‘Wet and Forget' company Director Rod Jenden says he had ‘no idea' John Tamihere's Radio Live talkback was so homophobic, but says the radio advertising is important to his business, so is unlikely to discontinue promotions on the show. Jenden's response follows anger at ‘Wet and Forget' spokesman Wayne Harris's homophobic “tail gunners” comment live on Tamihere's programme in March. Jenden had apologised for his spokesperson's ‘insensitive behaviour', but an unscientific poll of GayNZ.com readers indicated that more action could be taken on the issue. 38% of the 650 poll respondents indicated they would boycott Wet and Forget if the company didn't broadcast an apology or withdraw advertising support for Tamihere's programme. “I have responded in person and in writing to every one that emailed their concerns to me about this outrage,” explains Jenden. He says he also offered his personal phone number along with the apologies, should anyone wish to discuss the issue with him further, but no one responded to this. “The issue with Tamihere hadn't occurred to me until I was told about it,” explains Jenden. “I don't listen to his show. But I have a business to run and the radio advertising is important to us. There's only so much airtime available and we need to do a lot of advertising. “Asking us to drop advertising on Tamihere's programme is a big ask. What about all the other companies that advertise on the show? Would you ask the same of all of them?” Jenden also feels his severe reprimand of Harris was the maximum allowable under current employment law. “My hands are tied when it comes to these matters, even though we would like to get stronger on issues, especially like this one.” Ref: GayNZ.com (m)