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Station Suspends Host Over Comments on Segregating Games

Mushaben posted on the station's website that a recent tournament crowd was unruly and disrespectful

By Justin Franz
BILLINGS — A Billings radio station has suspended a host indefinitely for suggesting that Native American basketball teams have their own post-season tournaments.KCTR-AM announced the suspension of Paul Mushaben Thursday and apologized to its listeners, advertisers and the Native American community.

Mushaben posted on the station’s website that a recent tournament crowd was unruly and disrespectful. He wrote that it might be time for the Montana High School Association to proceed with “an all-Indian tourney.”

The post prompted a backlash. Members of the basketball teams from Power, Belt, Heart Butte and Box Elder locked arms at center court in a show of unity before beginning competition Northern Class C Divisional Tournament.

Mushaben told the Billings Gazette his post was not meant to be racist, but to note that the majority of problems happen when Native Americans play.

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