After two radio stations in Dallas decided to pull R. Kelly's music from their repertoire, a Chicago radio station followed suit. This move comes after the media storm that followed the airing of Surviving R. Kelly. This ban is significant considering the fact that Kelly has been celebrated as one of the biggest artists to rise from the city. Lamont Watts, who runs the station, explained the decision in a video posted to Facebook.
“As a leader of a team where women contribute unselfishly, in a business where the majority of our audience is women, as a son, a brother and a husband of a devoted family, and to hear and see the pain and suffering that is real for so many, effective immediately, we will no longer play the music of R. Kelly,” Watts said.
He also explained to Chicago Sun-Times that he got some mixed feeling from watching the Lifetime documentary series. “I don’t want to pass judgment, I just look at women at a larger scale. This is bigger, bigger than the women who were saying something about the R. Kelly situation,” Watts said. “As you look at both sides and everything going on, and the #MeToo movement, we felt it was the right thing to do.”
