A former disc jockey for Binghamton University’s campus radio station, WHRW, who was fired for allegedly airing profanity, is claiming that the station’s regulations violate his right to freedom of speech and conflict with the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) restrictions.
Thomas L. Dyno, known by the DJ name BlazinTommyD, was barred from broadcasting on WHRW after airing profanity on two occasions. According to the station’s general manager, Rich Bellin, all DJs must attend training sessions in which the station’s policy on profanity is explained.
“He knew 100 percent what the policy was,” Bellin said.
Bellin said that Dyno was warned after airing profanity that his right to broadcast would be rescinded if his actions were repeated. During his following show, the next week, Dyno aired a song containing profanity. Bellin said that Dyno was then given notice that his broadcasting privileges had been suspended. Dyno does not admit that he was in violation of WHRW’s policies, and claims that they violate his constitutional right to freedom of speech and contradict the FCC’s regulations.
According to Bellin, Dyno made it known that he did not agree with the station’s policies before the incident.
“He has said in board meetings that he won’t follow WHRW policies that don’t follow FCC regulations,” he said.
In a letter to BU President Lois B. Defleur, Dyno wrote, “My broadcasting privileges on WHRW were arbitrarily revoked on March 23, 2006 until the [s]ummer of 2007 for airing protected speech within the FCC acknowledged ‘safe harbor zone’ of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time. Said act of revocation is in violation of the due process clause of the [Fourteenth] and [First] Amendments to the [U.S.] Constitution.”
Dyno, 55, claims that since BU is a public university, the campus radio station’s general manager is an agent of the state. As such, Dyno considers Bellin’s actions and WHRW’s regulations to be inhibitions on his freedom of speech.
But according to Mark Goodman, the director of the Student Press Law Center, a Virginia-based student-media resource center, there is no limitation on a station creating its own restrictions on what can be aired, as long as they are not more lenient than FCC regulations.
“The only context where there’s a due process or any kind of constitutional right is when there is an agent of the state,” he said. “What courts have said is that student managers of media organizations, like radio stations, are not considered agents of the state.”
Dyno has said that if President Defleur does not take action and force the radio station to change their policies, he will take legal action against WHRW.
“I would be representing myself,” he said. “I would probably ask the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] to submit an amicus brief on my behalf, which I’m sure they’d be more than willing to do.”
But, according to Dave Belsky, the executive vice president of BU’s Student Association, student groups (of which WHRW is one) cannot be sued. Dyno would have to sue the Student Association, which, Belsky said, would stand behind WHRW’s decision.
“This is a very serious First Amendment issue,” Dyno said. “This isn’t kids playing around because of any personal problems.”
But postings Dyno has made to his myspace.com account seem to indicate that he does believe personal issues are involved, citing religious persecution among them. He wrote that Bellin’s actions evoke fascism, and makes reference to him as “a brutal Nazi thug.” Dyno also refers to Stephanie Wolf, the station’s program director, as “not unlike the Jew catchers in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.”
Bellin and Wolf are both Jewish.