A college disc jockey who was initially fired after devoting a radio show to celebrating the death of Ronald Reagan will be reassigned to another job until he can respond to complaints about his actions. Scott Hornyak, a 28-year-old undergraduate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was told Friday that he was fired from his paid position as business manager at KSUA-FM, a student-run station.
| "Pack your shit and get the hell out! Y'think y'r Howard Stern?" |
A university spokeswoman later said the firing was premature and the decision was rescinded until Hornyak had a chance to respond to complaints about the Sunday show. "The university process wasn't followed properly," Debra Damron said. She said Hornyak will be temporarily reassigned to another job.
So try him fair and hang fire him fair. |
Hornyak had earlier been suspended indefinitely from his other job as disc jockey. He said Friday night he will appeal any reassignment or termination. "They're firing me because of what I said, and the public's reaction to what I said," said Hornyak, who goes by the call name "Spider Bui."
H.B. Telling, the station's general manager, said he could not comment on whether Hornyak was fired because of the broadcast.
No tape of the show was available. But according to Hornyak, he berated Reagan, who died June 5, for his foreign policy in Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan, and for his response to the AIDS epidemic. Hornyak said the show was "a celebration that Ronald Reagan was dead, was finally dead," and that he told listeners he wanted to "walk over the newly laid dirt" on Reagan's grave. Telling said the station received numerous complaints about the show.
Telling said Hornyak was suspended as a disc jockey solely because of his failure to obey the station's rules, not because of the inflammatory content of the show. He said Hornyak did not fill out a log of the songs he played on air and did not play the station's standard disclaimers announcing that his views did not represent those of the station or the university. Hornyak said he did not fill out the logs due to absent-mindedness and that he did not play the disclaimer because he was busy making an ass of himself taking song requests. |