Urban One chair, radio hosts slam casino foes on air

Updated Nov. 4

Richmond casino referendum rhetoric took an ugly turn this week, as an Urban One radio host in Richmond compared anti-casino campaigner Paul Goldman to biblical traitor Judas and negatively referenced his Jewish faith — drawing condemnation as antisemitic speech — while speaking on air Wednesday about the casino referendum on city ballots this fall.

In an audio clip posted to the anti-casino group No Means No Casino’s website this week, Richmond radio personality Preston Brown — a longtime media presence in Richmond who has a radio show on Urban One-owned 99.5 FM The Box — said on air, “Paul Goldman is a Jew who got the same trait as Judas. He’s a white Jew with the background of Judas. I’m talking about one person, and his name is Paul Goldman, and he’s a Judas. And I think somebody might have heard me say ‘Jew.’ He’s a Judas, and Judas was with Jesus.”

Judas, according to the Bible, is the apostle who betrayed Jesus and led to his arrest and crucifixion. Richmond Wins Vote Yes, the pro-casino referendum campaign organization that has garnered about $10 million from corporate partners Churchill Downs and Urban One in pushing for the Richmond Grand casino proposal on city ballots, released the following statement Friday: “Richmond Wins Vote Yes is about bringing people together to build a better Richmond and provide meaningful economic opportunity for the city and its people. This campaign unequivocally condemns the antisemitic language and divisive comments that were made on the air.”

Marsha Landess, regional vice president of Radio One Richmond, representing Urban One’s radio stations based in Richmond, released a statement Friday regarding Brown’s comments. “The antisemitic comments heard on The Box 99.5 were made by a temporary guest host who was not an employee of the station,” she wrote. “These statements were horrible and offensive. Once we heard the comments and because he was alone in the studio with his producer, I personally drove to the station and immediately removed him from the show. He will not be appearing again. Our CEO, Alfred Liggins, has personally apologized to Mr. Goldman on behalf of the station and our company, and we again sincerely apologize to Mr. Goldman for these remarks and condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”

Goldman said in a statement Friday night that he didn’t ask for an apology from Liggins. “Yes, I was ticked off. I let him know. But I knew he was better than that.When he responded [Friday] morning with a gracious apology, I wasn’t surprised. And it is fully accepted. I understand the mayor has issued a press release apologizing to me. That too is fully accepted.”

On X (formerly Twitter), Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney wrote that he “unequivocally” condemns Brown’s remarks, adding, “I’m pleased to hear the station has issued an apology and fired the individual.”

Brown’s comments were among the most inflammatory posted on the No Means No website — drawing condemnation from former state Del. Lee Carter on X (formerly Twitter), who called the clip “disgusting.” However, Urban One founder and Chair Cathy Hughes is heard in other posted audio clips making critical comments about U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who spoke against the casino in 2021, and other prominent casino opponents, including Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods Chairman and CEO Bobby Ukrop and Allan-Charles Chipman, an unsuccessful 2022 Richmond City Council candidate. Hughes’ comments were recorded during the “Richmond Grand Update” program, which has aired weekdays on Praise 104.7 FM, another Urban One station in Richmond, since September.

Regarding the other clips, Landess released this statement Friday: “The clips that have been posted online combine more than one show. The majority of the clips are from a morning show on Praise 104.7, where the primary voices heard are host Gary Flowers and Cathy Hughes. The clips involving Preston Brown are from a totally separate nighttime show on Box 99.5. He was a guest host on the show and was immediately removed. He and his producer were the only people in the studio for that show. No others.”

Discussing the Confederate statues in Richmond that were removed between 2020 and 2022, and placed in the custody of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Hughes is heard saying in a Nov. 1 clip, “Tim Kaine may have wanted one in his front yard.” On Oct. 27, she says, “This man was the mayor of the city and a civil rights lawyer. He knows the pain of the Black people of the South Side of Richmond … but he’s saying that it’s better for a Black man to get drunk off some beer that he financed at a local brewery than to have a job. How do you equate that?”

On Oct. 19, Hughes is heard speaking about Ukrop, whom she says hired a plane to fly a banner reading “VOTE NO CASINO … AGAIN” over the site of the Richmond Folk Festival last month, although it’s not clear who exactly hired the plane for this purpose. Hughes is heard saying, “No. 1, somebody needs to help this old man, because 85% of everybody at that Folk Festival comes from outside of the Richmond area. We worked it two years ago, and we couldn’t find nobody from Richmond.”

In an Oct. 24 clip, casino opponents Chipman and Richmond marijuana activist Chelsea Higgs Wise are called “self-hating Black folk” by “Richmond Grand Update” host Gary Flowers, who alleges that they were paid to oppose the casino. Chipman took to X on Friday to say that he has not been paid by the no-casino campaign. “This is false and I’ve never received nor would I receive a dime for this,” he wrote. Higgs Wise, meanwhile, posted on Facebook, “my NO isn’t funded. Your radio comments are repulsive.”

Goldman’s statement, which recalls his history as former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s campaign manager, continued with criticism of the pro-casino faction, specifically naming Stoney, Liggins, Hughes and Churchill Downs.

“The whole pro-casino side seem oblivious to the damage they have done to Richmond,” Goldman wrote. “Doug Wilder and I spent years trying to move our state and our city forward. We teamed up with then Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine and the late [U.S. Rep.] Donald McEachin to do that. So have others. But it sadly remains a long, difficult journey, with a long way to go. But as our slogan in his historic gubernatorial race said: We have come too far to turn back now.

“And this is why I feel the mayor, Alfred, Ms. Hughes, Churchill Downs and the whole pro side miss the true meaning of the damage they have done to Richmond. It isn’t merely their failure to apologize to all the people individually singled out. But to our city, as a whole, to our people, as a whole. For the love of money, for personal gain, they are willing to turn their casino project into a wedge of division, to attempt to win by a divisive strategy serving only their selfish interests.”

Pressing for the finish

The broader issue, amid these comments aired on Urban One-owned radio stations in Richmond, is the record-breaking pro-casino spending by Urban One and Churchill Downs, who would be partners in the Richmond Grand Resort & Casino if the referendum passes on Tuesday. In 2021’s effort, Urban One sank about $2.6 million into its pro-casino campaign; this year, the two corporations have donated more than $10 million to the Richmond Wins Vote Yes committee. Beyond the normal expenses of campaign mailers and advertising, the campaign hosted a free Isley Brothers concert next to an early voting location Saturday on the city’s South Side, not far from the casino’s intended site, and has been subsidizing meals at all three early voting sites in October and November.

On Friday morning, Flowers and guest co-host Clovia Lawrence, with Hughes speaking by phone, promoted the casino referendum and discussed plans on Saturday to host parties with free music and food in some of the city’s mostly Black neighborhoods, as well as to offer free rides to the polls on Tuesday.

The Federal Communications Commission’s rules regarding political speech on radio stations do not specifically address the issue of referendums, although the FCC fact sheet on political programming says that the agency does not “require broadcast stations and other regulatees to provide all sides of controversial issues.” Separately, the FCC’s “payola” regulations say that if a broadcast station has received or been promised payment for airing program material, the station must disclose that information when the material airs, but the rules do not address the discussion of business ventures by the radio station’s owner, as would apply to Urban One and the prospective casino.

Casino opponents, meanwhile, are working with a much smaller budget, with No Means No Casino having raised about $200,000 as of Oct. 31, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. They’ve made their cause visible with yard signs and letters sent to city residents, as well as the aforementioned airplane flying over the Richmond Folk Festival in October.

Sen. Kaine’s office said he was not available Friday to make a comment.