US Radio Staff Suspended Over Tsunami Song

Only days after Rodney Marsh was sacked by Sky Sports over a tsumani joke, the entire staff of a New York radio programme have been suspended indefinitely after thousands of listeners complained about a bad taste tsunami song.

The song was a parody based on the 1985 famine fundraising single, We are the World, and featured lyrics about a woman floating through the water with a tree in her head.

The seven-member morning team at WQHT-FM Hot 97 repeatedly played the song, which also included references to "screaming chinks" and orphaned children "sold into child slavery".

"You can hear God laughing, 'Swim you bitches swim'," was one line in the song.

Another said: "Go find your mommy/I just saw her float by/a tree went through her head/and now the children will be sold to child slavery."

Thousands of listeners protested, complaining it was in poor taste to make fun of the Asian catastrophe, which has claimed the lives of more than 250,000.

Emmis Radio, owner of the station, labelled the song "morally and socially indefensible" but failed to sack the programme staff responsible.

Initially the station did not suspend DJ Tarsha Nicole Jones, who uses the on-air name Miss Jones. Instead, she apologised on-air and said the morning team would donate a week's salary to tsunami relief.

The station acted after listeners demanded Jones be sacked and management decided "stronger action was necessary to demonstrate the severity of the situation".

"All involved, including myself, are ashamed and deeply sorry," said the president of Emmis Radio , Rick Cummings.

"I know the members of the morning team are contrite. They know their actions are inexcusable."

WQHT-FM Hot 97 has been criticised in the past for poor taste.

In 2001 two different morning hosts were suspended after mocking the death of R&B singer Aaliyah in a plane crash.

Sky Sports earlier this week sacked its football pundit Rodney Marsh for making a tasteless joke about the Asian disaster on a phone-in show. He made a pun likening the fans of Newcastle United's football team - known as the Toon Army - to the tsunami.