Advertisers Flee From WEEI Over 'Hateful' On-Air Incidents

BOSTON, MA — City of Boston Credit Union and Comcast Corp. decided that they do not want to be associated with a radio station that has hosts calling a 5-year-old a pissant and using a stereotypical accent to mock a Chinese-American.

The companies announced Monday that they have suspended all advertising on WEEI indefinitely. The move comes three days after the radio station issued a five-day suspension to Christian Fauria for using a stereotypical Asian voice during an impersonation of Tom Brady's agent Don Yee.

"A series of recent incidents have made it clear that the culture of the station is not reflective of our values of inclusion, acceptance and mutual respect. We have a responsibility to our diverse membership to spend their advertising dollars responsibly and cannot support what is in our opinion, the hateful and divisive contend that seems to have become a matter of course at WEEI," City of Boston Credit Union President Dan Waltz said in a release.

During a segment Friday of a recent Boston Herald story based on a fake source who claimed to be Yee but was, in fact, a WEEI caller, the hosts read the texts between Borges and the fake Yee on the air. Fauria took the role of the fake Yee and used a stereotypical Asian accent.

"So much more fun that way," Fauria said over laughter from co-hosts Glen Ordway and Lou Merloni.

Fauria later apologized on Twitter for his act.

The Fauria suspension was the second suspension in as many weeks at the station. Alex Reimer was suspended about a week before the Super Bowl for calling Brady's daughter an "annoying little pissant."

Controversy isn't new to WEEI. The most recent includes two for morning host Kirk Minihane, who was suspended for on-air argument with Fauria and comments made about FOX Sports reporter Erin Andrews.

John Dennis and Gerry Callahan were suspended for two weeks in 2003 when they called an escaped Franklin Park Zoo gorilla at a bus stop a METCO gorilla heading out to Lexington.