Well Prostitution is Legal in Nevada

Now I understand why I couldn't understamd anything Eddie Floyd was saying

HiatusRGJ.com reports that KBDB Reno talk host Eddie Floyd has decided to take a hiatus from his show after being indicted and pleading not guilty to charges of conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana and launder the money through his businesses. In a statement, Floyd said, "I am not giving up radio, I'm just taking a hiatus for the benefit of the station and the people who work there. I am doing this reluctantly, but considering the situation I am faced with, I think it is in the best interest of the operation of the station and its advertisers that I step aside and stay off the air."

RadioInk.com February 12, 2006

Muslim Group Seeks Apology From KFIs Handel

Hey, I was named the Top Local Talk Host of 2004 by Radio and Records Magazine. I can say anything I want.

A Muslim civil liberties group demanded an apology yesterday from KFI Los Angeles talk host Bill Handel for allegedly making fun of a stampede that killed hundreds of Muslims during an annual pilgrimage. The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked for an apology from Handel, who allegedly made fun of the deaths during a Jan. 12 segment he called the "Annual Stampede Report." CAIR quoted Handel as saying, "This is Mahmoud Nolan. Hajj in the Sky. There is an accident ... Ali lost his sandal on the on-ramp to the Martin Luther King Jr. freeway ..." "The deaths of hundreds of people engaged in religious observances is no laughing matter," CAIR spokeswoman Sabiha Khan said in a statement. "KFI needs to distance itself from Mr. Handel's unbelievable insensitivity by issuing a formal apology and a reprimand."

RadioInk.com, January 27, 2006

KCRW Personality Arrested After Teen is Drugged at Club

Even button downed public television hosts are sometimes accused of behaving badly. If this story is true KCRW host is in a heap of hot water

The LA Times reports that Grammy-nominated KCRW-FM Santa Monica radio host Chris Douridas was arrested recently outside an area bar on suspicion of drugging and trying to kidnap a 14-year-old girl. Douridas, 43, was arrested shortly after midnight Jan. 6. Witnesses reported seeing Douridas put a substance into the victim's drink and carry her out of the bar. Douridas was arrested and later released by police after posting $1-million bail. "Chris has been with us for 15 years, during which he has interacted with thousands of people, men and women of all ages, and has been entirely appropriate at all times," said Jennifer Ferro, assistant general manager at KCRW. "We believe in Chris as a person, and we think he has strong character. And we also think people are innocent until proven guilty."

Orlando Programmer Busted On Computer Porn Charges

I was just going to meet with her in order to find out more about the kinds of music 14 year old girls like to listen to... Really

Clear Channel top 40 WXXL (XL 106.7) Orlando PD Adam Cook, whose real name is Gary Wheeler, has been taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies in Cook County, Fla., and charged with violation of the Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 1986 and transmitting computer pornography. The 48-year-old Wheeler was arrested on Jan. 10 when he arrived at a local park to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met in an Internet chat room. The "girl" was actually a detective, who had been in communication with Wheeler since May, according to the arrest report. They met in a Yahoo Florida chat room, where Wheeler used the name "acook1067." On Jan. 8, Wheeler made plans to meet the girl for sex, according to the report.

Radio Billboard, January 11, 2006

Hot 97 Morning Personality In Hot Water

She's hot, she's got great ratings, but she is also bad. Miss Jones first made the HBB website when she performed the utterly tasteless "Tsunami Song" after the horrible Tsunami trajedy in South Asia in December of 2004. Now she's taking on the head of the NY Transit Union after the short lived transit strike in the summer of 2005.

Hot 97 Morning Personality In Hot Water With NY PoliticianThe New York Daily News reports that Hot 97 morning host Miss Jones made some critical on-air comments about Transport Workers Union head Roger Toussaint and striking New York City transit workers which have gotten her in trouble with city council member Yvette Clarke. Clarke is calling for a boycott of the station's advertisers and wants Jones fired. Jones, meanwhile, was criticized last year for airing a parody about tsunami victims in Asia. In a recent broadcast of Jones' show, she reportedly labeled transit workers as uneducated and overpaid persons who got their jobs by making poor career choices early in life. She also reportedly called Trinidad-born TWU local president Toussaint "a dumb coconut who probably doesn't have a green card." "It is my intention to bring this issue to my colleagues in the City Council and introduce a resolution calling for the permanent removal of the Miss Jones in the Morning show and the economic boycott of Hot 97 and its advertisers," said Clarke, who was angered by Jones' comments. "It was nearly a year ago that I joined other New Yorkers in denouncing Miss Jones and Hot 97 for airing a parody that ridiculed tsunami victims. Clearly, the outcry, demonstrations and resulting suspensions did not provide an impetus for cultural sensitivity from these individuals."

