Today, the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show was Out of Line

This is a conversation I never thought that I would have to have as part of my professional career. Unfortunately, something happened on-air this morning that we need to talk about.

This morning, on the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show, the on-air personalities ran a segment where they used racially insensitive language while poorly imitating Native American culture. The imitated accent was bad, the language was offensive, and their 'joke' ultimately missed the mark and was unfunny.

The Kidd Kraddick Show is a nationally syndicated show based out of Dallas, Texas. They've been on-air for several years and have typically been held in high regard across the radio industry. But to be blunt, they should have known better.

As a small local station in the Bismarck-Mandan community, with a small staff, HOT 97.5, as well as the rest of Townsquare Media-Bismarck, rely on these nationally syndicated shows to fill our daily programming needs. The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show is broadcast throughout the country and is done live. We, at HOT 97.5, are not consulted prior to their live show regarding their daily content.

The relationship between a small market station and the national programming they partner with is a delicate one. As a smaller market station, we put a lot of faith in the nationally syndicated show to not only provide entertaining content for our listeners, but to hold themselves accountable when speaking about sensitive matters such as race, and to be as inclusive as possible to all our listeners.

Today, that did not happen. The language and behavior used by them today is unacceptable and does not fall in line with the values we hold here at HOT 97.5, nor any stations at Townsquare Media.

We are extremely disappointed by the actions of the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show today. We've received feedback from several of our listeners expressing their disappointment and concern. We would like to sincerely express that we have heard your complaints, and we understand the power that words can hold. For those who were hurt and offended by the comments made by the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show today, we are deeply sorry.

We take this matter seriously. We intend to relay your complaints to the producers of the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show in hopes of preventing distasteful broadcasted segments in the future.

Thank you to all our loyal listeners. We would like to apologize again and ensure you that we are taking steps to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.