Disc Jockey Sues Station for Canceling His Show

Disc jockey “Kaptain Kaos” is taking radio station KIEV-AM 870 to court, charging that his late-night radio show was canceled over his decision to play a new recording by Pope John Paul II, his lawyers said Monday.

Kaos, also known as Paul Volpe, played the Pope’s top-10 “Abba Pater” album in apparent violation of a station policy prohibiting airing of foreign-language music, according to his attorney, Cary W. Goldstein .

KIEV Program Director Jason Jeffries, however, said the show was canceled not because of the papal recording but because profanity had been heard on Volpe’s show on a least two occasions over the past several weeks.

Volpe, he added, is not a station employee but had purchased air time on KIEV. Jeffries said the station has refused to sell Volpe more time.

Attorney Marvin Mitchelson, a consultant to Goldstein in the case, said Volpe’s termination came soon after Volpe aired the pontiff’s disc.

“The minute he started playing the pope’s music, they flashed strobe lights to show there was an emergency,” Mitchelson said. “They closed the engineering booth so no one could take calls, and the engineer made a slashing [sign] across his throat, telling him to cut.”

Volpe has hosted “The Cutting Edge,” airing from midnight to 2 a.m. on Saturdays, for the last 3 1/2 years, according to his attorneys.

“Abba Pater,” which was released March 23, is a mix of rhythmic music and papal prayers in Latin, Italian, English, French and Spanish. It debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s classical crossover chart.