racial slur to describe New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu. After the ban, WEEI retaliated by banning Globe sportswriters from all WEEI programs. It was also about this time that Michael Holley, who was involved with both, chose his side and departed from the Globe to join WEEI full time. However, the show has welcomed Globe stalwart Bob Ryan as a guest host and did welcome former Globe columnist Jackie MacMullan while Ryan and Kathryn Tappen were guest hosting in order to share a story about Whitey Bulger soon after he was caught in the summer of 2011. METCO controversy On September 29, 2003, during a segment called 'headlines', where they read and comment about current news stories, Callahan and his morning co-host John Dennis made racist comments while discussing a story about an escaped gorilla. The gorilla had escaped from the Franklin Park Zoo and had been recaptured at a bus stop. According to newspaper articles, the exchange allegedly was: Callahan: "They caught him at a bus stop, right -- he was like waiting to catch a bus out of town." Dennis: "Yeah, yeah -- he's a METCO gorilla." Callahan: "Heading out to Lexington." Dennis: "Exactly." METCO is a state program that buses inner-city Boston students to nearby suburban schools. The racist comments compared poor, mostly African-American children to gorillas. WEEI general manager Tom Baker suspended both hosts for two days, then extended the suspension to two weeks after the Blue Cross-Blue Shield (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts) pulled $27,000 in ads and in turn donated that money to METCO. Dunkin' Donuts responded by ceasing all advertising that involved the voices of John Dennis or Gerry Callahan. Both hosts apologized and were sent to sensitivity training. WEEI also agreed to provide free advertising for the METCO program on the radio station. In November 2003, WEEI General Manager Tom Baker was replaced by Julie Kahn. Station executives denied there was a connection between the METCO incident and Baker's replacement. Queer Eye On June 2, 2005 Callahan, who has been accused of making homophobic comments on the air, upset some listeners during interviews with Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino and relief pitcher Mike Timlin discussing the upcoming visit of Carson Kressley and the cast from Queer Eye at Fenway Park. Kressley and his co-hosts were scheduled to throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park on Sunday, June 5, 2005