Complaining that her side hadn't been presented properly, she offered to play telephone-answering-machine tapes of messages that Richards had allegedly left her. One station played sound effects of an airplane an amateur pilot, Richards had flown over the woman's house.īut the most controversial step came at WKBQ-FM, which aired a live, impromptu interview with the woman, Donna L. Talk-show DJs at several radio stations promptly began to ridicule Richards. His alleged affair with another woman was reported in the local press after the woman sought a protective order forbidding Richards from further contact. Take the case of Bob Richards, a married weatherman for St. ''The person talking to you in the morning or afternoon or drive time is a friend and somebody you trust, and they can say all kinds of things, and you generally feel they're telling you the truth,'' says Esther Thorson, professor of journalism at the University of Missouri. This is a problem not only for the targets but also for the increasing number of Americans who consider shock jocks an important source of information. The normal journalistic standards, like getting corroboration, are nowhere near the sound booth. As Esposito discovered, radio DJs aren't journalists - and don't claim to be - yet they have become the great conceivers and disseminators of gossip and rumors that get passed on as news. Louis radio station - which ended in a suicide - has only further muddied the line between news and gossip. But this incident, and another recent one at a St. Bad taste has made Howard Stern into a huge ratings hit. Radio shock jocks have never been confused with Walter Cronkite or, for that matter, Woodward and Bernstein. The two DJs couldn't be reached B-96 declined comment.

Two weeks ago, JoBo and partner Ed Volkman were fired by their radio station, CBS-owned B-96. Contending the ''widespread repetition'' of the rumor had defamed her, she filed an $8 million suit, which is pending. The anchorwoman, Joan Esposito, was pregnant by her husband, who had committed suicide shortly after conception. The story rocketed around Chicago quicker than a Bulls fast break. LAST YEAR POPULAR CHICAGO DISC jockey Joe (JoBo) Bohannon told his morning listeners that he had what ''could be the story of the century.'' What was of such import? He said a prominent television anchorwoman was carrying the child of a Chicago Bulls basketball player.

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