ASU: We Never Banned KTAR from Buses

Ban? What ban? That, from Arizona State University, speaking out for the first time about a memo from Coach America to their ASU shuttle bus drivers that prohibits playing KTAR on buses. ASU said they never "banned" anything.

"We did not give them a mandate, we did not tell them to ban anything," ASU Senior Media Relations Officer Leah Hardesty told KTAR on Monday afternoon. "We suggested that Coach America do one of two things: either turn down the radio or play a different station. And so, it was their decision to play a different station."

Bus drivers told KTAR-FM they received a memo with their paychecks last Friday that said they should tune in to a "more generic" station or not play the radio at all.

Hardesty said they received two complaints from one student claiming that a discussion heard on the Darrell Ankarlo show was biased towards multi-cultural students and that the student considered it offensive.

Hardesty said they take every complaint seriously, whether it's one student or 10,000 students.

No radio stations will be broadcast on shuttle buses on the ASU campus until the school comes up with a policy, the bus company said Monday.

"We were advised to not play the station or to keep it very low and that is a quote," said Steve Kuenzi with Coach America. "And that's what we've done until they [ASU] get back to us and I understand they're going to come out with a policy that's been requested and hopefully the issue will be resolved very shortly."

Coach America operates eight shuttle routes on the Tempe campus.

The bus driver who told KTAR about the ban said he has listened to the station for two years. He said students "are supposed to be mature adults who have open minds."

Some students expressed disappointment on the matter.

"I would think something like this would take the petitions of thousands of students, or at least hundreds, before it got banned from the bus," said one student.

Bus rider Yossi Wolfe said, "I don't want to take sides or anything, but I think sometimes liberals misuse the free speech thing and they kind of use it to their advantage. When somebody else goes and uses the free speech amendment, it's like, 'Oh, wow, you can't say that.'"

Casey, a student who called into KTAR-FM's Mac Watson Show, said "I'm going to be honest with you. I don't agree with probably 50 percent of the things Ankarlo says, maybe even more, and I still listen to it."

Casey said he regularly rides the buses in question and confirmed News/Talk 92.3 KTAR is always played on the overhead speakers.

"The reason I listen to [KTAR-FM] is I will never be able to defend what I believe, unless I know what other people believe. I think it's part of my education that I need to understand other people's point of view."

KTAR management wrote to Coach America on Friday and said the ban violates free-speech rights on a taxpayer-funded campus and taxpayer-funded bus.

Jim Cross, Dan Guerin, Sandra Haros and Jon Zimney contributed to this report.