ClearChannel urging violence against bicyclists

Clear Channel Communications radio stations in three cities (Cleveland, Houston, and Raleigh, NC) have recently broadcasted talk show hosts and listeners encouraging violence against bicyclists. Last week, Raleigh station G105 advocated violence against cyclists, with suggestions of how to run cyclists off the road, and urged listeners to call in with stories of harassing them.
One DJ joked of pelting cyclists with empty Yoo-Hoo bottles and said he would "love to be on a motorcycle and driving it down a bike lane. Because he didn't think bikers should be allowed on the road. He said they should ride on the sidewalk," according to a listener quoted in the Raleigh News Observer.
Tell Clear Channel to stop promoting violence against bicyclists.

In what now appears to be a pattern, Clear Channel Communications radio stations in three
cities (Cleveland, Houston, and Raleigh, NC) have recently broadcasted the reprehensible
comments of talk show hosts and listeners encouraging violence against bicyclists. In the
latest incident, on Raleighs G105 station, September 22 and 23, morning talk show hosts
joked about harassing cyclists, urged listeners to call in with stories of how they had
harassed cyclists, and provided suggestions of how to run cyclists off the road. One host
suggested pelting cyclists with empty Yoo-Hoo bottles. Calls came in from listeners who
agreed with him, and said that they would take similar action. A show intern discussed a
man in her neighborhood who shoots a pellet gun at cyclists as they ride by his house,
attempting to hit their tires to make them crash.

According to a listener quoted in the October 1 Raleigh News Observer
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2911339p-2677916c.html
,
"One caller said her dad had
purposely hit a biker on the road on the way to church one Sunday and kept on going. That
got laughs. Bob (one of the hosts) thought that was funny. And Bob said he'd love to be on
a motorcycle and driving it down a bike lane. Because he didn't think bikers should be
allowed on the road. He said they should ride on the sidewalk."

The offending broadcasts come on the heels of similar broadcasts on Clear Channel stations
in Houston and Cleveland encouraging motorists to taunt or even strike cyclists. Clear
Channel owns some 1,200 radio stations across the country that regularly share content
with each other. Cyclists across the nation have reacted with furor to reports of these
broadcasts, which have been widely disseminated on the Internet, condemning the radio
stations for their reprehensible incitement of violence. Many have expressed fears that
the incidents could inspire some deranged individual to commit an act of violence against
bicyclists.

The League of American Bicyclists condemns in the strongest possible terms the promotion of violence and
harassment against bicyclists as well as pedestrians. With about 700 cyclists, including
200 children, and 5,000 pedestrians killed every year in traffic crashes, it is clear that
traffic safety is a very serious issue. The League urges motorists and bicyclists to share
the road and to respect the rules of the road. State and local transportation authorities
need to do more to protect cyclists and pedestrians and there is a profound need for more
education for motorists to be conscious of the need to share the road with cyclists and
pedestrians.

http://econstituent.votenet.com/(ooj5bx45u1whnlmxocj3gzqd)/index.aspx/lab/letterwriting.aspx?issueid=499