Radio trio suing over death request

SAN FRANCISCO, June 8 (UPI) -- Three San Francisco radio personalities are suing the station that fired them for encouraging listeners to kill comedian Penn Jillette.

John London, Dennis Cruz and Chris Townsend are suing KIFR-FM for wrongful termination, breach of contract and interference with a business contract, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court, a news release said.

It names CBS Radio, Jillette and KIFR as defendants. The lawsuit alleges that Jillette urged CBS Radio executives to fire London, Cruz and Townsend after they went on the air with a response to a bit that Jillette did about Mother Teresa on his syndicated CBS radio show, which KIFR carries in San Francisco.

The suit alleges that Jillette compared the Nobel Peace Prize winner to Charles Manson, and that he said she "got her kicks watching people suffer and die."

"Penn Jillette has said on a number of occasions that words do not hurt people," London told listeners. "We should be able to say whatever we want, in the open marketplace of ideas.

"So here's a little string of sentences for ya: How about if I give somebody $5,000 to kill ya? I'll add $2,000 to that if there's some suffering attached to it."