Chad Dukes decade-plus run on 106.7 The Fan across various shows came to an end on Thursday night, when Entercom announced in a statement that he was being fired for racist statements and comments.
Scott Allen at the Washington Post had the story, including a statement from Entercom’s regional executive:
Longtime D.C. radio host Chad Dukes has been fired from 106.7 The Fan, the station’s parent company announced late Thursday in a emailed statement, after it learned of “racist and other inappropriate comments” he made in episodes of his personal podcast.
“We have zero tolerance for this type of speech from any of our employees, on our platforms or otherwise,” Ivy Savoy-Smith, the senior vice president and market manager of Entercom Washington, D.C., said in the statement. “Our air talent are ambassadors of our brand, and we do not want to be affiliated with these comments.”
As to what those remarks actually were, Entercom didn’t confirm:
It’s unclear what specific comments led to Dukes’s dismissal, when he made the comments or how his bosses learned of their existence. Entercom said it would have no further comment on the matter.
If forced to guess, though, here’s a recent example of Dukes reacting to fans in Kansas City booing during a moment of silence for racial equality.
Which may not be the case in every instance, but it is so very often the case. Chad Dukes demonstrated this principle very well recently on his podcast: pic.twitter.com/hsT2o2yJDk
— Indistinct Chatter 🇯🇲 🇵🇸 (@Goldson) October 30, 2020
Even if you give Dukes the benefit of the doubt that he just misspoke with the “bad skin tones” line, that’s still probably a fireable offense, and it likely wasn’t an isolated incident.
Wow chad dukes was fired? Guess someone at entercom just started listening to BOAD podcasts?
— Adam (@FromtheDorf) October 30, 2020
It marks just the latest example of Entercom firing a host for comments, following Chicago’s Dan McNeil. As Allen notes, his podcast archive has been scrubbed as of Friday across multiple podcast platforms, and the 106.7 morning show acknowledged his firing on the air:
“Chad Dukes is no longer with 106.7 The Fan,” J.P. Flaim said. “Our company recently learned of inappropriate comments that he made in past episodes of his personal podcast and our company has zero tolerance for any forms of hateful speech, so our focus, the Junkies, remains on sports and doing the best show we can. With that said, I don’t think we’re saying anything further on it.”
…
All of Dukes’s past tweets were deleted and audio of his past shows were removed from the 106.7 The Fan website sometime Thursday, when Pete Medhurst filled in on Dukes’s afternoon show.
There’s no word yet on who might replace Dukes, and Dukes himself has not commented.
