This evening my wife was listening to the infamous Carton & Rossi show when she heard Jun Choi being interviewed — the same Korean-American mayorial candidate the shock jocks had ridiculed on April 25. She also told me that Craig Carton made mention of his apologizing to Mr. Choi and to the Asian-American community. I just checked my e-mail, and this is what I found:

80-20 New Jersey Chapter, who is also a member of New Jersey Coalition for Asian American Civil Rights announced that 101.5FM agreed in writing to the following.

o Issue an on air, formal & blanket apology by the “Jersey Guys,”

o Invite Jun Choi (the KoreanAm candidate who was attacked) to be a guest by “Jersey Guys.” [The acceptance by Choi is unknown.]

o Cultural sensitivity training for all 101.5 FM employees,

o Public access programming focused on promoting awareness of the contributions of Asian Americans, and

o Diversity committee established at 101.5 FM with community members to foster cross-cultural understanding

Also their members ran e-mail campaigns targeting Comcast, Verizon and Dish Network, urging them to pull ads from the station. As a result, Comcast and Verizon agreed to suspend their radio ads.

We would like to thank 80-20 and everyone else who worked very hard on this issue. As always, AMWD will follow up closely on any new development in regards to this NJ 101.5 FM campaign just like we did with any other major campaigns.

Our e-mail campaign, http://www.citizenspeak.org/campaign/5366.php (“Kick The Jersey Guys Off The Air!”) collected the largest amount of signatures in the shortest amount of time, even more so than our last major campaign, Hot 97. We would like to thank everyone who participated in this campaign through AMWD and other APIA organizations as well.

James Fujikawa

Co-Founder/Campaign Director

Asian Media Watchdog 676 A Ninth Avenue New York, NY 10036 Phone: 212-560-5683 Fax: 212-957-9191

Visit our website at http://www.asianmediawatchdog.com

The Asian-American organizations I’ve been working with seem satisfied with this result; and if they’re satisfied, I’m satisfied. Thank you all for visiting this site and helping with this campaign. This shows you what consumer power can do.

Can some one point us to the local newspaper where we can follow the events or post updates?

Vivek

The latest development in the NJ 101.5 FM campaign is that Applebee’s has withrawn its sponsorship of the Carton & Rossi show. That brings to four the number of sponsors that have pulled their ads. (The other three are Hyundai Motor America, Cingular Wireless & Bank of America.)

This is worth applauding, but don’t let up the pressure. There are many more advertisers that need to be persuaded. So keep writing the sponsors. It works!

You’ll find a list of these companies, plus the names and addresses of their CEOs/owners at: http://www.CeaseRacism.blogspot.com/