NEPA Radio: WHLM Owner Suspends Son Amid Controversy

WHLM 930 AM owner Joe Reilly announced late Tuesday that he has suspended his son David indefinitely and without pay from the station in response to outrage over David’s involvement in Saturday’s protest-turned-riot in Charlottesville, Va., where white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members clashed with counter-protesters.

“WHLM and the Columbia Broadcasting Company denounces, detests, disavows, condemns and has never condoned any form of racism, white supremacism, bigotry or political violence towards anyone or any group,” Joe Reilly said in a statement posted on the station’s website just before 9 p.m.

The Bloomsburg Press-Enterprise reports Reilly took the action against his son after at least 13 businesses removed all advertising from the family-owned station.

The station also lost another on-air personality yesterday when Norman Mael, a long-time voice on WHLM’s Morning Buzz program, tendered his resignation after nearly 15 years.

Some station critics said last night they won’t be satisfied until David Reilly has issued a public apology and is terminated.

For the second straight evening Tuesday, demonstrators descended upon downtown Bloomsburg for the start of David Reilly’s scheduled 6 p.m. deejay time slot to protest outside the WHLM studio.

About 50 demonstrators turned out for last night’s protest, dwarfing Monday’s turnout of less than a dozen.

WHLM 930 AM (2 Kw-D, 18-watts-N)

Meanwhile, Bloomsburg Police Chief Roger Van Loan confirmed Tuesday that his department has opened an investigation into threats made against WHLM.

Detractors of David Reilly, a deejay and “director of new media” at the station, argue that his interview with a Charlottesville march organizer, which aired on WHLM last week, and his video montage of the Charlottesville march promoted the white supremacist movement.

Those critics also argue that Reilly’s social media comments, including his repeated use of “#unitetheright” in reference to the march, endorsed the event.


The crowd included some of the station's fans, according to WNEP-TV.

"They had been in many ways model, I mean terrific, like when the flood hit," said Jerry Stropnicky of Danville.

Stropnicky knows Reilly and held a sign saying, "David step back from the dark side."

But others in the crowd maintained Reilly is beyond redemption.

Nate Wheeler, 31, of Bloomsburg, said he and a friend organized the protest because of the video. The nearly 5-minute video, mostly shot from a drone, shows the white supremacists marching and gathering with torches on Friday night, as techno rock music plays over the scenes.