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Flier touting radio show raises hackles of Dade City residents
By CHASE SQUIRES, Times Staff Writer
DADE CITY -- The flier left at Jean McNary's mailbox Monday features a photograph of a little blond girl under the headline, "She Needs the Truth. Where Will She Find It?" The answer, the flier proclaims, is on a weekly radio show produced by the National Alliance, a West Virginia group that a civil rights watchdog has labeled "neo-Nazi." The show is broadcast on Dade City radio station WDCF-AM. The flier, billing the show as "the only radio program for white men and women," was rolled in a tube and wrapped in plastic with a rubber band. McNary said an identical delivery was found in a neighbor's yard. A transcript of last week's National Alliance show was posted Tuesday on the group's Web site. It warns listeners about chaos brewing in South Africa since apartheid was swept away. It describes "the savage nature of blacks," while the flier warns of "Jewish-controlled television." Interracial marriage, political correctness and immigration is the enemy, the Alliance proclaims. McNary, a history teacher who speaks of diversity with her high school students, said she was offended by the flier but might use it as a springboard for classroom discussions. "I think it's absolutely disgusting," she said. Margarita Romo, director of Dade City's Farmworkers Self Help organization, said racism lashes out at the diversity that built America. She said allowing racism a home on Dade City airwaves, and anywhere else, leads to the kind of hatred that spawned the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Lola Wagenvoord -- owner of WDCF-AM 1350 and Clearwater sister station WTAN-AM 1340 -- doesn't produce the show. She sells air time to the Alliance. But she said Tuesday that she sees nothing wrong with broadcasting it. She said the only complaints she has heard, after broadcasting the show for months, were orchestrated by outside influences, she said. Listeners have backed her support of free speech, she said. She said she wants to know who was distributing the fliers. Dade City Police Department Capt. David Duff said he has heard no complaints stemming from the fliers. "I don't agree with a lot of stuff, but I agree with freedom of speech," Wagenvoord said. "Look, don't shoot the messenger. This is called freedom of speech." WDCF is also home to a weekly Spanish language program, called Radio M, which broadcasts a variety of Mexican music and provides news and commentary to the Spanish speaking community in Dade City. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights activist group in Montgomery, Ala., called the National Alliance a hate group in a report earlier this year. The organization referred to the late Alliance leader William Pierce as "America's number one neo-Nazi." Romo said Dade City residents should speak up against the show. "When only one or two voices speak up, they mow us down," she said. "When something like this happens, we all need to speak up. They can't mow us all down."
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