Fight to Remove Bob Lonsberry Continues - Join Us
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Last night, a group of activists appalled by Bob Lonsberry's most recent racist, classist, and sexist remarks, met again to discuss how to get Bob Lonsberry off the air once and for all (previous story on Lonsberry). We've been listening to his show for a week now and have a list of approximately 100 of the sponsors aired on his show. We've decided to target 5 of those sponsors to ask for their immediate removal of sponsorship from WHAM until Bob Lonsberry is removed from the air. Those five sponsors are:
- Tops Friendly Markets
- ESL Federal Credit Union
- Advanced Auto Parts
- Pace Windows and Doors
- Democrat Joe Morelli (Morelli is planning doing a monthly interview with Lonsberry)
Currently, we are asking all supportive community members to call these establishments/people and let them know that you are horrified that they can support this racist/classist/sexist man who attacks children and families on the airwaves. Please let them know that you want them to remove their sponsorship from all of WHAM until Bob Lonsberry is removed from the air.
If you call just one store, please call Tops Friendly Market. Tops will be our main target for our first action if they do not immediately remove their sponsorship.
WHY TOPS?:
Tops Friendly Market was chosen for several reasons: A large number of people of color in Rochester choose Tops Friendly Market over competing grocery stores. We believe many of those customers will join us in a boycott of Tops Friendly Market if Tops does not quickly remove their sponsorship from WHAM. Tops has been an ally in discussions about racism in the past, and we hope to continue that positive relationship by gaining their support of our request. Tops is our first target because it is local, it is supported actively by the members of the community that Bob Lonsberry is attacking, and we believe if they remove their sponsorship from WHAM it will highly impact Bob Lonsberry's firing.
OUR REASONING:
We've discussed different possibilities for requests to make of the stores/people. We've decided upon asking stores/people to remove their sponsorship from WHAM because we are aware that if Clear Channel, (the owner of WHAM1180), finds out that several sponsors are refusing for their commercial time to be aired on WHAM until Bob Lonsberry is removed from the air, Clear Channel will put pressure on WHAM to remove Bob Lonsberry. We are also aware that if we ask sponsors to remove their commercials from just the Lonsberry show, others will be cycled into their place because of the way sponsorship packages are sold. If you have further questions about our reasoning, please ask. It is vitally important that we are asking for sponsors of the Bob Lonsberry show to remove their sponsorship from WHAM, not just the Lonsberry show. Please join us in doing so.
The only way this action can be successful is if we have the active support of our local community. Please make these phone calls, and please look for updates on what we're requesting in the coming weeks as more actions are decided upon.
If you're interested in attending meetings, please email FireBobLonsberry at Rocus dot Org and ask for information.
