Update: EW received this statement from Randi P’Pool, vice president of marketing for Alpha Media, which employed Dino Costa:
After further review, Alpha Media has decided to cut ties with Dino Costa. Additional information is not available at this time.
•••
A Portland area shock jock, whose radio station calls itself “Your 2017 Home Of Ducks Football,” called for protesters to be run over on his sports radio show in June. The University of Oregon calls the comments “disgusting and reprehensible.”
On radio KXTG (102.9 The Game) Dino Costa was discussing Black Lives Matter on his June 7 show when he called Black Lives Matter the “latest and most dangerous face of well-funded socialist communist organizations that have been agitating Americans for decades.”
Referencing an incident in Minnesota where protesters shut down a highway, he said, “You know these protests where they shut down the road, they lie in the road? If I’m the cops, I wave the traffic on. Listen, as soon as one or two of these sumbitches are run over you’ll see the entire, in unison, everybody be up off the street. When people are being killed by 18-wheel trucks coming by, pickups, cars. Run ’em over!”
He clarifies before the comments that his remarks pertain to Portland as well.
Heather Heyer, a counterprotester in Charlottesville, Virginia, was run over and killed by a car that ran into the crowd as police dispersed the crowds at the site of a planned “Unite the Right” rally of white supremacists, according to media reports. In addition to Heyer’s death, 19 other people were injured. The incident has reverberated across the country, at a time where the election of Donald Trump has been seen as an endorsement of the so-called “alt-right” and “white nationalist” movement and heightening racial tensions.
A rally, “Hate Is Not Welcome in Lane County #SolidarityWithCharlottesville,” is taking place Aug. 14 in Eugene.
Men’s Journal called Costa “the angriest man on the airwaves” in a 2012 article. In 2015 he told the far-right Breitbart Sports that “my show is where political correctness goes to die.”
According to a UO website, KXTG — 750 AM/102.9 FM — is a “flagship” station for the UO Ducks, and on its site, 102.9 says it is a “broadcast partner” of Oregon IMG Sports Marketing, which “provides sponsorship opportunities with Oregon Athletics.”
The diatribe can be heard here, at about 1 hour and 15 minutes into the program.
Jimmy Stanton, UO’s senior associate athletics director, tells EW, “We were just made aware of these comments. We certainly don’t condone them, and we find them disgusting and reprehensible. We are raising our concerns with IMG and the station.”
EW also reached out to KXTG and is still awaiting comment.
•••
Update: The Portland Timbers soccer team, whose games are aired by 102.9, which also hosts a Timbers talk show, has issued a statement on Dino Costa’s remarks.
TIMBERS STATEMENT ON ALPHA BROADCASTING CARRIAGE DEAL
Alpha Media and its station 750/102.9 The Game have been partners of the Timbers since our start in Major League Soccer in 2011.
The Game airs our live matches and our weekly Talk Timbers show. None of the opinions expressed on their other shows or other Alpha Media radio stations, specifically The Dino Costa Show, are those of the Portland Timbers. Nor do the Timbers have any say or input on the hires The Game chooses to make for its non-Timbers-specific live game programming.
The Timbers have and will always stand for tolerance, acceptance and diversity, and we understand the reaction that many of our fans have had to some of the offensive and insensitive views and opinions expressed on The Dino Costa Show. In no way do we condone those views, as they go against our fundamental values and beliefs as a club.
We are under contract with Alpha Media through the end of the 2018 MLS season. We will carefully evaluate our radio home at that time.
Meanwhile, Randi P’Pool, vice president of marketing for Alpha Media, issued this statement:
Alpha Media holds the relationships with the Portland Timbers and the University of Oregon in high regard. 750/102.9 The Game management team took immediate and aggressive action with Dino Costa regarding the comment made during his June 7th broadcast.
In his Aug. 14 broadcast, Costa discussed the Charlottesville rally and death, saying he didn’t want any rallies or protests to culminate in people getting hurt, people getting maimed or losing their life as a result. He did not refer directly to or apologize for his previous remarks.