FOREST CITY, Iowa – Controversial commentary from two local radio employees at a high school basketball game in northern Iowa is going viral — and has resulted in their firing.
A video clip from a boys basketball game between Forest City High School and Eagle Grove High School was posted to Facebook Sunday night. It contains racist comments by an announcer and producer. The clip is from a longer online broadcast of the Nov. 28th game, with audio provided by KIOW-FM in Forest City.
According to KIMT the exchange in the clip is between Orin Harris and a producer. Harris is a longtime announcer for Forest City Athletics.
The two make several comments about the ethnicities of some of the Eagle Grove players, discussing the “Espanol people in Eagle Grove.”
Harris also says, “As (President) Trump would say, go back where they came from.”
KIOW issued a statement Monday about the incident. In it the station does not name the employees but condemns the comments.
“These comments were deplorable, and the staff and management of KIOW in no way condones or supports these comments.”
The statement goes on to reveal both employees have been fired. An earlier statement by the radio station had said the female was fired and the male was suspended indefinitely — but it has since been updated.
You can read the entire statement from the radio station here.
Watch the video below:
