Lawsuit Accuses Rick Dees, Radio Station of Sex Bias : Courts: Former on-air partner claims she was target of jokes. She contends she was fired because she was too family oriented and not alluring enough to suit her sidekick.

The former sidekick to popular morning radio personality Rick Dees filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that she was fired because the station perceived her as too family oriented and not young or sexy enough to suit Dees.

Liz Fulton, who was let go from her job at KIIS-FM about six months ago, also contends in the suit that she was often the object of Dees’ on-air sexual jokes while employed at the station. Dees frequently referred to her on the air as Liz (Rugburn) Fulton, she said.

“I really feel hurt because of this,” Fulton, a mother of two, said Tuesday. “I don’t want men to get away with this in radio or in any other business.”

Fulton’s complaint against Dees and KIIS-FM owner Gannett Co., Inc. was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by attorney Gloria Allred. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges sex discrimination, breach of contract and invasion of privacy.

Dees, who also is host of a late-night television talk show, could not be reached for comment. Gannett Radio President Jay Cook declined to comment until the station had more time to review Fulton’s allegations.

Fulton, 37, said she went to work at KIIS in 1979 as a news anchor and joined Dees on the air when he arrived at the station in 1981. She left in 1984 to work for a small station in Northern California and have her first child, she said, and then rejoined KIIS in 1987 to become Dees’ on-air sidekick.

According to the lawsuit, shortly after Fulton visited the station with her two children in June, 1989, Dees began to believe Fulton was “too matronly and not young, sexy or beautiful enough to appear with him at promotions or remote broadcast locations.”

The suit also alleges that in 1988, Dees appeared on Wally George’s “Hot Seat” television talk show accompanied by a buxom woman dressed in a bikini. The woman, who was led off the stage in handcuffs, was falsely introduced as Fulton, according to the suit.

Fulton said that when she was fired in April, she was told only that she did not fit into the station’s long-range plans. She now works at another radio station as a weekend news anchor.

“She believes that she was terminated because she was perceived as too old and family orientated and not sufficiently sexy enough,” Allred said.

Fulton said she and Dees hardly spoke to each other unless they were on the air. She said she did not complain to Dees or station management about the sexual jokes because she feared she would be fired.

“I really didn’t feel like risking my job over it when he called me Liz (Rugburn) Fulton,” she said.

Fulton also said she knew nothing of Dees’ appearance on the George show with the woman falsely identified as herself until a radio listener called her in late 1989 after the episode had been rerun. She said she did not view a videotape of the show until after she was fired.

“It just wasn’t funny, I know what comedy is,” Fulton said. “It hurt my feelings.”

Allred contended that Fulton’s experiences at KIIS are common in the male-dominated broadcasting industry, where women are forced into stereotyped roles and risk losing their jobs if they speak out.

“No woman should have to fit into a sexist and ageist stereotype of a female in order to keep her job,” Allred said.