) 334-7777
rwilliams@entercom.com

Please use the share page functionality at the top of this page to alert any of your friends and others who may also wish to take action. When contacting KRXQ, please ensure that your emails and phone calls are civil and respectful and do not engage in the kind of name-calling or abusive behavior.