FanHouse Gary Smith

It's no suprise that a club that's dressed in green and white, blue-and-black stripes, and maroon and sky blue, all within 13 years, has had a bit of trouble forging a lasting identity.

The Colorado Rapids have made the playoffs more often than not, play in a beautiful new stadium and have featured players like Carlos Valderrama, Marcelo Balboa and Pablo Mastroeni. Yet they barely resonate on either the American soccer landscape or in Denver, struggling to attract fans (just over 11,000 this season) and media coverage while falling behind several expansion teams in their national Q rating. They have an owner, Stan Kroenke, who's been accused of being more interested in raising his stake in Arsenal than with fielding a winner at home, haven't played a meaningful international match in more than 10 years and count two MLS reserve division titles as their only honors. The Rapids are boring, or even worse, anonymous.

Now, Gary Smith is on the verge of changing that.

WSBG-FM DJ Gary Smith apparently didn't want fellow DJ Don Imus to steal all the headlines this week, so he decided to get in on the action himself.

For his Tuesday "Phrase that Pays" on-air contest, he encouraged listeners to call and say, "I'm a nappy-headed ho."

According to the Poconos "Rockin Hits" station higher-ups, the "Gary In The Morning" host was promptly fired "because he uttered the slur in a premeditated manner, with full knowledge of the reaction to Don Imus' use of the exact same phrase."

Sticks and stones ... ! They're radio DJs! Who expects--or even wants--them to be politically correct at all times? That would be so ... um ... un-entertaining?

Am I insulted that DJ Gary used NASCAR event tickets to bait his Poconos listeners? Heh. Yeah, I might resent the implication that NASCAR fans are racist, but it still gave me a chuckle. It's this lil' thing called a sense of humor. Proper use required. If you haven't read the instruction manual, you are not authorized to listen to radio morning shows and are hereby ordered to turn that dial.

So Smith has no show now. And Imus was first suspended but has now been dropped altogether by MSNBC and Rev. Al Sharpton will be lobbying for the same from CBS at their Black Rock headquarters Thursday in some kind of "take the profit out of bigotry and bias" protest. Now isn't that the pot calling the kettle ... wait for it ... black?