Radio station flap is out of St. Paul’s reach

A column by a Twin Cities gossip columnist on Tuesday appeared to suggest St. Paul’s city government was taking on the burden of monitoring the content of radio stations.

The column — C.J.:Human rights guy wants B96 DJ to Tone it down and Fly right

— focused on St. Paul’s Human Rights Department head Tyrone Terrill, who was opposed to the language (language warning in link) radio station B96’s morning show host used to describe an African American woman, and had set up a meeting with station management to find out “what happened and what are they doing to correct it.”

The unanswered — because it was unasked — question: is St. Paul’s city government in charge of monitoring content on area radio stations now?

“No,” Terrill said this afternoon. He said his intervention was on behalf of the Communities of Color Leadership Council, the group that helped organize a protest against remarks last year from KQRS morning host Tom Barnard.

“We want to be positive and educate,” he said, acknowledging that he was invoking no city-sanctioned enforcement authority as a result of the incident.