Two days of contacting Sacramento rock station KRXQ’s advertisers regarding the station’s May 28 broadcast defaming and advocating abuse of transgendered children has gotten results. Chipotle Grill, Snapple and Sonic Drive-In have all pulled their ads from the station in response to the broadcast.
KRXQ general manager Jim Fox acknowledged to the Sacramento Bee that there have been some ad accounts canceled, but he wouldn’t say what the station would be doing in response. Well, one thing the station did was pull the list of advertisers that was on their website just a day ago. In this case, it’s Google Cache to the rescue (in case the cache expires, see the list after the jump).
I do have to thank Chipotle, Snapple and Sonic for doing the right thing by not ignoring this disgusting example of homophobia. But there are more advertisers who are still bankrolling this kind of defamation on KRXQ and elsewhere. And while these three companies decided to do the right thing, there is an economic element, too. My guess is that these three companies wisely realized that they would benefit by doing the right thing, earning or retaining more loyal customers. Perhaps more companies can be made to realize that continuing to fund hateful racist, misogynistic and homophobic programming on the radio will lose them customers and money.
While this broadcast of the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning stands out as particularly egregious because the target for the abuse was children, how many of the same advertisers sponsor Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Glenn Beck, to name just a few? How uncomfortable can their advertisers be made?
It’s fundamentally a commercial system. But when we demonstrate that we won’t buy what the commercials are selling when they sponsor the continuation of on-air bigotry, maybe it won’t be so profitable.
These are KRXQ’s major advertisers as of June 3:
The New Chrysler
Griffin & Reed Eyecare
Pro City Mortgage
Attorney Debt Reset
Tobacco Republic
Delimex
State Farm Insurance
Albertson’s
Carl’s Jr.
Flex Your Power
Jared
Kragen Auto Parts
Nissan
Wells Fargo Bank
Orchard Supply Hardware
Guitar Center
Mc Donalds
Mervyn’s
Red Bull
Roseville Automall
Hot Tamales ICE
Breathe California – Emigrant Trails
Atlantis
Sacramento Stormwater
Quality Partnership
Bank of America
WyoTech
The Sleep Train
Purina
California Sun Centers
at&t
Black Bear Outdoors
Verizon Wireless
MMAFanShop.com
Harley Davidson of Amador County
Harley Davidson of Rocklin
Harley Davidon of Folsom
Smart & Final
UC Davis Health Care System
Tava
Scranton Law Firm
Washington Mutual
D.R. Horton
Cost-U-Less Insurance
Lennar Homes
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Office of Problem Gambling
Roseville Hyundai
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