iHeart ATL Pres. Lauter Fired After Racial Incident
• iHeartMedia has terminated Atlanta Market President Drew Lauter after a video that appears to show him using racial slurs went public. The story was initially reported by WSB-TV 2/Atlanta, which says the video, reportedly recorded last August, shows an apparently inebriated Lauter riding in the backseat of a car and appearing to repeatedly use the “n-word.” At one point he also appears to grope and verbally abuse the driver of the vehicle.
New Jersey and Texas-based attorney Jason Castle and Roosevelt Jean represent the employee who recorded that cell phone video. “This wasn’t a ‘gotcha’ moment,” Castle noted. “[Lauter] said it in the presence of four executive employees, one of whom happen to be black.” Castle says the video was recorded while Lauter was riding in a SUV with two other iHeart employees after leaving a charity event in Atlanta.
According to Castle’s client this wasn’t the first time Lauter has used racially insensitive language around employees. “People are going into work, day in and day out and they are enduring this type of environment, this type of discrimination,” Castle said.
iHeartMedia confirmed to WSB-TV Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln that Lauter is no longer employed by the company. RAMP independently confirmed the story with an iHeartMedia spokesperson, who issued this statement: “Allegations of this nature go against our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously.”
Lauter had been with iHeart Atlanta for less than two years – he transferred into the market after briefly serving as Market President of the company’s Madison, WI cluster. According to our RAMP archives, Lauter earlier served as COO of LynQ and previously held management positions with Sony, Lucent, Qello Concerts and Qello Media. [2019 RAMP file photo]
