Walsh will be back on the air tonight
Political Editor
mriopell@dailyherald.com
Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh says he'll be back on the air tonight, the day after his 560-AM radio show was cut short for using racially charged language in a discussion about the controversial name of the Washington, D.C., NFL football team.
Walsh had posted on Twitter Thursday that he was "kicked off the air until further notice."
The Elk Grove Village-based station's general manager hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment.
"If (you) want to hear what I ACTUALLY said last night, here's the link," Walsh posted on Twitter. "Back on the air today at 5pm. #FreedomNeverStops."
On Thursday, Walsh was interrupted by commercials a few times in the 6 p.m. hour after saying racial and ethnic slurs on the air.
Reached by phone shortly after, Walsh said he wouldn't direct offensive terms at people but said he was making a point that the NFL team name isn't treated by the media as being as offensive as other offensive language.
In a podcast of a portion of the radio show, Walsh is heard questioning why a CNN anchor could use the team name but wouldn't say an offensive term for African Americans.
Walsh repeated the anchor's use of an outdated term for black people and the station abruptly went to a commercial.
After a commercial break, Walsh said he was testing the radio station, using multiple words, and was setting up an offensive term for Latinos when the station abruptly went to commercial again.
Later, posts on Walsh's Twitter account used a string of offensive racial terms in a discussion of the same topic.
Walsh said getting kicked off the air Thursday night proved his point.
"I don't know how you can have the discussion without identifying the terms," he said.
After he was pulled from the show, his voice could still be heard on the station as it played a recording of an earlier hour.
On Friday morning, John Howell and Amy Jacobsen talked about the situation on their show, which airs on the same station.
Jacobsen expresssed frustration that Walsh had been cut off.
"What's the list of words we can't say?" she said.
"I have one," Howell replied.
Walsh, of McHenry, won a seat in Congress in 2010 by defeating Democrat Melissa Bean of Barrington in the year's national Republican tidal wave. Two years later, he lost to Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates and started his radio career, flirting in 2014 with another run for office but not moving forward.