But the damage was done. The comment quickly attracted a storm of outrage in Denver, and on Wednesday, the radio station canceled the couple’s show, which ran from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. A statement released by KNUS cited “the history of school violence that has plagued our community.”

That history includes the death of one student and the wounding of eight more in a shooting this year at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in a Denver suburb. And it reaches back to the still painful memory of the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., 20 years ago, when two students at the school killed 12 other students and a teacher.

Mr. Bonniwell said in a phone interview on Thursday that he regretted his remark.

“We’ve been in radio for a long time,” he said. “You’re going to say lots of things that are controversial. You don’t expect some things to be the end of your show. You can’t do 15 hours of trying to be provocative and fun, and not say something that you regret.”

“And so you get canceled,” he continued. “And you always know that’s a possibility. That’s just the way the business works. We enjoyed the program and we enjoyed the listeners. There’s no hard feelings.”