Akermanis taken off the air
Damian Barrett
27apr05
JASON Akermanis has denied his use of the word "monkey" on Brisbane radio last week had racial connotations.
Management of the station, 98.9FM, part of the National Indigenous Radio Service network, said it cancelled Akermanis's program after the comment and has scheduled a board meeting today to discuss the matter.
Akermanis told the Herald Sun yesterday "monkey" was meant innocently and lightheartedly.
He had already apologised for any misunderstanding on
www.akaandmacca.com.
"It comes from the saying, 'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'. It isn't racist and I am staggered that anyone could have taken what I said that way," Akermanis said.
"I just don't treat people like that. I am not racist. The comment was not racist.
"I am being accused of all kinds of rubbish. I apologised four times (to station management), I told them I was going to make a public apology, but in the end, when you are dealing with people who don't want to deal with reason, then the only thing you are left with doing is getting on the front foot and walking out."
Akermanis and former Lions player Craig McRae co-hosted the program, titled the Aka and Macca Footy Show, which had been broadcast in Brisbane for the past 18 months.
They had been in dispute over sponsorship arrangements with the station, which had demanded $20,000 from them to maintain involvement.
The triple premiership teammates said the racism accusations made their participation with 98.9FM impossible.
Towards the end of their April 18 program, Akermanis, as part of his long-held aim to increase the length of air-time, said: "To all listeners out there, jump on to akaandmacca.com and macca, maybe we can get these monkeys upstairs to give us an extra half an hour, which we had the year before."
Station general manager Tiga Bayles told the Herald Sun yesterday the program's co-hosts were told on Friday their show was cancelled because of the "monkey" reference.
"'Monkey has been used for a long, long time by people across the world, by white people across the world, in reference to people of colour and I think it is being used from the perspective of the superiority and inferiority thing," Bayles said.
"Whether this guy actually meant that or not, or was just using it as you would with a child, 'Oh, you little monkey, come here', . . . the case is not for me to judge. But by the same token, it is offensive in any man's language."
Bayles said his station was not considering legal action, but did not rule out pursuing anti-discrimination avenues.
He denied Akermanis and McRae departed for financial reasons.
McRae yesterday defended Akermanis's actions.
"If I thought there was a racial tone to it, I would have said it right on the spot, but even the people in the studio at the time, the people producing the show were indigenous, and they saw no reference to racism," McRae said. "Anyone who knows Aker knows that is so far from the truth."
