Here We Go!
-----------------------------------------------------
By Brad Kava
Mercury News
A week after insulting members of a drum and bugle corps on and off the air, KYLD-FM's (94.9) once highly rated ``Morning Doghouse'' show has been taken off the air.
The move also comes just over a month after shock jocks J.V. and Elvis, and producer Hollywood, helped initiate a student walkout in San Jose that possibly could have cost the East Side Union High School District thousands of dollars.
``The station has taken into account feedback from the community in recent weeks in coming to this decision,'' wrote Dennis Martinez, KYLD's program director, in a brief news release with little detail.
Station management would not comment further, and attempts to reach the DJs by phone were unsuccessful.
The often controversial and racy Doghouse was started by hosts J.V. (Jeffray Vandergrift) and Elvis Medina at San Jose's Hot 97.7, moving to San Francisco when that station was sold.
On April 21, representatives of the San Francisco Renegades Drum and Bugle Corps sent representatives to the morning show to promote an annual fundraiser. Lisa Johnson, a corps board member, said the team of Elvis and another station employee made lewd remarks to her and leered.
In a letter to the station's local management and its owners, Clear Channel Communications, of San Antonio, Johnson wrote, ``This was not `on air shtick.' This was tantamount to an ambush, an assault to Miss Kinoshita and myself, prior to going on the air to promote our show.'' Robin Kinoshita is a fellow board member of the group.
Then, according to the letter, Doghouse members lambasted one of the women with the corps, saying: ``You joined color guard because you were too fat to be a cheerleader.''
In late March, after the San Jose student walkout over planned teacher layoffs was under way, station managers tried to discourage the action when they realized the school district would lose money if students did not show up for classes.
The Doghouse's career has been one of continual ups and downs. The show, which came to San Francisco in 1995, has raised money over the years for various charities. But its members have also been charged with vandalism for a stunt that involved defacing a city sign for Castro Valley, and with illegally disposing of chemical wastes for a stunt in which members doused themselves with oil and then poured it down a drain.
Clear Channel Communications has been vocal in efforts to clean up the airwaves, the most visible effect of which was dropping the syndicated Howard Stern show from its stations, despite his high ratings. Stern was fined more than $1 million by the Federal Communications Commission.
Similarly, the Doghouse has had to clean up its act. In the past, the duo broadcast adult sexual content while marketing itself in junior high schools.
The Doghouse's ratings have dropped significantly in the past year. In the most recent winter ratings, released this week, the show was in 10th place for listeners over 12 years old. Over the show's past decade, it was often in the top five.