AM1280 The Patriot canceled Bradlee Dean days before Capitol 'prayer'

AM1280 The Patriot canceled Bradlee Dean days before Capitol 'prayer'

By David Brauer | Published Wed, May 25 2011 10:39 am

Last Friday, a track-suited Bradlee Dean stood before the Minnesota House of Representatives to deliver an incendiary “prayer” implying President Obama was not a Christian. But the high-profile moment came just days after a local conservative radio station canceled Dean’s “Sons of Liberty” show. The legislative brouhaha caused another to terminate discussions about picking the program up.
Radio host Bradlee Dean
Radio host Bradlee Dean

Since 2009, Dean’s show had appeared Saturdays on AM1280 The Patriot; like many in the genre, Dean’s “ministry” paid to air the two-hour political show. But Patriot general manager Ron Stone says he canceled Dean after a program in which the host and a sidekick likened Obama to Osama Bin Laden and “did a 6-minute-long spiel in which they mocked black people, which I took offense to. For a minister to do that made no sense.”

On the broadcast, Dean intoned, "I just listened to a bunch of news reporters mistakently calling Obama Osama and Osama Obama. And I just have a serious question: What's the difference, America? ... Your outside enemies are really on the inside. Osama Bin Laden did not call you 'a Muslim nation,' Obama did. ... even so far as to honor Osama Bin Laden with a Muslim eulogy on an American blood-bought ship. ... Osama Bin Laden is not the one that's trying to disarm the American people — Obama is! America, what's the difference? No one has attacked this country and its people as well as its foundations more than this man's administration. Do the math!"

The following Wednesday, “Junkyard Prophet,” a Twitter account linked to Dean’s Christian-metal band, announced:

KTLK is the higher-rated Clear-Channel-owned conservative FM station that’s the local home to Jason Lewis, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Dean (who did not respond to a request for comment) had arguably turned necessity into advantage.

The inaugural KTLK broadcast would’ve run May 21 — the day after Dean’s prayer. It never aired.

Clear Channel operations manager Gregg Swedberg says, “We had been approached about putting Bradlee Dean on KTLK-FM. However, nothing was ever solidified because we would’ve needed him to make some adjustments. We haven’t spoken to his people since the legislature appearance.”

Swedberg did not specify the adjustments. Though daily newspapers ignored Dean until Friday, websites such as Dump Bachmann, Ripple in Stillwater and Minnesota Independent have long chronicled his attacks on gays and lesbians, such as “claims that gay men molest an average of 117 children and that Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians.”

The Patriot, owned by Salem Communications, had kept “Sons of Liberty” on through all this. Stone was listed as a director of Dean’s “You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International” on the group’s 2009 federal form 990. That year, “You Can Run” reported spending $35,054 in “radio air time.”

Now, Stone says, “I’ve learned a lot. When the ‘Sons of Liberty’ show first developed, I truly believed it was a conservative radio show in the right spirit. I don’t have an issue with him debating the marriage amendment, photo ID, Obamacare, things that deserve to be debated. What I do have issues with is the divisive tone — we’re not bigots, we’re not racists. Even though we don’t agreed with the president on policy, I don’t think he should be likened to a terrorist. Given what happened at the Capitol, I’m so happy with the decision I made.”