“The Fam In the Morning” hosts have a week to process their failed prank after Cathy Hughes, right, put them on leave. (@dj_59/Instagram/Earl Gibson III/Getty Images)
After a D.C. radio show got put on the national stage over a prank that went wrong, the staff has been placed on a temporary leave. Late last week, Atlanta’s “The Ricky Smiley Morning Show” was also taken off the air.
Danni Starr, the sole female host of “The Fam In the Morning,” was the subject of a stunt put on by her co-hosts QuickSilva and DJ 5’9. After Starr proclaimed she refused to hire a “pretty” babysitter because of the threat she’d pose to her relationship, the two fellas decided to bring one of the unhired nannies into the studio.
“I’m not gonna make this about you, but what I do with my household … is nobody’s concern … Just to be clear, I never said it was you and I never responded to you,” Starr told the former hopeful sitter on-air Thursday, March 8. “Your ego made you think that you were the only pretty girl who slid in my DMs.”
Starr had threatened to quit but returned to the airwaves the next day, where she was joined by fellow WKYS hosts Deja Perez and Angie Ange along with RadioOne chairwoman and founder Cathy Hughes. While “The Fam” staff has apparently kissed and made up since then, Hughes has given them the week off following the debacle.
“After a full investigation, I’ve learned this incident was a radio prank ‘gone bad,’” Hughes said in a Saturday, March 10 statement. “None of our talent were adequately informed or prepared to have effectively executed this prank on Danni Starr. We have taken the necessary steps to resolve this matter. I agreed with Danni Starr’s expressed public sentiments that QuickSilva and DJ 5’9 are good guys who would never deliberately harm her or intentionally cause her embarrassment.
“I stand firmly behind The Fam and will be providing the team a time of healing and refocus so they can continue to entertain, inspire and inform our listeners in the morning. To that end, next week’s show will be hosted by KYS DC’s afternoon drive personality Angie Ange and Baltimore Q92’s Konan, who himself is DC homegrown.”
For their part, Silva said on Instagram that this is “truly a life lesson learned. Now I pray in time we can all move on from this & promise I’ll be back on the air in a few but for the next week I truly need this mental break.”
“Within a Family, sometimes wires get screwed and lines get crossed,” 5’9 wrote on IG. “Fortunately forgiveness and Love will always conquer !!! I apologize to anyone; Listener, Friend, Family, that may [have] been affected by my actions… Negative or POSITIVE comments; Have the SAME ENERGY, when @thefamitm w/ @939wkys has a SOCK/SHOE/COAT DRIVE OR any COMMUNITY SERVICE… #AsYouWere.”
Starr has been offline, deactivating her usually active Twitter and Instagram accounts.
This news comes on the heels of Atlanta-based “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” getting pulled off the air. The program’s namesake host made fun of a co-worker’s alligator shoes in the restroom and was subsequently pulled off the air for a day on Thursday.
