DJ Fired for Celebrating Reagan's Death
By SPENCER SHROYER, Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A college disc jockey who put on a radio show celebrating Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s death was fired Friday from his position as the station's business manager.
Scott Hornyak, a 28-year-old undergraduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, had been suspended indefinitely from his disc jockey job at KSUA-FM after the Sunday show.
"They're firing me because of what I said, and the public's reaction to what I said," said Hornyak, who goes by the call name "Spider Bui."
H.B. Telling, the station's general manager, said he could not comment on whether Hornyak lost his job because of the broadcast. The university has a policy against discussing personnel issues.
No tape of the show was available. But according to Hornyak, he berated Reagan, who died June 5, for his foreign policy in Latin America, Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), and for his response to the **** (news - web sites) epidemic.
Hornyak said the show was "a celebration that Ronald Reagan was ****, was finally ****," and that he told listeners he wanted to "walk over the newly laid dirt" on Reagan's grave.
Telling said the station received numerous complaints about the show.
Telling said Hornyak was suspended as a disc jockey solely because of his failure to obey the station's rules, not because of the inflammatory content of the show.
He said Hornyak did not fill out a log of the songs he played on air and did not play the station's standard disclaimers announcing that his views did not represent those of the station or the university.
Hornyak said he did not fill out the logs due to absent-mindedness and that he did not play the disclaimer because he was busy taking song requests.
Hornyak said he was not sure whether he will contest his firing