RadioInk.com November 5, 2005

Even Liberal Hosts Screw Up

A popular liberal talk show host in Seattle was canned when KIRO found out that he may have been involved in an insurance scam. The following item was reported on December 23, 2005 in Blatherwatch, a blog that covers the Seatle talk radio scene.

WEBB FACES CHARGES

After an investigation into alleged auto
insurance fraud, extremist Seattle talk show host
Mike Webb has apparently been charged with
criminal offenses, according to Blatherwatch, a
liberal talk radio blog.

For his scoop, Blatherwatch honcho Michael Hood
obtained public documents that detail the
allegations:

In papers filed Dec. 5 in King Co. Superior
Court, and obtained by BlatherWatch; KIRO talk
host Mike Webb (9p-1a) was charged with the crime
of Fraudulent Insurance Claim in an alleged $5982
scam against a car insurance company.

According to the Court's Superform, Michael
Kenneth Webb, 50 years old a KIRO radio talk show
host and a Virgo, is also the subject in an
investigation of forgery.

The papers were gleaned from public court
records. Charges were generated after an accident
June 28 involving Webb in his 2000 Lexus GS-3 and
his subsequent alleged dealings with GEICO.

A Certification For Determination of Probable
Cause describes in detail the fruits of the
investigation by Seattle Police Detective Randal
Woolery and GEICO investigator Bill Brown that
led to the criminal charges against the
flamboyant talk host.

Webb is the same liberal host who last year
demanded President Bush and several of his
Cabinet members face "execution" on war crimes
charges. Previously, we've written extensively
about Webb and his background.

She Needed to Supplement her Low Radio Income

Apparently, this Canandien talk show host was not making enough money for her on air gig. So she did a little work on the side for one of her callers. This was reported in the December 12 edition of Radio Ink On-line.

Radio Host Charged With Fraud

Police say a Toronto, Canada, radio host has been arrested after a listener was allegedly defrauded out of $70,000 by someone posing as a psychologist.

Authorities report that the woman hosted a health and wellness show on CHIN and went by the name of Alexis Daniels. At the end of each show, she would give out her telephone number so she could be contacted.

In July 2003, the victim went to the woman's business where she was allegedly told that the psychologist would be able to help her with her depression.

Police say the woman demanded and was paid $70,000 for counseling sessions. Five months into it, she told her patient she was not a licensed psychologist in Canada but was in the process of becoming a citizen and getting her credentials recognized.

I Thought that My Wife's Engine Needed and Overhaul

The Boston Globe Reported on this item on May 11, 2005. I wonder what the station did when the commercial break was over and the hosts was on his way to jail?

Lawyer For Missouri Radio Host Denies Client Poisoned Wife

The Boston Globe reports that the lawyer for James Keown, who's accused of poisoning his wife by spiking her Gatorade with antifreeze, says Keown was "deeply in love" with his wife and has no idea how she was poisoned.

Attorney Adam A. Kretowicz adds that Keown "absolutely denies that he had any involvement in her death. They were deeply in love with each other. He has no information as to how this occurred."

Keown was arrested Monday during a commercial break at the radio station where he works.

Let's Rope Us Some Mexicans

Its hard to imagine that a radio host doing a "sell and swap" show in Cedar City Utah can get fired for making a racial slur, but this is what happened to Paul "Sarge" Fice after he blurted out a remark insulting to Hispanics. Here' how is was reported on Billboard on line on May 10, 2005.

KSUBs Sarge Let Go After Mexican Roping Saddle Comment

Former California Highway Patrol Trooper Paul "Sarge" Fice has been fired from his job at KSUB in Cedar City, UT, after making an on-air joke that offended at least one listener.

