KQRS to apologize for Red Lake remarks

After a meeting Monday with tribal leaders and American Indian advocates, KQRS Radio said it will apologize for comments made on Tom Barnard's highly popular "Morning Show" that linked high suicide rates on the Red Lake Indian Reservation with incest and genetics.

KQRS-FM (92.5) said it will hire Indian interns and invite members of the Red Lake Chippewa and Shakopee Mdewakanton communities to be on Barnard's show, which is the perennial morning ratings leader by a wide margin in Twin Cities' radio.

"KQ did admit that the statements made on the radio were wrong-headed and stupid," said Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd (Buck) Jourdain, who drove down from northern Minnesota for the hour-long meeting at KQ's headquarters in Minneapolis. "I fail to see how any community can stand for such behavior under the guise of humor."

In a broadcast last month, Barnard and "Morning Show" sidekick Terri Traen were discussing the high suicide rate in Beltrami County, which includes Red Lake. Traen mentioned genetics and incest "up there," and Barnard took a shot at the Shakopee Mdewakanton for failing to help Red Lake with proceeds from its profitable Mystic Lake Casino.

"This was not just an attack on Red Lake, it was an attack on all Indian people and the remarks are inexcusable," said Glynn A. Crooks, vice chairman of the Shakopee Mdewakanton band.

It's far from the first public outcry against Barnard and Co. Members of other minority communities have lodged complaints over the years.

In 1998, Somalis protested after Barnard and his crew lampooned African accents while playing an audiotape of taxi drivers expressing concern about their safety in the aftermath of a slaying. That same year, KQ's management apologized for remarks the morning crew made about Hmong culture after an 13-year-old Hmong girl was suspected of killing her baby.

Barnard also created an uproar in 2002, 39 days before U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash, when he made a vulgar reference to him and added, "I hope he drops dead."

KQRS President Marc Kalman declined to comment on Monday's meeting, but issued a statement saying the station will offer public apologies, grant equal time for positive developments in the American Indian community and run announcements for a suicide hotline in addition to hiring tribal interns and inviting leaders on the show.

"It's a start but we're not satisfied," said Clyde Bellecourt, co-founder of the American Indian Movement. "We think they should have suspended the guy or let the guy go. We'll be monitoring them."

Bellecourt said he spoke with Kalman on Monday afternoon and saw the text of the apologies from Traen and Barnard. He was told the apologies will start airing Friday and be repeated six or seven times throughout the day.

According to Bellecourt, Traen's apology cites her "ignorant and inappropriate comments" and Barnard apologized for joking that he wished "an airplane would crash into Mystic Lake Casino."

Despite the apologies, Bellecourt said he is still going to urge tribal casinos advertising on the station to pull ads and pressure other sponsors. The ouster of national shock jock Don Imus, who made disparaging comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, might have changed the dynamics.

Outside the meeting, someone held up a sign that read: "Tom 'Imus' Barnard must go now."

Said Jourdain, "The comments about the Rutgers team involved individuals losing a basketball game. This involved the loss of life and was intolerable and way out of bounds."

Jourdain said there have been no suicides at Red Lake for more than two years.

Curt Brown • 612-673-4767

Curt Brown • curt.brown@startribune.com