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Brum DJ canned for cutting short Her Maj

Aborts Liz II's 'bo-ring' Xmas message

A Brum-based DJ has been given his marching orders after cutting Liz II's live Xmas broadcast and declaring: "Two words: Bor-ing."

BRMB presenter Tom Binns was binned after listeners from the station, plus those tuning into Wyvern in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Mercia in Warwickshire, and Beacon Radio in the Black Country, were deprived of their little bit of Yule cheer from Her Maj.

David Lloyd, group programme and marketing director, declared: "On Christmas Day, one of our presenters, Tom Binns, made some inappropriate comments surrounding the Queen's speech.

"We do not condone what he said in any way; whether said in jest or not. We are making contact with the small number of listeners who were offended by Tom's comments and have complained to us to convey our apologies, and have also apologised on air."

Binns told The Register that prior to the incident he'd been given a 12-month contract to sign by BRMB, but according to the BBC yesterday, Lloyd said he "would not be featuring again".

Defending his actions, Binns told the Beeb: "They were just jokes. We have got to allow some people to be upset without responding with a knee-jerk reaction. We've got to stop pandering to a small minority."

He added: "I knew anyone who was interested in hearing what she said would be watching it on TV or listening to Radio 4. About 88 per cent of the population had more interesting things to do on Christmas Day than listen to it."

While the royal outrage is a serious matter indeed, it's not BRMB's finest hour. In 2003, it was fined £15k after it brilliantly challenged four people to sit on blocks of dry ice in order to win "tickets and back stage passes for a music festival in the city".

The result was "four people being treated in hospital for severe frostbite", with two women and a man laid up for 10 weeks "recovering from extensive skin grafts". ®

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