On Friday, WEEI suspended midday host Christian Fauria for five days after he attempted an on-air impersonation of Tom Brady’s agent Don Yee. The bit was deemed racist by some and led to Fauria apologizing for what he described as a “horrible attempt at humor.” Two of the station’s sponsors, Comcast and City of Boston Credit Union, have since suspended their advertising due to the situation.
The on-air bit on Friday’s show stemmed from a false story written by Boston Herald columnist Ron Borges. Borges was duped by a local radio listener pretending to be Yee into writing a column claiming Tom Brady would skip off season workouts unless he was given a contract similar to the one recently signed by Jimmy Garoppolo. Fauria spoke in an Asian accent as his partners Glenn Ordway and Lou Merloni discussed the story. Fauria was trying to make the point that a veteran reporter like Borges should’ve known what Yee sounded like but didn’t and because he wasn’t plugged in it led to being fooled.
WEEI’s “Kirk and Callahan” posted texts on Twitter proving that Borges had taken the bait from a listener and ran with it. The poor job of sourcing by Borges led to the Herald suspending him.
After learning of the news of his suspension, Fauria took to Twitter and said “In a segment during the show, I impersonated agent Don Yee in an insensitive and regrettable way. I want to publicly apologize to Don and anyone in the audience who heard it.”
Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
