On April 20, 2012 Afentra & Danny Boi of Entercom Alternative “96.5 The Buzz” KRBZ Kansas City asked listeners to send them the names of area residents who “were said to be local porn stars.” Two listeners identified Ashely Patton as such and Danny Boi googled her and found a porn star named “Ashley Payton”. Thinking they were one and the same, the hosts identified her and her former high school on-air.
Suing for mental suffering, shame and humiliation, Patton today was awarded $250,000 in damages and an additional $750,000 in punitive damages. Entercom has agreed not to appeal.
While the trial has been ongoing this week, KRBZ has been running jockless and the station’s Facebook page has been shut down. The Twitter account is alive trying to rally support for the station and its on-air staff:
#SupporttheBuzzFamily #SAVETHEBUZZ #SupportAfentra #respectKC pic.twitter.com/54M61NOMV1
— ALT 96.5 (@alt965kc) September 26, 2014
I hear the Buzz wasn’t billing well before this happened. Combined with the ramping up of “Save the Buzz” talk, could this be signaling the end?
As someone that has ties to KC and know some of the people there, no, there is no flip coming. The station is 11th overall, but one of the top 10 in 18-34. The “Save The Buzz” thing dates back to 2003, when WDAF was being moved to FM and instead moved to what was 106.5 the City so Entercom could launch 610 Sports. It was relaunched last year when their ratings were in the mid to high 2’s.
KRBZ is basically there to protect the cashcow, KQRC.
“Sometime after noon that same day, plaintiff called the radio station and reached Program Director Scott Geiger. Until the phone call from plaintiff, Geiger did not know there had been a segment about local porn stars on “Afentra’s Big Fat Morning Buzz” that morning. Plaintiff told him that the morning show had called her a porn star and that she was angry. In response, Geiger asked plaintiff, “Well, are you?” Plaintiff replied that she was not and Geiger replied, “How do you know that you’re not a porn star?””
BitterLawyer.com