Post article on “KMEX” radio hoax failed to identify prankster as Boyles producer

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

The Denver Post reported on an April Fool's Day prank in which 630 KHOW-AM host Greg Hollenback told listeners the talk radio station would be switching to a Spanish-language channel with the call letters “KMEX.” But the Post did not mention that Hollenback is also the producer of The Peter Boyles Show, on which Boyles and his guests frequently hype the purported threat of the United States' growing Hispanic population and spread falsehoods about immigration.

An April 2 article in The Denver Post about an April Fool's Day prank conducted by 630 KHOW-AM host Greg Hollenback, in which he touched on the “hot-button topic” of the growing influence of the United States' Hispanic population, failed to note that Hollenback is also the producer of the station's The Peter Boyles Show. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Boyles on his show has a long record of broadcasting falsehoods about illegal immigration and promoting bigoted commentary regarding Hispanics.

The Post article by staff writer Sean McDonald (an online version appeared April 1) reported that Hollenback announced to his April 1 audience that the station would change to a Spanish-language format under the new call letters “KMEX”:

An April Fools' Day prank promoting a change at radio station KHOW to “KMEX” -- a new Spanish-language channel -- angered some listeners Sunday to the point of protests and on-air rants.

Greg Hollenback, host of a self-titled show on the station, told listeners that the station was going to be switching its identity soon and asked for public response.

Furious e-mails and calls flooded the station in the 30 minutes Hollenback kept the joke alive.

In an e-mail read by Hollenback, a listener wrote: “I will not knowingly use, purchase or listen to anything associated with Clear Channel because of this crap.”

Another e-mail that was read listed a series of anti-immigration vents.

One listener using the name Tony called the show back to apologize for an earlier rant, explaining that the issue is a sensitive one to him.

Hollenback didn't echo the apology.

“Don't joke, yourself, if you think it isn't going to happen in many markets,” Hollenback said on-air. “It's a demographic that is untapped in our capitalistic society.”

[...]

Hollenback said after the show that the prank wasn't meant to be mean-spirited or hurtful but only an exercise in the dynamics of society today.

“It's satire, it's the world we're living in today, and I was framing the world in the way I see it,” he said.

As for the fiery response, Hollenback said it comes with the territory.

“You're going to get feedback and fire from any hot-button topic,” he said. “You put these things out there so people see it from every angle.”

Boyles also has discussed Spanish-language radio on his broadcasts. After making the false claim that in Los Angeles “the top four radio stations in the ratings ... are Spanish-language radio stations,” Boyles apparently warned the audience, "[A]s we say all the time, what you're witnessing in California is 18 months from being here." Among other falsehoods and incendiary statements, Boyles has asserted that "[o]ver two-thirds of all the births in L.A. County are to illegal-alien Mexican[s] ... whose birth are then paid for by the taxpayer," and he has repeatedly claimed that illegal immigrants who have children born in the United States cannot be deported.