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Jeff Catlin, operations manager of Cumulus Radio Dallas, just sent over the above clip of KLIF host Chris Krok’s so-called on-air apology from Tuesday, for a homophobic rant last month in which Krok ridiculed Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns’ “It Gets Better” speech.
In the so-called apology, Krok acknowledges that he “crossed the line” by attacking Burns personally and using a lisp. He also says he never intended to advocate bullying or hurt anyone, and that he believes God loves gay people as much as anyone else. However, Krok goes on to say that he stands by his original point.
“I am in no way backing down from my opinion that Joel Burns had absolutely no business bringing this bullying stuff up in front of that City Council,” Krok says. “It was not the proper forum. Bullying is not an issue for City Council to address, let alone gay bullying. Straight bullying and gay bullying have no business in front of the City Council. It’s a waste and it’s useless. I was bullied when I was kid … just as much if not worse than Joel Burns was. For two years I was terrorized by two different guys. And Joel being bullied, his story, is no better than my story. His story is not worth any more attention than my story is, so it shouldn’t be treated differently or specially. And I’ll make it clear again, I do not condone homosexual behavior. For those who don’t know what condone means, I don’t approve of homosexual behavior, and I am not apologizing for my opinion. Now, I want to share with you some e-mails that I got because, as I said, we got many e-mails over the past several days, and I want you to notice the irony, because the same people who accused me of bullying are bullying me …”
The clip sent by Catlin ends at this point.
The so-called apology came after Instant Tea posted a clip of Krok’s eight-minute rant from October last week. Catlin said he received 500-600 e-mails in the wake of the post, which was picked up by gay blogs across the country.
Catlin said he met with Krok to discuss the matter on Tuesday morning, and Krok expressed an interest in apologizing.
Catlin claims he had already disciplined Krok immediately after the rant but he would not say what the punishment was.
“He was disciplined and as proof of such this topic was not discussed on the air again,” Catlin said. “The proof is in the pudding, and if you listen every day from Oct. 20 up until Nov. 16, it’s pretty clear that we did have a discussion about it.”
- Chris Krok
I hope God doesn’t love Chris Krok as much he loves gays. Because I’m pretty sure Chris Krok is going to hell.
Chris Krok looks pretty comfortable being eye level with a phallic mouthpiece.
So if you listen to Mr. Krok’s broadcasts it’s pretty clear he’s using queer-baiting as a professional ploy. He moved from Chicago to Madison to Minneapolis (the latter two being relatively liberal strongholds) to Atlanta (which is not THAT queer-unfriendly) to D/FW in search of a market where he could sell his agenda of discord. The guy is clearly pandering to angry evangelicals, trying to boost his ratings by being “shocking.” His tired schtick is grating and relatively unpleasant, but I’m comforted to know his audience only supports a part-time AM radio listenership. The are probably internet podcasts with larger audiences.
Still, his whole queer-baiting act is unworthy of KLIF radio, and the guy will get dropped once the old guard that still go for that kind of vitriol die off. I don’t think I have to remind anyone at this site that LGBT folk come from all walks of life and have significant economic clout. Sure, maybe we have more organized political muscle in San Francisco and New York than we do in Dallas, but the bottom line is this joker is on his way out.
We can accelerate his departure by contacting KLIF’s advertisers and letting them know we do not appreciate their support of programming that is demeaning of us personally or advocates a political agenda that would disenfranchise us. So… anyone who wants to start taking shifts listening to KLIF and noting the names of their advertisers is welcome to join me.
If you happen to find yourself listening to KLIF, tweet the name of the advertisers with the hashtag #klifads. Include contact info for the advertiser if you have it. Every couple of days come back to twitter, search for the hash tag and call the advertiser to remind them they do not want their product associated with Mr. Krok’s message.
Also, you may want to contact Mr. Krok’s supervisor at KLIF directly and let him know how disappointed you are with Mr. Krok’s comments on-air. His name is Jeff Catin. He can be reached at +1 214 526 2400 and his email address is jeff.catlin@cumulus.com . Please remember to be respectful of Mr. Krok and Mr. Catlin. They may have opinions we disagree with, and they may be making money peddling a message of hate, but we have the moral high ground here. We’ll lose if if they can drag us down to their level.
@Meadhbh Hamrick We do have the moral high ground here. It’s a shame the first commenter (Arnold Wayne Jones) chose to attack Chris Krok versus advancing the dialogue. I guess that’s to be expected from a Life and Style editor.
@Ronnie…so you do the same thing to Arnold Wayne Jones? Pot meet Kettle.
As for the topic at hand, this is more about KLIF than this homophobe. He used their airwaves to spread this message. He has a first amendment right to speak, but he doesn’t have a first amendment right to a radio show. They need to take decisive action, not just coaching him quietly or putting him on plan.
Keep your eyes on the prize, peeps! Let’s not bicker amongst ourselves.
I recently had a conversation with a photographer in Richardson who recently dined with Mr. Krok. Or maybe he was about to dine with him, it’s not clear. His assessment was that Chris Krok does not have any personal animosity towards any particular queer individual, so I think it’s pretty clear Mr. Krok is using queer-baiting as a gimmick to drive ratings.
And the sad thing is it’s so easy to get away with it. I think there are a lot of people in D/FW who cling to outdated stereotypes about LGBT individuals. KLIF and Cumulus Media probably think it’s an okay thing to do because they’re not hearing from their mainstream listeners
We’re fighting for simple recognition of our “personness.” To paraphrase MLK, we’re fighting to be recognized for the content of our character, not who we share a bed with. At the end of the day, we will need to find a peace with the types of people who think it’s okay to bully someone based on their sexual orientation or gender presentation. We have to convince these people that queer-baiting is uncool. And that selling radio content that advocates queer bashing is similarly uncool.
Passion is great, and i salute Arnold’s passion. But yeah, we’ve got to make peace with people who believe the worst things about us, so let’s all take a breath or two before dissing people. Imagine that you’re trying to explain the situation to your grandmother. My grandmother had all sorts of ideas i disagreed with, but i loved her in spite of her flaws and always respectfully encouraged her to see things differently.
“Now, I want to share with you some e-mails that I got…”
Such typical behavior, we see over and over again. The ignorant person, having been exposed as a hateful homophobic bully, then tries to portray themselves as the real victim of the situation. Of course, they fail to acknowledge that if it hadn’t been for their original homophobic diatribe they wouldn’t have received all the hate mail in the first place.
“I do not condone homosexual behavior.” — Yeah, Chris? Well I do not condone ignorant bigoted hate-filled homophobic behavior. There’s a really big difference too, Chris. You can’t choose your sexual orientation. But you can choose to be an ignorant bigot that uses the Bible to justify their hatred of others. As you may have guessed, your half-assed b.s. apology is not accepted. You’re an embarrassment to Texans and Americans. Do us all a favor and resign before you get fired.
Chris Krok has been passed around for a long time in many AM markets. His gimmick is an appeal to listeners who tune in for mindless tabloid chatter on AM stations and appears to be a desperate panic to save a broadcasting career.
I guess you guys failed, he’s on a 4 hour time slot on WBAP now, broadcasting both FM and AM frequencies. And I listen every night.