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Dobson Inducted Into RHOF, Protesters March
CHICAGO -- November 8, 2008: A group called "Dump Dobson" marched for two hours Saturday night in front of the Renaissance Chicago Hotel to protest the Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family was named to the hall in the program category. The group, organized primarily by gay-rights organizations Truth Wins Out and Gay Liberation Network, began protesting FOTF's nomination back in July, calling Dobson an "anti-gay bigot" and "an ideologue who has built his radio empire on anti-gay hatred and discrimination." When Dobson's show was named among the inductees, the group vowed to protest the ceremony if the induction was not rescinded.
"If you advocate the taking away of rights for a whole group of people, you may be a Christian, you may be any number of other things, but one thing you certainly are is you are a hater, and you are a bigot," Gay Liberation Network's Andy Thayer told ABC-7/Chicago Saturday night. "James Dobson is a bigot."
Radio Hall of Fame Chairman Bruce DuMont told Radio Ink that there were about 250 demonstrators outside the hotel, and there was no disturbance inside or during the event. He said, "They were chanting, they carried signs, they were orderly, and they were exercising their right of free expression, which is wonderful."
DuMont said that about 420 people were in attendance for the ceremony -- "one of the largest turnouts we've had in the last few years" -- and that the event also drew some local TV coverage, showing that, he said, "Radio had once again done something worthy of public discussion."
KGO-AM/San Francisco Presidnt/GM Mickey Luckoff, another of this year's inductees, tells Radio Ink the ceremony was a "very well produced and glorious event." The protesters remained outside, he said, "and had no effect whatsoever on the event."
During the ceremony, Dobson -- greeted by cheers and applause from the audience -- began his acceptance speech by thanking DuMont and the hall's board for "having the courage to nominate and support a religious, Christian radio program." He continued, "I don't think that's ever been done before. I know it's perhaps a little controversial, and yet it has happened, and I'm very, very grateful."
Luckoff, introduced after a break for commercials on Westwood One's live broadcast, began, "I hope we just sold that spot for a lot of money." He said, to applause from the crowd, "In my very, very final chapter, I hope that it is said of me that I was as good to radio as radio has been to me."
Also inducted Saturday were longtime Coast to Coast AM host Art Bell, who was named to the hall in the pioneer category. Bell said as he accepted, "Being inducted as a pioneer is the highest honor any person in any profession could ever receive."
The next inductee, WRKO/Boston's Howie Carr thanked his listeners for voting "early and often -- that's a Boston tradition." He said, "This is a great honor tonight."
Charlie Tuna, named to the hall for more than four decades in Los Angeles radio, said that, as a child in Kearney, NB, "I used to sit in my room pretending I was on the radio, doing my show. Even then, at 5, I could hit the vocal, I could hit the post on those record intros." He also joked that his children didn't attend the ceremony because they know about the cutbacks and layoffs in radio; Tuna said, "They want to keep their distance from Dad in case I'm the next one to go and I have to move in with someody."
The hall also honored three posthumous inductees Saturday night: Longtime WHDH/Boston morning host Jess Cain, who died in February; 14-year WGN-AM/Chicago morning man Bob Collins, who died in 2000; and Dick Whittinghill, who was in mornings on KMPC/Los Angeles from 1950-1979 and died in 2001.
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