25 years ago: Residents outraged at local radio station’s upcoming program

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 16, 1988:

  • A radio talk show hosted by student Russ Ptacek at Kansas University’s KJHK was in the spotlight this week. The host had invited Allen Moran and Dennis Maloney, two members of a Missouri KKK organization, to appear on the program, which had been postponed indefinitely after local residents had expressed their outrage. More than 200 people had met at a local church to discuss the decision to postpone, rather than cancel, the program. A group of local ministers had issued a statement saying they were upset that their requests for an outright cancellation had been refused. “We are strongly opposed to any action which leads to the publicizing and dissemination of discriminatory doctrine,” the statement said. Concerned residents were also conducting a letter-writing and telephone campaign to state and congressional officials urging them to stop KU from using state tax dollars to plant “the seeds of racial disharmony.”
  • The 1988 election began heating up today with the New Hampshire primary. Results published the next day showed that Michael Dukakis led the field of Democrats with 36 percent of the vote, followed by Richard Gephardt, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, Bruce Babbitt, and Gary Hart. The Republican front-runner in New Hampshire was George Bush with 38 percent, followed by Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, Pierre Du Pont, and Pat Robertson. Babbitt and du Pont dropped out of the race later in the week.