New information, including emails from a private KSUA Listserve appear to show that KSUA's actual reason's for firing a local DJ were not as cut and dry as they previously stated. 

The emails, which were given to the Sun Star by a confidential source with access to the KSUA listserve, were written by various members of KSUA management and the KSUA Media Board, which oversees KSUA and has authority over the station.  In the emails, the members of the board layout strategy, search for rationale for terminating Hornyak, and generally discuss the situation surrounding the controversial DJ.

28-year-old Scott Hornyak, AKA Spider Bui, was fired from his position as KSUA Business Manager after broadcasting a comedic-themed "celebration of former-president Ronald Reagan's death" in which he allegedly advocates urinating on Reagan's grave, among other controversial comments. 

Reagan had died of complications from Alzheimer's the day before. 

Hornyak's suspension and termination became an internationally-known story over the summer.  The university received numerous emails, phone calls, and letters, both in support of the radio station's decision, and calling foul and declaring censorship.

Citing pending litigation, KSUA General Manager and former ASUAF Senate Chair H.B Telling refused to comment for this story as to why he fired Hornyak.  However, KSUA officials maintained in letters to the public, interviews with the press, and on their website that while Hornyak's comments were "extremely offensive" they were not the catalyst for his termination. 

Hornyak's official termination letter, written by Telling, states that the firing was due to Hornyak's "failure to fill out FCC mandated station logs" and for not playing "the standard KSUA Opinion Disclaimer."   Telling called both these failures "quite disturbing."  

"As a KSUA DJ for over a year," he told Hornyak in the letter, "you should be more than familiar with station policy and FCC rules."  The letter further said that Hornyak's "actions potentially damaged relations with the Fairbanks community, the University, and local business."

Members of the public who complained following Hornyak's termination were sent an email from Telling, which said, "I can assure you, the DJ you're referring to was not suspended for voicing an anti-Reagan opinion, he was suspended for not following rules and procedure laid out here at the station." 

"It's a poor coincidence," Telling told the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer, "but unfortunately that's what it is."

Hornyak insists he did nothing wrong. 

"I didn't break any FCC rules, didn't say any naughty words, I just went over everything Reagan did," said Hornyak. 

He said he didn't plan the show, but was inspired after hearing the reverential coverage offered by most news outlets.

"I read that MSN was reporting that the whole world was weeping, and I said, well I'm not weeping.  I'm happy he's dead.  I wish I could find his grave and sprinkle some of the old yellow die number one on there, and then maybe some midgets would pop out and sing ding dong a merry-o, like Wizard of Oz."

No tape of the show is known to exist.

The FCC rule Hornyak was accused of violating was for failure to fill out a one-line station log, listing his name, the time his show began, and the current transmitter power.

Hornyak called filling out the station log "a minor technicality."  The first penalty for a DJ who fails to fill out the station log, according to the KSUA DJ handbook, is a verbal warning.

According to Telling, Hornyak also failed to play a required opinion disclaimer, before and after his show, informing the listening public that the opinions expressed were solely his.

Initially, many were confused as to whether or not this disclaimer was FCC mandated.  Even the Media Board members were less than sure.

"Just to clarify, the opinion disclaimer is a FCC rule, right, and not one we made up, yes?" wrote Media Board Chair Nate Raymond in one of the Listserve emails.  "Please tell me we didn't overreact and that he broke FCC rules and not our own."

Responding to Raymond's email, Media Board member Les Seacrest wrote, "I don't believe any FCC rules were violated here.  This issue should be addressed as a personnel issue.  If FCC rules were used as an excuse to terminate his employment, and none were violated, than a case could be made for censorship."

In fact, the opinion disclaimer is not FCC mandated, but is only a KSUA policy—one that is not in the official KSUA DJ handbook.

Telling said that even though the disclaimer is not in the handbook, every DJ is briefed about it.  This summer, especially, the disclaimer had been emphasized heavily due to the upcoming elections.

Volunteer DJ Stephen Carter, however, said that while numerous meetings were held throughout the summer in which the need to curb obscenity and profanity were emphasized to all the volunteers and staff, the opinion disclaimer was hardly ever spoken of, if at all.

Hornyak said he couldn't remember whether Telling briefed him on the disclaimer or not.

Telling said the opinion disclaimer would be included in the newest update of the DJ handbook, after it is finished being reviewed by UAF General Counsel.

The emails contain additional material that throw doubt on the claim that the charged content of Hornyak's show was a "poor coincidence" and had no bearing on his termination, or that the DJ's termination was purely a "personnel issue." 

On June 7, Media Board faculty advisor Channon Price wrote that he had "heard no complaints about Mr. Hornyak's performance of his duties as business manager, however, I have heard numerous complaints about his on-air actions."

On June 12, after the board discovered the disclaimer was not an FCC rule, Price wrote, "it should not be difficult to clearly make the case that this was result of his lack of productivity and repeated inability to uphold station rules and policies."

Price goes on to tell the officials to "remember that KSUA can be easily shut down without FCC involvement" by the Board of Regents and the Chancellor.  "Should they decide that KSUA is a liability to the University of Alaska," he writes, "they can unilaterally turn off the transmitter and bar us from the offices and studios."

The Alaska Civil Liberties Union is representing Mr. Hornyak as he appeals the suspension and termination to the university.

"Scott Hornyak believes that his on-air DJ privileges were improperly suspended and that he was wrongfully fired him from his position as KSUA business manager," said Jason Brandeis of the AkCLU.

Hornyak wants his previous position and his show back, along with back pay he says KSUA owes him.  "I loved that job, dude," he said.

 Additional reporting for this piece was by Robinson Duffy.

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