Local Clear Channel station contest: “Make sure to bring your green card” for “weekend chasing aliens”

Columbus, Ohio’s WTVN AM 610 (a Clear Channel station) ran the following contest last week in reaction to Mayor Michael Coleman’s decision to keep city employees from visiting Arizona on official business because of the state’s new controversial immigration law:

In response, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is calling on WTVN and Clear Channel to apologize for the station’s contest in which the winner received a free trip to Arizona “to spend a weekend chasing aliens and spending cash in the desert.”

“The passage of SB 1070 has provoked a lot of reprehensible anti-Latino and anti-immigrant rhetoric but a radio station bankrolling someone to ‘hunt’ human beings for sport represents a new low,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO.  “The owners and directors of WTVN might think that this is all in good fun but what is happening to Latinos – citizen, legal, and undocumented alike – in Arizona is no joke.  We are asking for an immediate and unequivocal apology from the station and its parent company.”

Noting that the station’s contest has triggered considerable outrage in Latino communities in Ohio, Arizona, and nationwide, Murguia concluded, “It is important to keep in mind that the American people own the airwaves over which WTVN broadcasts.  As such, we will ask FCC Commissioners to ensure that threats against American citizens – such as the one encouraged and promoted by WTVN  – are not taken lightly and dealt with in an appropriate manner as soon as possible.”

You can share your thoughts about the contest with WTVN and Clear Channel by clicking here.