As I wrote about last night, Wild Bill and I have been in contact with Larry Wachs, who is part of the radio duo the Regular Guys. They used to be the morning drive-time DJs on 96Rock here in Atlanta, but seems like a sister station under the same corporate umbrella has a couple of weasels who work for them that were offended by Larry’s joking and teasing. In case nobody ever informed Yogi & Panda (no, I’m not kidding – the team on the Mexican station Viva 105.7 are called “Yogi & Panda”.. and yes, I said “Mexican” and not “Latino”), “shock jock” radio, especially drive-time, is full of insults that get hurled from show to show, personality to personality, all the time. Apparently Y&P didn’t like to be teased, and took it all the way up to station management and filed a civil lawsuit against the Regular Guys.

For more details about the background, see the Regular Guys’ website.

Today I got to interview Larry Wachs via email because at this point in time, he cannot speak out on the air (we invited him to call in to W.A.R.) about the situation due to legal issues. Here’s what he had to say:

1) When did the fallout with Yogi & Panda first begin, and what was the exact action that started it all?

To my knowledge it began in March of this year, when we invited them on our show to discuss the Latino protests that were taking place in Atlanta and around the US. They were unprepared and complained afterward, but company managers told them that they should not come on our show anymore if they didn’t want to look bad on air. They were also told Y&P on more than one occasion that our point of view and presentation was perfectly OK.

2) Did you ever have any indication they were taking personal offense to things you were saying or doing prior to the complaints?

No.

3) Have they ever done anything similar, or poked fun at you and/or Eric? If so, were you offended?

I don’t know, but other hosts have. It’s all part of the business we are in and it’s fair game. What’s lost on them is that we make comments about other hosts as well, and in a lot of cases, the amount of comments we make about other individual hosts are more than we make about Y&P.

4) Did you receive any warning other than the complaints that were going to management about you dishonoring their “culture?”

None. We were never told that what we were doing was out of bounds.

5) What are the listenership numbers for the Yogi & Panda show? If you don’t know, are they available with Arbitron?

They have pretty good numbers from what I understand and they do a good job of getting audience. Arbitron does have that information.

6) Do you feel there was a concerted effort by them to have their fans also complain to management? If so, do you feel they were taking advantage of the language barrier with most metro listeners to get away with saying things knowing a lot of people wouldn’t know what they were saying?

I don’t think so. The station had monitors and translators in place to deal with the usual issues of profanity and indecency. To my knowledge they didn’t talk about us, but I wouldn’t have cared if they did. It’s part of the business. If you can’t take criticism, you should find another line of work.

7) Have you been physically threatened by any of them or their fans, or do you think this is just a publicity stunt to shame the Regular Guys and stifle your free speech?

There have been no physical threats. I don’t think their listeners really were aware of what was happening until recently.

Do you think the PC Police in Management are erring on the side of caution due to fears of being labeled racist?

Perhaps.

9) Do you plan any counter-action once this is over? Or concurrently?

We are answering their claims and filing some of our own.

10) Do you feel this is just hint of things to come, i.e., the liberals’ “Fairness Doctrine?”

No.

11) Do you have any plans to take your show elsewhere should they succeed in getting your show permanently taken off the air? If so, where?

They have already succeeded in having us removed from Clear Channel. I plan to take the show elsewhere and get on with business.

12) Is there anything that fans of yours (and my readers) can do to help you out right now? Write letters, email, etc.?

Discussion of the case and the issues in the proper forum is always of great help. Of course, if you are a broadcaster with a need for great content and talent, I’d love to hear from you.

13) When will you be able to verbally speak out about this?

I’m not sure.

14) Have you looked into whether or not the Yogi & Panda duo have done this to other non-Latinos before?

No. I don’t think they have, but I do know they’ve had a suspension and content problems of their own in the past year or so.

So, folks, if any of you all know anyone in radio who’s looking for talent, Larry Wachs has a long successful record in many markets. Please drop me a line at MsUnderestimated@gmail.com if you know of anything that might be of interest to Larry, and I’ll pass it along. And please discuss this on your blog sites with your readers. The PC Police are taking over the airwaves.

And for those of you who didn’t see my previous post about it, the Regular Guys did an awesome interview with Wild Bill on the Foley non-issue. You can listen to that interview here.

Hey, Bill…. you ready for some more digging? Looks like we got another investigation on our hands.

Read Larry’s initial statement here from yesterday.

Beware the Beastman and Jake at FreedomFolks are on this, as well.