BOSTON -- There's a vacancy for a late-morning host at a Boston radio station, now that the last guy got fired over something he said.

John DePetro called the Green-Rainbow party's candidate for governor a "fat lesbian." The comment came during Thursday's show.

Friday, DePetro is out of a job at WRKO, with the ownership calling his comments "completely inappropriate."

DePetro told The Boston Globe he said it out of exasperation with the target, Grace Ross. He felt Ross and an independent candidate were taking too much time during a debate, leading him to say he wished someone would "tell the fat lesbian to shut up."

"In the context of what he said and the tone with which he said it, the comments were completely inappropriate, derogatory and will not be tolerated. I met with our corporate staff last night after listening to the tapes, and we decided to terminate John at that meeting. I informed him of that decision this morning," said Jason Wolfe,vice president of AM programming and 0perations for Entercom Boston

Wolfe said that he warned DePetro after his suspension in July for describing then Massachusetts Turnpike Chairman Matthew J. Amorello with a homosexual slur that any further comments of this kind would be dealt with in a severe way.

"I have no doubt that terminating John's employment was the right action to take," Wolfe said.

Earlier Friday, DePetro was taken off the air and ordered to attend a meeting at the station.

Ross called DePetro "nasty" and said it isn't news to anyone that she is a lesbian, adding that the campaign is not supposed to be about name-calling. She said it was offensive, but she's also laughing. The openly gay candidate said she figures it's just DePetro's way of "saying he doesn't like somebody."

Some people on the street said they disapproved of DePetro's comments.

"That's horrible. Absolutely horrible," one said.

"That's pretty rude, that's all I have to say," said another.