Radio host fired over comment

He joked with caller about 'Mexican roping saddle'

ST. GEORGE — A part-time Cedar City radio host who was fired last week for an on-air comment is seeking legal advice.

"I think what they did was very unfair," said Paul Fice, host of KSUB radio's morning merchandize trading and selling show. He was fired this past Thursday by station owner Cherry Creek Radio of Denver for joking with a caller that a "Mexican roping saddle" being put up for sale might be useful to "rope Mexicans" trying to cross the border.

"Well, a lot of times things just strike me as funny and I say something about it," said Fice, who was told that afternoon he was being pulled from the air because someone had complained.

He said he didn't know he was being fired over it until a news reporter called him for a comment a short time later. "That's the first I heard about it," he said. "That was really a stinky deal."

Whoever complained about Fice also apparently has a lot of pull in the community, he said.

"I don't know who the lady is, but she apparently started calling sponsors and I was told she got five of them to pull their ads," Fice said, adding that fans of "Tradio" upset about the firing have been calling the station and his house.

No one at Cherry Creek Radio's St. George office was available to comment late Wednesday.

The company's Web site states that the company believes "in positive motivation, taking input from our people at the market level, and working problems from the market level up, rather than the corporate level down."

"That's obviously not what happened here," Fice said, adding he enjoyed his job because of the people he met and talked to and not because of the money. Fice said he was paid $5 an hour until he got a $2 raise a few months ago.

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com

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