Central Minnesota morning show host resigns after repeatedly body shaming Iowa female host
A radio host in central Minnesota has resigned after spending a lengthy amount of time on his Nov. 20 morning show body shaming a radio host in Iowa.
Aaron Imholte, the now-former host of the Steel Toe Morning Show on "Rockin' 101" WHMH-FM in St. Cloud, repeatedly lashed out with vulgar and misogynistic comments about KAZR Des Moines morning co-host Heather Lee during his Nov. 20 show.
Imholte called Lee "fat," "a pig," and "diabetic" while joking that "pitbulls should eat her." He also encouraged listeners to comment on KAZR's Facebook page that Lee uses racist language in her private time and said a woman on a morning radio show is a "problem for the industry."
Among Imholte's offensive comments about Lee:
– "We're going to drive this Heather insane. She's finished. She's finished!"
– "This Heather has the audacity to speak up. No! She will not be allowed to speak up. We will bury her in the ground."
– "She's on a rock station now. She's on a rock station, that shouldn't be allowed!"
– "Let me put it this way, Heather. It's not good that the gyms are locked down. Are you hungry boys? You hungry boys?," he said, referring to a video of Lee in a vehicle with dogs in the back seat. "There's lots of meat in the front seat. Get her! Of course you're ordering Starbucks. A lot of calories in those drinks, Heather, a lot of calories."
– "If this is the bull, I want to dress you in red...and drop you off in a bull pit in a Crip neighborhood."
– "We're trying to send a woman to the mental hospital."
– "Go on their Facebook page ... go there and write posts that say 'oh my god I can't believe Heather uses the n-word in her private time. Please do that. Be appalled, be like 'I'm so offended that Heather uses the n-word so frequently in her spare time.'"
According to Radio Insight, Imholte applied for the job in Des Moines that Lee was offered in November. Imholte had been part of the Steel Toe Morning Show since 2014. However, Imholte tells Bring Me The News that he never wanted the job in Des Moines.
"We teased them, they called us a podcast in our mom's basement so I went over the top CLEARLY kidding with those horrible comments," Imholte said in a message Tuesday afternoon. "They conveniently cut out the before and after where we laugh and say 'this is crazy and stupid' but hey. It took us to a place we needed to be. I'm at peace."
Lee posted a blog saying she wasn't "personally bothered" by Imholte's remarks, but that she in no way condones "bully culture" and using a media platform to "incite, grow and spread negativity."
Imholte announced his resignation in a since-deleted Facebook post, which Radio Insight says he wrote an apology to Lee and admitted that "I made A LOT OF PEOPLE upset and that is not why I do radio."
Though Imholte has resigned from the radio station, he is still broadcasting the Steel Toe Morning Show on another platform, saying he has received more than 1,700 subscribers.
Tri-County Broadcasting has not publicly addressed the situation, but it has deleted all Rockin' 101 social media profiles.
