WPRO talker returns after possible suspension

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John depetroJohn DePetro has returned to his Cumulus’ WPRO-AM Providence 9A-Noon show after being off air five weeks (since November) after an uproar over vulgar comments he made.


He told listeners the boycott by public officials vowing to stay off the station’s talk shows until he is gone was ‘‘nothing more than politicians and unions trying to interfere and silence public opinion.’’

“It’s very simple,” DePetro said after his return. “Politicians and unions should not interfere and try to silence public opinion. Period. That’s it…The last time I checked, this is still America.”

DePetro came under fire in November for his language in criticizing female protesters outside a fundraiser for General Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo. The Providence Democrat and gubernatorial candidate has drawn the ire of organized labor for authoring the 2011 state pension overhaul that unions are challenging in court.

DePetro called public officials ‘‘union hags’’ and ‘‘whores,’’ spelling out the word. A union-backed campaign aims to get him off the air, and has been supported by the governor, state Republican Party and other prominent officials, noted The Boston Globe.

DePetro apologized in December. Both he and WPRO have not explained his absence—it may have been an unannounced suspension. He was also fired from a Boston station for vulgar comments about a female gubernatorial candidate.

The boycott of his station continues.

See the Boston Globe story here.