Wednesday, June 3, 2009

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.

11 comments:

  1. This literally disgusts me.

    I don't even care what your view is on transgender children although personally i'd advocate a supportive stance but to promote violence against children already in a vulnerable group is indefensible.

    One commentator even threatened physically abusing his own child! They should have been taken off the air.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They really are souless. This isn't the first time. They (Rob and Arnie) often make fun of special needs children calling them "windowlickers" and the like. They also enjoy spreading their view that Autism is fake and due to bad parenting. I am SO sorry they have hit the transgender community so hard. Those comments could have been the last straw for a child. They may have just pulled the trigger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. are you serious? what parent in their right mind lets their child (and by child we mean 12 and under) listen to an ADULT THEMED RADIO TALK SHOW?

      Delete
  3. Support Rob and Arnie and contact the advertisers; don't let the vocal minority run this country.
    all of the sponsors emails can be found here
    http://www.radisupportrobarnieanddawn.host56.com/
    ironically any clicking on Google the advertisers of this web page take money from the people that dropped support of RAD and gives it to webmaster so click away.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting Matt, I went to see what the website you posted a link to has on it just now and it bounced me to this page
    http://www.000webhost.com/admin-review

    Website Under Review

    You see this page, because the system administrator of 000webhost.com is currently checking this website for malicious content. This redirect will be removed once we will finish manually checking all files on this account. As far we check over 100 websites, it can take about 2-4 hours to complete. If you are the owner of this website, you will get email confirmation once it's done. If you are a visitor - please come back later.

    *** see more on the site:
    http://www.000webhost.com/admin-review

    ReplyDelete
  5. What is happening to the rights of free speech and having an opinion. Rob and Arnie had an opinion; an opinion that many people in this world share. Just look at the turnout from California’s own Prop 8. The Gay and Lesbian movement was turned down by the voting public. There is a HUGE population that has deemed something wrong with that lifestyle. It is a lifestyle that society has not deemed as normal yet.

    The transgender community has a larger battle than the Gay and Lesbian community. Society has also deemed that it is not normal yet. There are too many unanswered questions. I cannot imagine sending my child to school swimming lessons and having a transgender child in a female bathing suit with a bulge between the legs. I also cannot imagine how this little boy can opt out of such an important cultural and social activity without being thought of as “strange and unusual”. Society is not ready, and I am not ready.

    The fact that Rob and Arnie are being stripped from their FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS by a group of people who whine every time things don’t go their way appalls me. If you don’t like what they have to say, DON’T LISTEN. If enough people stop listening, they will fade away. If they survive, oh well, you won’t be listening any way.

    I am sure there are many people out there that think I am an evil hateful person. That is an opinion that you are free to have. Please do not take away that right from other people. If you strip the right to an opinion, you are stripping individuality away from our society. People need to be taught how to be disappointed, angry, hurt and frustrated. People are not entitled to be compensated just because they did not get their own way. I do not want to think like everyone else.

    And one final note on my little rant. Arnie’s comment about throwing a shoe at a child is not condoning violence. In America we call it a figure of speech. Society has deemed similar comments as being acceptable. How many time have we heard the words “I’ll kick your ass” thrown around? More than I can count. And I don’t want to have that and similar lines censored from my favorite TV shows.

    In closing, I despise looking at the future of my children in a world where poo is no longer allowed to be funny because someone gets all, to quote Rob Williams, “butt hurt” and offended. I despise a world where people are no longer allowed to have an opinion. Quite frankly, as long as there are differences in people, people will find a way to poke fun at each other.

    SDM - Reno, NV
    13 Year listener of Rob Arnie and Dawn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you already cant say vagina in public without somebody looking at you funny. public schools in texas cant talk about birth control in sex ed because sex ISNT a natural part of life. the way i see it free speech is already infringed on by all the assinine do gooders of the world who just want to "protect the children".

      Delete
  6. If you really think that Rob or Arnie were actually advocating violence against children then you know nothing about them, the show and are just plain ignorant on the whole topic. A 17 second clip will not tell you who these people are or what they are doing.

    They try to express all the viewpoints on every topic they discuss. One who does not listen to the show regularly will miss any of the spoken disclaimers about this.

    They all care for the well-being of children and have raised large sums of money to benefit the U.C. Davis Children's Hospital. You don't hear GLAAD talking about that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Matt, the link you gave which was under review by the host company now does work:
    http://www.radisupportrobarnieanddawn.host56.com/

    Anonymous, I think its wonderful that Rob, Arnie and Dawn raise money for the Children's Hospital. But I completely disagree that Rob and Arnie care for the well-being of all children and that is based on what I heard on their show. When what they say 'in fun' hurts vulnerable people who are at risk - and our youths are the most vulnerable - then they have gone too far. Disclaimers do not make that okay.

    I believe that this is a basic safety issue. Hate speech - which is what I heard - creates an environment where discrimination is acceptable and where people are seen as acceptable targets. Dawn expressed that they had gone too far during the show, and it appears that they have recognized that as well based on the message on their website talking about it and asking people to listen on Thursday.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bravo SDM in Reno.. I couldnt have said it better myself. All the rest of you - GET OVER IT! Are you really that sensitive?? Welcome to the real world.. Life 101 - sometimes people say things and have opinions that hurt you.. GROW UP!

    ReplyDelete