Managers of four Virginia radio stations that carry Neal Boortz's nationally syndicated talk radio show say they have heard few complaints from listeners about his comments about the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech.

But Scott Stevens, operations manager for Cumulus NRV, said his company's management may drop the show after getting a letter Tuesday from three members of the House of Delegates.

"He's an idiot," Stevens said Tuesday about Boortz.

Stevens noted that he was so involved in his radio group's own response to the shootings that he hadn't followed Boortz's comments, which are carried on the Radford-based Cumulus station WFNR. A letter from Dels. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg; Steve Shannon, D-Fairfax County; and Chuck Caputo, also D-Fairfax County, prompted him to look into what the libertarian radio host said.

"While we do support free speech ... this just went too far," Stevens said.

In the wake of the slayings of 32 people by student Seung-Hui Cho, who also took his own life, Boortz began asking why Tech students didn't fight back. He called it part of the "wussification of America" and a symptom of a passive culture fostered by the political left.

As angry reactions began coming in, Boortz apologized for how he had expressed himself. But he said he still thought there was a point to be made about the deaths at Tech and what he called "the relentless attack on individualism by the left."

On Monday, the three legislators called on the eight Virginia stations that carry Boortz to drop him. "This community up here's still suffering greatly," Shuler said Tuesday.

Shuler challenged Boortz to dedicate himself to solving real problems, perhaps by donating some of his salary to mental health programs.

"I'd like to remind the gentleman that what happened in Blacksburg is not a show," Shuler said.

Boortz's offices in Atlanta could not be contacted Tuesday, and a message left for his producer late in the afternoon was not returned.

Stevens said he and other managers are reviewing recordings of Boortz's remarks and should make a decision by next week about how to proceed. Stevens said he might ask Boortz to do a broadcast from the New River Valley to explain himself to families of the victims. "I doubt he'll do it," Stevens said. " ... He might fear for his life."

Stevens said he wanted listeners to know that neither he nor his radio group agree with Boortz.

Still, Stevens said, before the delegates' letter, he had received just one call about the comments, and it was so nonspecific that he had not realized what it was about.

Similarly, managers at WFIR in Roanoke -- which pulled Boortz's show for a day in response to the comments -- WLNI in Lynchburg and WMVA in Martinsville said they had heard few complaints about Boortz.

Calls to WNIS in Norfolk, WFHG and WFHG-FM in Bristol and Abingdon, WSVA in Harrisonburg and WINA in Charlottesville were not returned Tuesday.

Leonard Wheeler, president and general manager of WFIR, called Boortz's words "totally unfair, horribly ill-timed, completely insensitive" but said he heard much more outcry when he didn't air the show for a day than about the remarks themselves.

Bob Abbott, vice president of operations for WLNI, said he went on the air Tuesday to discuss the situation with listeners and "It was 100 percent in favor" of keeping Boortz's show.

"It wasn't that they agreed with what he said" about Tech, Abbott said of his station's listeners -- they just felt that Boortz's program as a whole offered a valuable perspective.

Abbott, who like Wheeler said he had called Boortz's organization to ask him to stop talking about Tech, said he has invited Shuler, Shannon and Caputo to come on the air.

Bill Wyatt, owner of Martinsville Media, sent a letter back to the delegates Tuesday calling their communication "politically motivated and opportunistic." Wyatt wrote that he resented the characterization of the Virginia stations' response to Boortz as "disappointing and meager."

"Since none of you reside in the WMVA listening area, I fail to understand how you could be aware of what my 'station's response' may or may not be," Wyatt wrote. "For the record, our response has been measured; we have received no complaints from anyone in the community where we are licensed to serve."

"... I am sure you will agree that in the spirit of the founding fathers of this country and those that represent our great Commonwealth who preceded you, we must all stand together in fighting for the freedom of expression of ideas and opinions, particularly those we disagree with or may find opposed to our own points of view."

Wheeler noted that Boortz, like other national commentators, speaks to a wide audience, much of which would not have personal stakes in what was said.

"It's going to be harder here," Wheeler said.