Citadel Broadcasting Radio Host Lee Rodgers calls Chrysler PR Person Liar and Ass Kisser

Jiyan Cadiz and Kristin Starnes, Corporate Public Relations
Chrysler LLC

Dear Jiyan and Kristin :

Citadel Broadcasting radio host Lee Rodgers, on radio station KSFO in San Francisco, has called you a liar. I'm not sure exactly which one of you he specifically is referring to, it is whichever one of you told ABC Radio News journalist Chuck Sivertsen last December that the price for flying nine corporate execs from Detroit to DC was about $500 each.

The corporate PR person said that it only cost $500 a head to send nine of them on a private jet from Detroit to Washington is lying in his or her teeth, that's a total crock, it's a bunch of bullbleep and let me see -- Chuck said coach from Detroit, 663 dollars. I haven’t even looked but I suspect if I went on the web to Orbitz or Travelocity or one of those I could find a coach fare between Detroit and Washington for a good deal less than that.
--Lee Rodgers, KSFO, ABC Radio / Citadel Broadcasting 12-02-2008, 5:50 am

Calling you a liar is bad enough, Rodgers also thinks you are ass kissers.

Well corporate PR people in general are a bunch of ass kissers. They will do almost anything you know, “Don’t get the boss mad at me! For gods sake don’t tell the public the truth! I’ll be in trouble!” that’s the mentality.
-- Lee Rodgers, KSFO, ABC Radio / Citadel Broadcasting 12-02-2008, 5:50 am

Jiyan and Kristin, how does it feel to be called a liar and ass kisser to the Bay Area and the world via the Internet? Does it make you angry? When Rodgers and his colleagues call for liberals to hang (audio link) or calls us liars, crackpots, Communists, Stalinists or dipbleep goo goos, we have no recourse. You do.

The San Francisco Bay Area is a major market, radio has an impact on the people who you hope will buy your cars. If you don't think radio was important you wouldn't advertise. On radio what people say is as important as HOW they say it, especially when there are no visuals to distract. Below is an audio clip of Rodger's exact words, so you can hear the contempt he feels for you.

(audio link) (Transcript 7)

Why advertise on a station with a host who calls you lying ass kissers and says your boss, Robert Nardelli, Chairman & CEO of Chrysler, is whoring himself out to the automobile workers union?

"Let's whore ourselves out to the automobile workers union."
-- Lee Rodgers, morning host on the Big Three American automaker executives, 12-04-2008
(audio link) transcript 1.

(By the way, you don't have to take my word for what they said, contact your ad buyers to obtain the full audio from December second, third and fourth. I have copies, but when it comes directly from the station to the ad buyers to you, KSFO won't be able to make up any nonsense like it's edited or out of context. It will really be an ear opening experience.

I'm sure you will find their entire attitude toward your company and industry very distressing, after listening to them attack you for hours you may choose to re-evaluate your ad purchases.

(FYI. Your company currently advertises on KSFO, most recently you advertised on Feb. 9, 2009 at 6:10 pm. The ad was a live read for Dodge and Chrysler finance.)

Isn't it interesting Jiyan and Kristin that because of truth in advertising laws your company, Chrysler, can't lie about your products on KSFO, but KSFO hosts can repeat falsehoods about your company and products as well as call you liars and ass kissers with no consequences? ( transcript 4)

Every time you advertise on KSFO you are paying Rodger's salary. When you don't respond to Rodgers' and his co-hosts inaccurate information about your industry you encourage people who hurt your brand. Why pay for this abuse?

I guess you are lucky just to be called a liar by Rodgers. His regular fill-in host, Brian Sussman, wants another automaker, GM, to go bankrupt! transcript 2.

How Citadel Attempted to Deal with Conservative Talk Radio's Hate for American Automakers

As a corporate PR person, (a.k.a ass kisser to Lee Rodgers) you might have been involved with the The National Automotive Roundtable hosted at Citadel Broadcasting’s WJR in Detroit (760am), with host Paul W. Smith. WJR interviewed your boss,
Robert Nardelli, Chairman & CEO of Chrysler, Jiyan Cadiz and Kristin Starnes' boss.

Also participating were:
Rick Wagoner, Chairman & CEO of General Motors
Alan Mulally, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company
Ron Gettelfinger, President of the United Auto Workers Union
Annette Sykora, Chairman, National Automobile Dealers Association

Citadel Broadcasting hosted this to help you "deal with the misconceptions of the industry". I listened to the entire show but they didn't address who was SPREADING these misconceptions in the first place. It's Citadel's own talk radio hosts! Of course the usual suspects in conservative right wing media had a role to play (link) but lots of the heavy attacking and misinformation came from talk radio.

Citadel employs people like Rodgers and Sussman who spread misinformation locally, but they also broadcast national talk radio hosts who spreading misinformation nationwide.

The WJR two hour show was a nice gesture. But it was broadcast once, after the damage was done. If you listen to Brian Sussman or Sean Hannity during the days your boss was in D.C. looking for help you will hear them practically screaming about how the American auto industry shouldn't get any help from the government.

After taking millions of your ad dollars during the good years conservative talk hosts could at least have given you an opportunity to tell your side of the story. It appears talk radio hosts want you to fail. I don't know if it is because of their pathological hate of unions, the government that was going to help you or just out of spite. But remember, they are not journalists; they have no charter to hear your side or get to the truth. Like most conservative radio hosts, they don't run corrections.

Modern conservatism on talk radio does not mean pro-American business or worker. KSFO conservatives attack American businesses and their own advertisers. The evidence it clear if you listen. They figure you are too busy and have to short of an attention span to notice them.

As a major advertiser you have a way to deal with talk radio hosts who want you to fail. You don't have to advertise on their programs or stations.


Sincerely,

Mr. Spocko

P.S. Please let me know what you plan to do to protect our brand. Given the history of these hosts, any management or sales rep claims that attacking you was a "one time deal" or that the hosts won't do it any more should be backed with some written guarantees. Perhaps some union autoworkers could be tasked to monitor them to make sure they are keeping their word and not spreading misinformation about your industry or calling YOU liars.