A BBC presenter has been fired for telling a taxi firm not to send an Asian driver to pick up her daughter.
Sam Mason, 40, told a cab operator: “A guy with a turban on is going to freak her out.”
When her request was refused, she snapped: “You’ve managed it before.” The taxi worker was so outraged she recorded the conversation and passed a copy of it to The Sun.
You can hear the astonishing call by clicking on the multimedia link, right.
Mum-of-one Mason, an ex-TV glamour girl, called the cab firm off-air as she played a song on her BBC Radio Bristol afternoon show.
Race row ... BBC station where Mason worked
A transcript of the conversation records how she ordered a taxi to take her 14-year-old from her Clifton house to her grandparents’ home.
Mason then says: “I know this sounds really racist, but I’m not being . . . please, don’t send anyone like, you know what I mean. An English person would be great, a female would be better.”
Operator: “We would class that as being racist. We can’t penalise the Asian drivers and just send an English one.”
Mason: “You’ve managed it before.”
Operator: “Right, OK. I don’t agree with it personally.”
Mason: “It’s not your 14-year-old girl who’s, you know, is it?”
Operator: “Yes, but that’s racist to say you don’t want an Asian driver.”
Mason: “If it were me I wouldn’t care if it had two heads, but it’s my little girl we are talking about.”
Mason, who has battled alcoholism, is then handed to a male operator and tells him that his female colleague has “a bad attitude”.
She adds: “I work at the BBC. I’m far from racist and that uneducated woman has no right to call me one.” She says of her daughter: “I don’t want her to turn up with a guy with a turban on, it’s going to freak her out. She’s not used to Asians.
“She’s not racist  her godparents are black.” Mason rang off, but called back later to complain before a manager accepted her booking.
Advertisement
She was suspended when we alerted the BBC and fired 24 hours later.
A spokesman for BBC Bristol said: “Although Sam Mason’s remarks were not made on air, her comments were completely unacceptable.”
The taxi worker said all calls were routinely recorded and logged in case of queries or complaints.
j.coles@the-sun.co.uk
A United Kingdom radio presenter with the BBC was fired on Saturday, and replaced, after an allegedly racist off-air phone call. Sam Mason of BBC Radio Bristol had earlier called up a taxi firm to arrange a booking for her 14-year-old daughter.
Logo of BBC Radio Bristol
Mason asked the operator not to send an Asian cab driver. She said, "A guy with a turban on is going to freak her out." After the operator refused Mason snapped back claiming, "You’ve managed it before."

The original female operator had passed the call over to another operator. Mason then accused the first of having "a bad attitude", and said, "I work at the BBC. I’m far from racist and that uneducated woman has no right to call me one." The call then ended but she called back to complain.

The female operator who took the call was also fired from her job for illegally recording the call.

A statement from the taxi firm stated that "We confirm that a telephone call from Radio Bristol presenter Sam Mason to the company was illegally recorded by an employee. That employee was dismissed for similar offences on 3 November." 

A copy of the call was sent to British tabloid ''The Sun'', which broke the story on Tuesday. ''The Sun'' informed the BBC.

A BBC spokesman said: "Although Sam Mason's remarks were not made on-air, her comments were completely unacceptable and, for that reason, she has been informed that she will no longer be working for the BBC with immediate effect."

According to BBC News, Mason, who worked at the station for only six weeks, was unavailable for comment.

The incident comes just weeks after the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross prank call scandal involving Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.