|
Here's what Star had to say (it doesn't sound sincere enough to me):
The foul-mouthed radio host known as Star on station WQHT (Hot-97)planned to apologize on air today for mocking singer Aaliyah's death with a
sound-effects tape that blared a woman's blood-curdling screams silenced by a loud crash.
"It was in poor taste," said Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, after a meeting with Hot-97 management. "Sometimes you do things without
calculating the repercussions. We're talking about a life here. It was a very tragic thing."
When Star played the tape around 8:40 a.m., one of his co-hosts, Tarsha Jones, aka Miss Jones, stormed out. "How can you play that?" she said.
"I'm outta here."
After the next record, Star told listeners, "Miss Jones has left the building. She was appalled and disgusted by this."
Then he played it again.
The bit triggered "some pretty intense calls" to the station, said Star, whose regular co-host, Timothy Joseph, aka Buc Wild, is on vacation. "But
I didn't do it out of malice. I was just trying to get a laugh, and it turned out wrong."
Yesterday's episode echoed incidents involving Howard Stern, Star's favorite radio host.
Stern played crash sound effects after John Denver died when the experimental plane he was flying went down in 1997, and he sparked an uproar
when he played gunshot effects while discussing the death of Tejano singer Selena. Stern ended up reading an apology on the air, in Spanish.
"This is the same kind of thing," said Star. "I'll apologize, and it will be sincere, and then I hope we can move on."
>>
|