ANCHORAGE, Alaska
A radio station suspended two disc jockeys Tuesday over a derogatory remark about Alaska Native women made on their show, a comment that has Alaskans comparing the shock-jock duo to Don Imus.
The Anchorage DJs, known as Woody and Wilcox, were joking about what makes someone a real Alaskan, when one of them said it’s somebody who makes love to the Yukon River and urinates in a Native woman. It’s a twist on an old saying also offensive to many that real Alaskans have urinated in the Yukon River and made love to an Alaska Native woman.
Some Alaska Natives are calling for sanctions against KBFX-FM, the hard rock station that features Woody and Wilcox on its morning show.
Michelle Davis, who is part Tlingit, said she was listening to the show April 9 while stuck in traffic on her way to work when she heard the comment.
“I was horrified,” she said Tuesday. “It was a very ugly image.”
Natives are likening the remarks to those made last spring by Imus, who called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” CBS Radio fired Imus on April 12, 2007, and pulled the plug on his nationally syndicated show. He returned to the air in December at WABC-AM in New York after a series of public apologies.
