UPDATE: WTVN Apologizes On-Air

The Ohio Action Circle has been awaiting an apology from 610 WTVN in response to the community reaction against their offensive promotional contest "Win a Trip to Phoenix, Arizona."

A short time ago, an apology aired during a commercial break in which General Manager Brian Dytko addressed the situation.

The OAC would like to hear from you, the community members.
What is your opinion of the apology? What do you think is the appropriate response? Please leave your comments below.

Below you'll find the audio and the transcript of WTVN's apology. The .mp3 file is also available for download here.



Transcript:
This is Brian Dytko, Station Manager of WTVN with a message regarding our station’s recent “Win a Trip to Phoenix, Arizona” promotional contest. Our contest was meant as a humorous response to a City of Columbus ban on travel to Arizona by city employees. In fact, a key element of the promotion was that city employees were specifically invited to enter the contest. We regret that our promotional copy has been characterized as condoning violence. This was not our intent, and we do not condone violence of any kind. We apologize for our actions here. We are always striving to engage our community on important issues of the day and sometimes we do a better job than others, but we always take the input of our community seriously.

BREAKING NEWS: WTVN TO PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE

As you may know since Wednesday - May 26, we have been trying to contact Brian Dytko, General Manager of Clear Channel Communications in Columbus, to demand an apology for the insensitive WTVN promotion.

We organized with a clear and concise message to WTVN and Clear Channel: this promotion is offensive and we demand an apology.

As you saw here at the OAC blog, we made several attempts to get in touch with Mr. Dytko.

Less than an hour ago, Mr. Dytko apologized for the insensitivity of the promotion, saying that he has heard from hundreds of people locally and nationally, including "supporters of WTVN and Clear Channel" (sponsors).

Today, Wednesday at 5:00PM, he will go on the WTVN airwaves and make a public apology! Set your dial to 610 WTVN AM to listen in.

This is indeed a victory for all. It demonstrates the power of people and organizations uniting and organizing, using creative tactics and actions while staying on message and demonstrating in a peaceful manner. When we do this in an organized manner, we win.

Please, let your networks know of this victory. There will be other follow-up actions to this, so keep an eye here for upcoming announcements!

Mil gracias to all...
iHasta la proxima victoria!

Rubén Castilla Herrera

State Director

Reform Immigration For America