A prominent Toronto radio station has apologized Wednesday for an on-air joke that described Newfoundlanders as inbred.
Listener Miranda Callahan complained to CHUM-FM in September after announcer Darren B. Lamb quipped that an edition of the popular TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation would never be set in Newfoundland "because they all have the same DNA."
Callahan was not satisfied with the station's response and took the matter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which forwarded the complaint to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
CHUM program director David Corey — who only last week told CBC Radio St. John's Morning Show that the joke was made solely for a laugh, and that he personally thought it was funny — has since written to Callahan with an apology.
In his letter to Callahan, Corey described the joke as "insulting and offensive."
"I have made my thoughts on this matter clear to our entire morning team and they also agree that such remarks have no place on CHUM-FM," Corey wrote.
"The comment in no way reflects how any of us feel about Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders. I hope you will accept my sincere apology, and I give you my word that comments such as these have no place on our airwaves," he wrote.
The station also aired an apology for the joke on its morning program on Wednesday.
"You know sometimes how you don't think before speaking," cohost Lamb told the audience listening at about 6:10 a.m.
"Remember a couple of weeks ago I said something in passing about Newfoundland? Some people took offence to that, and I just want to say I'm sorry. Believe me, I did not mean to offend anyone when I said that," said Lamb, who did not repeat the joke.
"I want to put that out there."
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