Sam Mayes and Cara Rice fired after leaked audio reveals racist, disparaging jokes about Native Americans…

On Thanksgiving night, while you were probably about to eat another turkey sandwich, someone from an anonymous email account blasted the local OKC news networks with a five-year-old audio clip of a conversation between The Franchise's Sam Mayes, and his at-the-time cohost, Magic 104 morning DJ Cara Rice.

In the clip, (primarily) Cara and Sam are heard making some disparaging and racist "jokes" about Native Americans during a station commercial break, and then – in an epic and ironic case of foreshadowing – joking about how the conversation will probably get them fired someday.

As is the way in this town, the email and audio eventually found their way to the Ogle Mole in-box. By the time I shared it on Twitter on Friday afternoon, Tyler Media – which owns The Franchise and Magic 104 – had already fired Sam and Cara.

Here's the audio:

Although I first labeled the leaked audio as a hot mic situation, the Ogle Mole Network is now telling me the audio was likely secretly recorded, perhaps by a disgruntled ex, and then leaked to the media in a vindictive attempt to ruin Sam's and Cara's careers. If that was you, consider it a job well done!

Later in the day on Friday, Sam released the following statement on Instagram. He claimed the audio was obtained illegally, discussed the incident from his point of view, and then talked about how he, a black man, has handled racism in the past.

You should listen to it:

Naturally, the audio clip and firings struck up the ole cancel culture debate on social media.

Although I'm not hearing a lot of people stick up for Cara – she was the instigator of all this and her comments were stupid and racist – some people do think Sam's getting a raw deal. I can kind of see why.

First of all, from my dealings with him over the years, Sam seems like a good enough dude. He's usually nice and cordial and has a very firm handshake.

Plus, let's be honest – he did ask a fair question.

Unfortunately, instead of his co-host giving a genuine response like "Good question. I don't know!" or "Actually, natives have been rightfully calling for a name change for decades, but thanks to these new woke times, the movement has become more mainstream and is now gaining momentum," she responded with a distasteful and sardonic comment, and then he responded with his own.

Basically, he and Cara were caught doing what friends and close acquaintances have been doing since language was probably first invented – goofing-off, and making crude jokes in a private conversation they never intended to be public.

"But Patrick!!! You can't let comments like that slide! You need to confront people when they say something racist."

I don't disagree.

If that's how you handle situations like that, good for you. That being said, everyone's different, and expecting others to do the same exact thing seems a tad unreasonable, and ignores things like human behavior, instincts, interpersonal relationships, varying personality types, the entire context of the situation, and other dynamics.

Also, it takes courage to confront a friend, coworker or acquaintance when they say something in the moment that makes you uncomfortable, especially when it catches you off guard. Right or wrong, it's a lot easier to do what most people do and just roll with the punches, or simply ignore it and move on.

All that being said, you can't really blame Tyler Media's decision to fire Sam.

Although I have a hunch they may have been looking for an excuse to lose some payroll – they did recently cut the salaries of most on-air staff by 40% – it's hard to send a sports jock to Lucky Star casino for a radio remote a couple of days after audio emerges of them making racist jokes while at that same casino during a commercial break.

Then again, Sam's still doing sports radio up in Tulsa, so maybe it isn't that hard?

Anyway, I guess we'll continue to monitor this situation. If you have secretly recorded audio of someone saying something stupid or racist during a commercial break, go ahead and email it to the local media so they can forward it to us.

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.