“It is incomprehensible to us that he has yet to be fired, and WPRO management should be ashamed that they employ such a person,” said Maureen Martin, chairwoman of For Our Daughters, the group leading the campaign against DePetro.
Martin and other activists organized the For Our Daughters group specifically to target DePetro. By highlighting his often obnoxious and insulting behavior, the group hopes WPRO will take him off the air.
According to a For Our Daughters press release: “The coalition will be distributing the video to WPRO management, Cumulus management, WPRO’s current and potential advertisers, and other state, elected, and business leaders. They also plan to widely distribute the video over YouTube and social media.”
The entire congressional delegation, nearly every statewide politician (with the very notable exception of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin) and more than 70 state legislators have refused to appear on his radio show. You can see the full list here. “We are very proud of the elected officials and candidates who are participating,” Martin said, “and this video will reassure them that they are doing the right thing by taking a strong stance against his vile brand of hatred.”
The boycott has noticeably crippled his show. (Last week he rebroadcast most of RI Future’s entire 25-minute with gubernatorial candidate Clay Pell, presumably because he is unable to book news makers himself. His addition to the interview was teasing the candidate for his effeminate voice and calling him “Clayboy” Pell.)
To date, WPRO has stood by DePetro. The new video, released yesterday, indicates that the For Our Daughters group is not going away for campaign season, a critical time for WPRO to book guests and advertisers.
“The boycotts will continue until John Depetro is off the air,” Martin said. “For anyone who thinks we are going away, we are not.”
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Initially the campaign targeting shock jock John DePetro focused on one advertiser. But now the group has organized at least 14 high-level politicians who say they won’t spend their campaign dollars on WPRO until DePetro is off the air.
“We’ve appealed to WPRO and Cumulus Media’s sense of decency in requesting that they sever their relationship with a man who degrades women by calling them whores, but it appears the only way to achieve a permanent solution is to further demonstrate just how bad this individual is for business,” said labor leader Maureen Martin, who has been the public face of For Our Daughters, the group that is trying to get DePetro off the air. “We expect others candidates and businesses will join them as our campaign grows in strength and numbers every day.”
In September, DePetro called two female labor activists whores on his WPRO morning radio show. Additionally, he’s made untrue and unfair accusations about many Democrats and left-leaning community and political groups. He was fired from a radio station in Boston for calling a gubernatorial candidate a “fat lesbian.” He and WPRO are bieng sued by a WPRO employee for sexual harassment. His wife took blame for a ratings scandal in which someone from his home address faked industry reporting forms.
Even before this campaign DePetro was widely disliked, untrusted and often even ostracized among the political class in Rhode Island, as well among almost all of his coworkers at WPRO, but station management maintains that he still draws listeners.
Here’s the list of candidates (and one PAC) who said they will not advertise with WPRO:
- US Senator Jack Reed
- US Rep. Jim Langevin
- US Rep. David Cicilline
- Providence Mayor and Gubernatorial Candidate Angel Taveras
- Gubernatorial Candidate Clay Pell
- Secretary of State and Lt. Governor Candidate Ralph Mollis
- Secretary of State Candidate Guillaume de Ramel
- Secretary of State Candidate Nellie Gorbea
- General Treasurer Candidate Seth Magaziner
- General Treasurer Candidate Frank Caprio
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Brett Smiley
- Providence City Council President and Mayoral Candidate Michael Solomon
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Jorge Elorza
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Lorne Adrain
- American LeadHerShip PAC Chair Kate Coyne-McCoy