Atlanta Radio: What Did iHM Know And When Did They Know It?

Drew Lauter, president of  iHeartMedia Atlanta, has been let go after a video surfaced of him appearing to say racial slurs.

WSB-TV2, which procured the video, said it shows Lauter using a common slur against Black people multiple times in front of other iHeartMedia employees in a car after a charity event in August 2021. Employees were informed of his departure Thursday.

Attorney Jason Castle, who represents the unnamed Black employee who recorded the video, told WSB-TV that this isn’t the first time Lauter has uttered racially insensitive language.

iHeartMedia Atlanta president ‘no longer employed’ after video appears to show him use racial slurs https://t.co/VTSa2UdFbU

— Tom Benson (@Tombenson1) October 14, 2022

A spokesperson for iHeartMedia told WSB-TV that “allegations of this nature go against our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously.”

Lauter couldn’t be reached for comment.

CNN obtained the videos from attorney Jason Castle, who represents a Black iHeart executive who was riding in the car and recorded the videos. They were taken in August 2021 while the group was leaving a local charity golf tournament, he says.

Drew Lauter

The videos show Lauter using multiple variations of the n-word and other expletives as he rides in the backseat of a vehicle.

He is also shown reaching into the front seat, grabbing the driver – a male member of iHeartMedia’s regional senior sales team – and mimicking fondling while using aggressive, offensive and sexist language. Lauter appears to be inebriated throughout the clips.

Castle told CNN by phone this sort of behavior happened “quite often” and said Lauter created an “environment rife with sexual harassment and racial discrimination.”

Castle said iHeart officials was made aware of the situation last year when it happened and took no apparent action against Lauter until after the recordings were released.

Meg Stevens, senior vice president for programming for iHeartMedia Atlanta, confirmed Lauter’s departure from the company but declined further comment.

In her statement to CNN, Stevens said, “We were not aware of the video (or the instance) until recently, a year after it had been recorded. … while we do not comment on personnel matters, allegations of this nature go against both our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously. As soon as they were brought to our attention we acted quickly, retaining an outside investigator to conduct a thorough review, and when we received the outside investigator’s findings, we took the appropriate course of action.”

iHeartMedia-Atlanta employees were informed of the decision Thursday.

Lauter joined iHeartMedia Atlanta in 2020 after a year working at iHeartMedia in Madison, Wisconsin. At the time, he was new to radio. Previously, he worked at multiple start-up tech companies.

iHeartMedia Atlanta owns radio stations 94.9/The Bull (country), Power 96.1 (top 40), 105.3/The Beat (hip hop), El Z105.7 (Spanish pop), 96.7/El Patron (regional Mexican) and news station 640/WBIN-AM.

Its stations have been largely underperforming in recent years compared to its competitors, ajc.com reports. The two largest stations ― the Bull and Power ― lag behind their direct rivals in the ratings.

In a follow-up interview with Rodney Ho at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday, Castle said his client isn’t ready to identify himself yet but is weighing a possible lawsuit. Castle’s client joined iHeartMedia as a senior sales executive in 2021 and left in the summer of 2022, seeking counsel with Castle in August. He declined to say why his client departed.

“It was important for our client that the environment that existed at iHeart be communicated and exposed,” Castle said. “What that video depicts was not a singular moment in time.”

Employees had seen Lauter ingest “multiple substances, not entirely of the liquid form,” before the rant began, Castle said, but he wouldn’t say what those substances were.

During part of one of the two videos provided to WSB-TV, it appears Lauter, who is in the back seat, is seen groping the male driver for several seconds.