Missouri Bicycle News

A participant on St. Louis area radio DJ Bernie Miklasz's show on ESPN affiliate AM 1380 made inappropriate comments about running down bicyclists. The comments appeared on Miklasz's show Friday, June 2nd, 2006.

The statements were made on a segment of the show where the DJs are trying to be provocative and controversial ("giving each other a hard time", "stirring it up", etc.). They start out by talking about bicyclists clothing but then go over the top:

Bernie: That's a good one, that's a really good one. Whey do these bike riders dress like they're Lance Armstrong? Why? You're not in the Tour de France, you're not even in the Tour de Georgia. You're in Forest Park. Nobody cares.

Other DJ: Respect the bike rider but the bike rider must understand where he belongs on the road . . . stay to the shoulder.

Max Leinwand (breaking in and speaking loudly and authoritatively at the same time and above the other DJ, completing the sentence the other DJ began): Under my car.

The program is archived online. The comments transcribed above appear about 2 hours 21 minutes into the archive.

On the air Monday, June 5, Miklasz denied making the statement himself and couldn't remember hearing anyone else making the statement (program archive online here; statement around 49 minutes in). According to station management, who reviewed the program archive, Miklasz in fact did not make the comment but Max Leinwand, who often participates in Miklasz's show on Fridays, did.

Miklasz says that Leinwand will issue an apology that will appear on the station's web site and also make a personal apology on-air Friday, the next time he appears on the program.

[An earlier version of this news article incorrectly identified Miklasz as the person who made the "under my car" comment, based on listening to the archived copy of the show, which sounds like a dialogue between two participants--apologies to Miklasz for the mis-identification.]

Around minute 55 on his Monday show the subject comes up again because of people calling and emailing about the Friday comments. At this point Miklasz does encourage motorists and bicyclists to safely share the road.

Current Missouri state law and law summaries are available here.

[Thanks to MJ for providing the transcript to the St. Louis BikeFed discussion email list. Eric B posted a story about this incident to the STLIndy Media Center.]

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permanent link to article: "St. Louis DJ says bicyclists belong "under my car""
posted by Brent Hugh at 6/05/2006 11:42:00 PM |comment on this article