Jeff Nicholson, WKDR station manager, announced late last month that the Williston-based AM station would be dropping the controversial advice program. He said that the decision came from the management’s desire to offer more local programming.

Louie Manno, whose talk show will be moving to the afternoon slot Schlessinger’s had occupied, said there was more to it than that. “Dr. Laura has said some very hateful things about homosexuals,” he said, “If she had said them about any other group of people, the whole world would have been up in arms.” However, Manno cited a drop in ratings as the primary reason behind canceling her show. “The show has car-accident appeal,” he said. “Eventually people become desensitized to the shocking content and the crowd disperses.”

In spite of falling ratings, Manno said Schlessinger recently increased the fee she charged to affiliates airing the program. That combined with the increased public pressure to drop her and the real desire of the station to air more local voices led to the decision.

Sharon Randall, host and producer of Vermont Rainbow Connection, a public access television show for the GLBT community, was a leader in the movement to have Schlessinger removed from the state’s airwaves. “I’m so thrilled that she’s gone,” said Randall. I’m certain that the pressure and heat played a part in this, even if they don’t admit it.”

Schlessinger has gained national attention recently since she signed a contract with Paramount Studios for a television show that will be broadcast on Fox television stations.

Cathy Renna, a spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, was pleased to learn that WKDR was dropping the show from its line up.

Renna said Schlessinger does two fundamentally unacceptable things with regard to media responsibility.

“First she is defaming the community by using the language she does,” said Renna of Schlessinger’s reference to homosexuality as “deviant” and “a biological error..” “She must be held directly accountable for that,” she said.

“Additionally,” said Renna, “she’s not qualified to talk about the very complex issues around sexual orientation that she gives advice for.” Schlessinger’s title of Doctor stems from her Ph.D in physiology. Her sole source of research, the Family Resource Council, has been discredited by every major psychological organization. “Those are the issues we have with Schlessinger, not her personal religious views,” said Renna, “It’s about media responsibility.”

GLAAD launched a campaign to bring Laura Schlessinger’s defamation of the GLBT community to the attention of two target audiences. The first was potential audiences across the country. The second was the management at Paramount. “When we sent media kits with audio cassettes of Schlessinger’s ‘greatest hits’ to hundreds of media outlets,” said Joan M. Garry, director of GLAAD, “our goal was to get Paramount’s attention — to help them to recognize that they didn’t buy controversy when they bought this show, they bought trouble.”

Schlessinger has offered a public apology. “I never intend to hurt anyone or contribute in any way to an atmosphere of hate or intolerance,” said the host said in a press release on March 10. GLAAD responded with their own statement, “As Laura Schlessinger herself might say, an apology without a fundamental change in behavior is meaningless. If Schlessinger is sincere in her apology to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, then it must be accompanied by a change in her actions.”

No Fox affiliate in the Vermont area has plans to air the show.