The incident took place at a hunger fundraiser in Hawaii when Island 98.5 morning show co-hosts Kreyz Oshiro and Vic Harris mocked local entertainer Paula Fuga who shared with the show that she had to eat food out of garbage cans when she was younger.
Fuga shared the story during the station fundraiser for the Hawaii Foodbank. “When I was a little kid, I used to be homeless on the beach so I benefited from things like this, from people giving. It’s something that I really don’t talk about … I’ve eaten from a trash can when I was a little girl. I’ve been hungry before.”
Here’s what the hosts then said, according to The Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Harris: “Is it right out of the trash can or do you put it on a plate first?”
Fuga: “No like I could cry thinking about it. Like in the dark with my hand from a trash can.”
Fuga then asked the hosts for a box of tissues Harris replied, “No, but we got a trash can right over there by the bar.
Oshiro: “What just in case she’s hungry?”
Fuga then said, “I don’t eat from a trash can anymore.”
iHeartMedia General Manager Chuck Cotton issued a statement on Monday stating that Harris and Oshiro were no longer part of the morning crew. “The on air comments made by DJs ‘Slick Vic’ Harris and ‘KreyZ’ Oshiro this past Friday were highly insensitive and do not represent the values of Island 98.5 (or iHeartRadio Honolulu) and our commitment to the communities we serve. We want to sincerely apologize to Paula Fuga and to any others who were offended. Please know that the situation has been addressed internally.”
iHeart then issued a joint statement with Fuga. “Paula Fuga’s courageous transparency at Tanks Fo’ Giving has afforded a renewed opportunity to better support the crisis of community hunger in the islands. An awakening and a reckoning of truth is now on the table thanks to Paula’s willingness to move forward in a unified effort to address this crisis.”
Read the full story from The Honolulu Star-Advertiser where you can also see a video of the exchange. Fuga responded to what the radio hosts said in an interview on Facebook HERE.
I heard Vic and kreyz both get real and apologize immediately after the comments on air multiple times. They made a joke get over it! Their job was to push the boundaries every day and they made us laugh. And then they go “too far” one time and their whole livelihood is stripped from them and they’re shammed forever! I HATE CANCEL CULTURE!! The show sucks now and it’s such a shame! This weak knee, participation trophy, snowflake culture we live in is the ruin of our generation happening right before our eyes… DON’T BE “WOKE”… WAKE UP!!!!!!
Morning show sucks now…
There’s a time and a place for joking around, but this wasn’t one of them. Paula was sharing her story about being homeless and hungry. These 2 jokesters thought it was funny to mock her unfortunate situation. Homelessness and hunger isn’t something to joke about, EVER!!! So all you people who think that it was all in fun at someone else’s expense, or that she should have had a “sense of humor,” can kiss my @$$!!!
No one is more concerned about where much of the the “cancel culture” has led us than I. It sometimes seems we’re becoming overly sensitive to everything. Nevertheless, there is a big difference between being funny on the air and being just plain stupidly insensitive. This falls under the latter.
I’m sorry Paula had to endure this. She is a wonderfully talented performer who has overcome much in her life. She was correct when she called the guys “jerks”.
I would have had a problem with this even in the “more tolerant” 1980s when I was programming WNBC.
iHeart made the correct move.
Not true… Have a sense of humor. Comedy is not pretty. Cancel Culture Sucks!!!
I heard Vic was suspended and the other on vacation (no punishment there) so I hope they were in fact fired. Good for iHeart, it’s the right thing to do. No excuse for such cruelty. Just because you’re a comedian doesn’t mean EVERYTHING is funny.