Radio Station to Remove Offensive Billboards

In response to protests from residents of Leimert Park, KIIS-FM (102.7) said Friday that it will remove two billboards from Martin Luther King and Crenshaw boulevards that contain a crude song lyric.

The billboards show an elderly woman smiling while holding up a compact disc by singer Meredith Brooks. The words “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover” are above the woman’s head with a KIIS logo in the lower left corner.

Alphonso Hamilton, publisher of the Crenshaw-based Freedom Journal magazine and organizer of Friday’s small protest, said the sign is degrading to women and improperly placed in the community. He and four residents marched in front of the billboard on King Boulevard.

KIIS general manager Roy Laughlin said the signs would be removed by today. He said the signs were “a teaser” for an upcoming television ad campaign for the station.

“They were meant to be funny,” he said. “We did not know that anyone was upset.”

The offending lyric comes from a Brooks song that is one of the three top-selling singles of the year, according to Billboard magazine.

Hamilton said in response to the station’s decision to remove the billboard: “I’m glad the station listens to members of the community.”