Public radio station fires host

Terry Hughes voiced views on war during his show at EMU

By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News

YPSILANTI -- WEMU-FM host Terry Hughes, known on the air as "Thayrone," was fired from the Eastern Michigan University public radio station Wednesday for repeatedly expressing his views about the war in Iraq, and refusing to run NPR news during his Sunday night music program "The Bone Conduction Show."

Hughes was fired by station manager Art Timko.

"Art said he was 'tired of the fight,' trying to get me to run news on the show and not have an opinion," Hughes said. In between the vintage Detroit R&B and soul music he plays, Hughes has been talking up the war in Iraq, expressing his support for the troops and for President Bush, and denigrating National Public Radio.

On his show this past Sunday, among other things, Hughes was explaining why the station's fund-raiser had been postponed: "Because (Bush) has the (guts) to get up to do the right thing after 18 attempts to get everybody to help. ..."

Hughes also complained to his listeners about not wanting to run NPR news. "We know if you want a current assessment of what's going on, you're sure not listening to us," he said on last week's show. "You'll be over at Fox TV where they're not bending the news. ... It ain't happening on NPR."

Station manager Timko's account doesn't differ much. "He was fired basically over philosophical differences," Timko said. "We have a policy that eliminates or restricts the expression of personal opinion on issues of controversy, and he didn't believe that applied to him."

The WEMU station manager admitted: "Thayrone has always been opinionated. But most of what he had opinions about was not controversial. This time, it was."

Hughes agrees. "But this is personality radio," he said. "I have nothing but opinions on my show, every show."

It's because WEMU is a public radio station that there was a problem.

"We need to be balanced in our presentation, and as individual announcers we don't take positions on controversial issues," Timko said. "That's not an encumbrance on commercial radio."

Hughes will continue to tape his show at home for syndication.

"It wasn't my intention to mess with the station manager," he said. "It's only been my intent to do crazy cool radio in America."

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