L-A Radio: KFI's Bill Handel Apologizes For Calling Lawmaker 'Whore'

KFI 640 AM Morning Host Bill Handel has  apologized nearly two weeks after he called a congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, "whore" live on-air, reports The L.A. Weekly.

Hours before he was scheduled to be inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, Handel apologized in a pre-recorded message that aired recently on the station. Journalist and political commentator Janmyne Cannick, who's been pressuring the station and its owner over the remark, archived the clip.

In a pre-recorded segment aired on KFI Handel said, "I made an inappropriate and offensive remark. It's a term that should not be used by KFI in any context. I would like to apologize to representative Wilson for using that word."



On Oct. 20, Handel was discussing the Florida congresswoman on his KFI show when he called her a "cheap, sleazy Democrat whore." Two days later he said on-air that he meant to call her a "media whore." The host was discussing the row between Wilson and President Trump.

Cannick was not impressed with the apology. And it doesn't appear to have halted any of the calls for Handel's job. She notes that longtime KFI hosts known as John and Ken were suspended in 2012 after calling Whitney Houston a "crack ho."

"If KFI can suspend afternoon drive hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou (John and Ken) for one-week following their calling Whitney Houston a ‘crack ho,’ then Bill Handel — KFI’s prized morning drive host who called a sitting member of Congress a 'cheap, sleazy, Democrat whore' on live air — should get nothing less," Cannick says.

"A pre-recorded apology two weeks after the fact and played while Handel is on his way across country to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame is seen for what it is — the least that Handel, KFI and iHeartMedia was willing to do. This is 2017, rehab, sensitivity training and carefully written apologies way after the fact simply don’t cut it today."

The corporate ownership of KFI, iHeartMedia, and KFI program director Robin Bertolucci have not responded to multiple requests from L.A. Weekly for comment.