WAZE Cleaning Up the Airwaves

Other than WWE Smackdown, I don’t really fit into the demographic that local CW affiliate WAZE is trying to target. Every now and then I’ll tune in to an episode of Veronica Mars or Smallville, but beyond that, I don’t tune the channel in much. Today, WAZE’s parent company, Roberts Broadcasting, announced that it will begin banning programming it deems violent, sexist and racist.

The announcement comes a week after the Don Imus incident where everyone’s favorite 67-year-old jock called the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of nappy headed hoes. Rogers Broadcasting is owned Steve and Mike Roberts, two brothers who are also black. Beyond owning WAZE locally, they also own other television stations and hip-hop radio stations around the region. In a letter to the staff of one of those radio stations, Michael Roberts wrote that the Imus case has certainly put new fire under the need to respect ourselves first — specifically the hip-hop nation and rap music’s role in desensitizing our country to derogatory comments toward women and each other.

The impact on Roberts’ television stations remains to be seen. They have said they won’t be filtering any CW network programming, but instead will be focusing on the content each station syndicates.