84 WHAS, Lachlan McLean and the poem

[Freydaddy]

If you listen to Kentucky sports radio, they have referred to another radio station's host reading a poem by a regular contributor to KSR. This host has disappeared and has led to comments such as "Free Lach." People over there seem hesitant to come clean with the facts (or rumors or innuendo) so I ask you. What was bad about the poem? What rumors have you heard? It seems odd that the flagship radio station for UK would suspend someone for reading a listeners poem disparaging to U of L (I assume).

[ntrich]

Was wondering about this myself.

[SBCatMan]

Well, I do not know which poem it was, but I can guess.

I was driving down to Louisville last Thursday night and i was listening to the sports call-in show on WHAS. I do not know who the host was, but he read a poem about the game that was a parody on "The Night Before Christmas." He said that he was going to read the poem without pre-viewing it first, and he did. Parts of the poem were pretty clever and pretty funny, but a large portion of the poem was a very brutal and personal attack on certain UofL linebacker, with frequent references to his run-ins with the law.

Several people called in and thought it was inappropriate to read the poem because of these attacks on the youngster's character. They felt it was particularly wrong to read the poem without proof-reading it first.

The host defended his actions as all in fun, but maybe the station did not agree.

While I am a UK fan and am not a fan of anything UofL, I do think the host went a bit over-the-line in reading the poem. In fact, he may have left the station vulnerable to some legal action, because the content of the poem was both harsh and personal.

[I. Melvin]

If said linebacker had wanted to avoid "harsh and personal" things said about him, he could have conducted himself in a less threatening manner.

WHAS should be ashamed of themselves for reacting to the permanently outraged in the manner they have.

[BOURBON TOWN CAT FAN]

Here's the poem which was posted in the rivalry forum.

http://www.wildcatnation.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28169

[BigBlue75]

Well, I do not know which poem it was, but I can guess.

I was driving down to Louisville last Thursday night and i was listening to the sports call-in show on WHAS. I do not know who the host was, but he read a poem about the game that was a parody on "The Night Before Christmas." He said that he was going to read the poem without pre-viewing it first, and he did. Parts of the poem were pretty clever and pretty funny, but a large portion of the poem was a very brutal and personal attack on certain UofL linebacker, with frequent references to his run-ins with the law.

Several people called in and thought it was inappropriate to read the poem because of these attacks on the youngster's character. They felt it was particularly wrong to read the poem without proof-reading it first.

The host defended his actions as all in fun, but maybe the station did not agree.

While I am a UK fan and am not a fan of anything UofL, I do think the host went a bit over-the-line in reading the poem. In fact, he may have left the station vulnerable to some legal action, because the content of the poem was both harsh and personal.

I worked on the air in radio for 13 years and the latter part of what you said is very correct. There are all kinds of legalities involved when you get into stuff like this.

One of the first things you learn when you're an on-the-air personality is you never, ever read anything cold. You always proof it first. Lachlan isn't stupid. I can't understand why he would do something like that, especially since the Don Imus thing is still fresh on everyone's mind, but apparently he did.

I'm not comparing this situation to Imus' firing, all I'm saying is things haven't really settled after that and radio management is still going to be on their guard for anything that comes close to being offensive or vulgar or could be construed to be.

[lighthouse]

If said linebacker had wanted to avoid "harsh and personal" things said about him, he could have conducted himself in a less threatening manner.

WHAS should be ashamed of themselves for reacting to the permanently outraged in the manner they have.

You're right, but all of us have incidents in our past that we wouldn't want mentioned on the radio. At least I do.

[uklumpy]

I know Lach on a professional level and am shocked he read it. With that being said, that no-talent-arse clown Terry Meiners has made a career performing non-humorous, offensive bits based on stereotypes. It is a double-standard.

At any rate, I feel for Lach, he's a really good guy. With that, his only previous on-air shortcoming was lecturing on the importance of the Libertarian Party and a three-party system on election night each of the last two years. Sports people are paid to talk sports, not lecture on personal political beliefs.

[EricBigNally]

I had heard something about this and read the poem. I tuned into the radio about 10 minutes too late to hear the poem being ready. I read it on the KSR blog Friday at some point in time and found it humorous (as a wildcat anyway). I had actually tuned in on Monday to hear Lach apologize for his picking of UL and saying that there was no way physically possible for UK's defense to hold UL under 50 points so I wanted to hear what was said about that and some of the calls. The guy filling in had said that Lach took the day off and I was pissed because I thougth he was just trying to "get off the hook" for a week long of saying what happened couldn't happen. I hadn't listened since then (listened to the Rich Brooks show first) and didn't realize anything like this was going on.