Straight from the middle of Steve King country, outraged Eagle Grove, Iowa, residents called for—and got—local station KIOW to fire two radio employees who spewed racist shit about teen athletes during the broadcast of a high school basketball game, including mocking their Spanish surnames, calling them “Español people,” and adding that they should, “as Trump would say, go back where they came from”:
Harris: Oh, you wanna know the names? Enzo Gebara, Spencer Espejo, and Nikolas Padilla.
Producer: They sound like they’ve been here a while, given the first names.
Harris: Yea, I think they’ve been there. Padilla, I think that’s P-A-D-I-L-L-A.
Producer: Yea, Padilla.
Harris: Padilla, something like that.
Producer: Yea.
Harris: The there’s Chase Blasie, he sounds like he’s not a foreigner. Could be though.
Producer: Yea.
Harris: They’re all foreigners.
Producer: Exactly, all foreigners.
Harris: As Trump would say, go back where they came from.
Producer: Well, some would say that, yeah, some days I feel like that too.
According to the Des Moines Register, the two dummies apparently made the racist remarks during a commercial break as the game streamed online. The radio station at first suspended announcer Orin Harris and fired board operator Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt, but then canned Harris too a short time later.
The conversation was “absolutely appalling,” wrote Eagle Grove resident Betty Jo Willard on Facebook, where video of the remarks has over 150,000 views so far. “This is why our country is failing!! How dare them talk about our Eagle Grove kids like this!! Shame on them!!”
According to the Des Moines Register, Kusserow-Smidt is also a third grade teacher—not frightening at all!—and has has been placed on administrative leave in that job. Harris, who according to KIMT3 worked at KIOW for 40 years, said he’s sorry he disappointed his friends and family and that “this is not who I am.” Oh, it might be, pal. KIOW:
On Tuesday, November 28th, two employees of KIOW made comments that were insensitive, thoughtless and degrading to others. These comments were deplorable, and the staff and management of KIOW in no way condones or supports these comments.
These comments never aired on KIOW Radio. They did, however, appear on a video feed that appeared on a school website.
That night when we learned of these comments, we were in contact with the Eagle Grove School District and gathered information about the incident. On Thursday morning, November 30, a letter of apology was sent to school officials, along with details of our actions in regards to the two employees involved.
As a result, both employees have been fired from their positions with the station.
KIOW Radio has a long history of promoting and supporting student athletes, coaches and schools. As a company, we take great pride in spotlighting the great efforts of our local citizens, schools and communities, and we will demand that all company employees adhere to this policy.
Eagle Grove superintendent Jess Toliver commented that “as a school district, we expect our athletes, students and community to be treated with respect no matter where they go.”
Toliver also called it “a teaching point. How do we make people aware of all the good things? Let’s look at the positives of diversity. Without diversity, we have a lot less students, we aren’t as vibrant. Diversity has been something that has saved our community.”