Asian American groups call for CBS to fire New York shock-jocks

SAN FRANCISCO — Prominent Asian American civil rights groups in the Bay Area are demanding that CBS Radio fire New York shock-jocks Jeff Vandergrift and Dan Lay, who were suspended earlier this week for making a prank phone call to a Chinese restaurant seen as racist and sexist.

Today, the coalition of groups submitted a letter to CBS Radio, calling for the network to improve its guidelines on offensive terms, to communicate periodically with civil rights and community groups and to fire the duo — who had broadcast on Bay Area airwaves for more than a decade before they went to New York in 2005 — and their producer at WFNY-FM.

The coalition includes the Asian Law Caucus, Chinese for Affirmative Action of San Francisco and Equal Rights Advocates — all in San Francisco — along with Oakland’s Organization for Justice & Equality and, in New York, the 80-20 Initiative, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Organization of Chinese Americans.

The station’s general manager, Tom Chiusano, has agreed to meet with the coalition, but no date has been set. He had no comment on the groups’ petition.

Vandergrift and Lay, who go by the monikers JV and Elvis on their show “The Dog House,” placed a six-minute call to a Chinese restaurant in which they requested “shlimp flied lice,” used sexually explicit language to proposition a waitress, referred to another employee’s body part as a “tiny egg roll” and claimed to know kung fu.

The station suspended the pair without pay until further notice on Monday.

“The suspension is not enough. New York City is the most diverse city anywhere, and to do this is irresponsible and very hurtful,” said Vicki Shu Smolin, president of the New York chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans. She is organizing a protest for Friday in front of the CBS headquarters in New York. “It’s the kind of radio that perpetuates bullying in schools and hate, later on, in people.”

Vandergrift and Lay performed in the same show format on Bay Area radio stations starting in the early 1990s. In 2005, Clear Channel Communications fired them from Wild 94.9 FM after they made offensive remarks following an appearance by a local drum-and-bugle corps.

They filled in at KIFR, an FM station in San Francisco, before moving to New York.

Their suspension follows the recent firing of radio host Don Imus after he made racist and sexist comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

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