DJ issues apology for prank calls

7/18/2006

A disc jockey for WTWR-FM (98.3) has been suspended without pay for making racially insensitive remarks during prank calls to Chinese and Japanese restaurants, the market manager for Cumulus-owned radio stations said yesterday.

"Lucas," whose real name is Josh Garber, made an on-air apology last night.

In addition, market manager Chris Taylor said that the station's program director, Brent Carey, is no longer with the station.

"He was let go yesterday," Taylor said. "We're a button-down corporation. We want to do the right thing."

Reading from a prepared statement shortly after 8:30 last night, Lucas said, "Those calls reflected poor judgment on my part and resulted in an outcry from the Asian community who interpreted my statements as derogatory and offensive. For that I apologize, as it was not my intention, in any way, to offend the Asian community, or to mock those of Asian ancestry."

A local Asian-American group, Asian Communities United, or ACU, had demanded that Lucas be fired.

Theresa Mah, an ethnic studies professor at Bowling Green State University, helped to organize a petition drive against the station.

She was unavailable for comment.