Boston Radio: WEEI Hits Mute For Sensitivity Training

WEEI 93.7 FM has canceled its live programming Friday in order for its full staff to participate in sensitivity training, a response to the advertiser backlash to a host mocking Tom Brady’s agent with a stereotypical accent last week, reports to boston.com.

“Nothing is more important to WEEI than the close-knit and diverse Boston community we call home, and we are committed to actively contributing to its betterment,” a statement issued by the station and parent company Entercom Communications read.

“WEEI is in the process of closely reevaluating our policies and procedures in an effort to ensure that our programming is never intolerant or harmful to our listeners and our city.”

Statement from WEEI: pic.twitter.com/cLykP0gtFB

— WEEI (@WEEI) February 14, 2018

Christian Fauria, a midday host on WEEI’s Ordway, Merloni and Fauria program, was suspended for five days after mocking Yee with a racially insensitive Asian accent while the hosts were discussing reporter Ron Borges’s erroneous story in Friday’s Boston Herald.

Borges was duped by a sports radio listener pretending via text to be Yee, telling him that Brady would skip the Patriots’ offseason organized team activities unless he was paid like Garoppolo, his former backup. Garoppolo  signed a five-year, $137.5 million contract with the 49ers last week.

Fauria, during a “dramatic reading” of the Borges/Yee texts on Friday’s program, said, “I’m gonna be Don Yee. For me, I don’t know why, Don Yee sounds like an Asian guy.” He then commenced reading the lines with an over-the-top Asian accent. His co-hosts laughed.

Eventually, the show played audio of the real Don Yee talking. He is of Chinese descent, but he was born in Sacramento, Calif., and does not speak with any distinct accent.

In the fallout over the past week, WEEI has had at least five advertisers, including Comcast Corp., Citizens Bank, and the Massachusetts State Lottery, suspend or terminate commercial purchases with the station.

Maura Healey

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe reports Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey says she supports the growing number of advertisers fleeing WEEI and that no state money should be spent for ads on the sports radio station in the aftermath of its recent controversies, unless they make “some changes.”

“I think it is significant that you see a lot of advertisers pulling out and making a decision with their wallets right now, recognizing that there’s a real movement on to take this out of the discourse,” the Massachusetts attorney general said in an interview Wednesday on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio.

“This isn’t the first time that EEI has found themselves in the midst of criticism over things that they’re radio hosts have said,” Healey said Wednesday, alluding to the radio station’s long history of controversies and inflammatory remarks. “That goes back awhile.”

“You don’t need to be making comments in the course of that that are racist or derogatory towards women, towards minority, or the like,” she said, later adding, “But I think now you see them paying the price for that.”

Healey said Wednesday that her office doesn’t have an advertising budget, but that the Health Connector and State Lottery were right to pull their ads. Asked if any state money should be spent on advertising on the station, the attorney general said not “until and unless they make some changes.”