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For Immediate Release
SOFRITO STATEMENT ABOUT THE STAR AND BUCWILD CONTROVERSY!
6/16/2005
Before I get into what happened today on the radio...I want to thank all of our supporters who called and emailed us to
offer their support and express their anger at what transpired this morning...our mission has and will always be to promote
positivity through our culture and heritage, this incident will only make us stronger.
Here is what transpired...
I was on my way into the city this morning when I tuned into the Star and Bucwild show on 105.1 FM ( a Clear Channel station)
like I do many mornings in between commercials while listening to El Vacilon de La Manana. This morning was different...this
morning I decided to voice my opinion about one of the segments on the show. Noticias En Espanol is a segment in which one
of the shows members, White Trash Helene broadcasts the news in spanish. Her segment usually consists of stories related to
gangs, drugs and immigration, topics we can all agree exist within the Latino community. I wrote an email to another one of
the shows members, Crossover Negro Reese to have my email forwarded to Star...the shows host. The following is the exact text
of the email that was sent.
Crossover...please forward this message to Star.
My name is George Torres and I want to first congratulate you on your return to the NY market...I have followed your career
from MTV, the Source all the way to the sloppy station and looking forward to reading your book â raise your own f'ing kidsâ
(if I can ever find it). I am writing because I am concerned about the content in White Trash Helene's section in â Noticias
En Espanolâ . After listening to it carefully for a couple of weeks, I realized that there seems to be a pattern of reporting
stories of drug trafficking, gang violence and immigration issues. To the average person, even a Latino...it would appear
as if that is the only news we generate.
There is so many positive news being generated for and about Latinos...I would love for her to sprinkle some of that into
the mix. I would volunteer my services and that of my website to help provide resources and press releases to White Trash
to improve the quality of her segment. I look forward to hearing from your team.
As I am,
George Torres
Founder
www.SofritoForYourSoul.com
Ph. 516.301.0932
gtorres@SofritoForYourSoul.com
The intention of my email was to create an opportunity to give the Star and Bucwild's millions of listeners a chance to
hear a diverse news broadcast that may more appropriately reflect different aspects of our culture and contributions to society.
The response of Star was to essentially tell me the get the "F" out of here and that his show would just give us the "rough,
rugged and real" and that we should go to Telemundo if we want to hear that kind of news. He then proceeded to say to White
Trash Helene to make sure that all she reported was "drugs and murder" and then they proceeded to say words like "cocaina"
and "heroina" (spanish words for the drugs cocaine and heroin) like a school bully would taunt a child in the school playground.
This email cannot possibly convey the tone of his lack of respect for Latino's. This is ironic considering that in the NYC
market his show has a strong Latino following and Clear Channel has been changing many of it's stations in different states
to Hispanic Urban formats. I think that Star's statements clearly reflect his sense of appreciation of his Latino fan base.
At the end of the day...I realize it is entertainment...I know his statements were made to be provocative and controversial
but at what point do we continue to accept programming that degrades our image in the media yet depends on us to keep it on
the air?
Please send us your thought on this issue at Sofrito4yoursoul@aol.com
Let Clear Channel know how you feel at Power1051fm@clearchannel.com
As I am,
George Torres
Founder
www.SofritoForYourSoul.com