Last week on his buy, sell and swap, Trade-io program, a man called to sell a "Mexican roping saddle." Fice joked that the saddle probably could be used to "rope Mexicans'' coming across the border.

Later in the program an unidentified woman called in and said Fice's comment offended her.

KSUB fired Fice on Friday.

Fice says he's disappointed that he was let go and that he meant nothing derogatory by his comment.

This is Why You Don't See Armstrong Williams on TV Anymore

Probably the biggest "Host Behaving Badly" story in 2005 was the disclosure that right wing talker and columnist, Armstrong Williams, was on the take. As reported in the USA Today in January, 2005, Armstrong was being paid by the Bush Administration to promote Education Department programs.

Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.
The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.
Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."
The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation.
The contract, detailed in documents obtained by USA TODAY through a Freedom of Information Act request, also shows that the Education Department, through the Ketchum public relations firm, arranged with Williams to use contacts with America's Black Forum, a group of black broadcast journalists, "to encourage the producers to periodically address" NCLB. He persuaded radio and TV personality Steve Harvey to invite Paige onto his show twice. Harvey's manager, Rushion McDonald, confirmed the appearances.
Williams said he does not recall disclosing the contract to audiences on the air but told colleagues about it when urging them to promote NCLB.
"I respect Mr. Williams' statement that this is something he believes in," said Bob Steele, a media ethics expert at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. "But I would suggest that his commitment to that belief is best exercised through his excellent professional work rather than through contractual obligations with outsiders who are, quite clearly, trying to influence content."
The contract may be illegal "because Congress has prohibited propaganda," or any sort of lobbying for programs funded by the government, said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "And it's propaganda."
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said he couldn't comment because the White House is not involved in departments' contracts.
Ketchum referred questions to the Education Department, whose spokesman, John Gibbons, said the contract followed standard government procedures. He said there are no plans to continue with "similar outreach."
Williams' contract was part of a $1 million deal with Ketchum that produced "video news releases" designed to look like news reports. The Bush administration used similar releases last year to promote its Medicare prescription drug plan, prompting a scolding from the Government Accountability Office, which called them an illegal use of taxpayers' dollars.
Williams, 45, a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is one of the top black conservative voices in the nation. He hosts The Right Side on TV and radio, and writes op-ed pieces for newspapers, including USA TODAY, while running a public relations firm, Graham Williams Group.

Host Dukes it Out with Producer

One sure way to get fired in the radio business is to get into a fist fight with a co-worker. This is what happened to radio personality on Philadelphia sports talk station. The following item was reported in the Buck County Courier Times on March 21, 2006.

Mike Off Again

The on and off relationship between WIP 610-AM and Bristol native Mike Missanelli is off again, as the mid-day host was fired on Monday.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the reason for the firing was because Missanelli got into a fight with a producer during a live remote during Friday's St. Patrick's Day show.
Missanelli's first stint at WIP was from 1992 - 2003. He surprised many when he left WIP to do mornings on rock station WMMR 93.3-FM. His stint at WMMR lasted around a year, then he rejoined WIP for the second time in July 2005, replacing Steve Martorano on the mid-day show with Anthony Gargano.
By Monday night, Missanelli's picture was taken off the station web site.
Radio insiders are already speculating on who will replace Missanelli weekdays from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Some wonder if the duo of Kiley and Booms, who were given a tryout a couple of weeks ago might take the mid-day slot and Anthony Gargano would move to afternoon drive with Howard Eskin. Another scenario could be the return of Steve Martorano.
Also, observers wonder if Missanelli could end up on rival station Sportstalk 950-AM, which is in the market for a local morning show. However, 950 is owned by Greater Media Philadelphia, which also owns WMMR.

Host Fired for Making Racial Slur

The following item appeared in many publications. The poor soul, had been working at the St. Louis talk show for just two weeks. Apparently, he mis-spoke, but the program director canned him anyway.

KTRS St Louis Talk Host Fired For Slur Against Rice

As reported by Fox News, KTRS St. Louis fired talk show host Dave Lenihan yesterday for using a racial epithet to describe Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In talking about the possibility of Rice taking over as commissioner of the NFL, Lenihan used a racial slur that sounded like the word “coup” instead of actually using the word coup. He used the word twice. The fired host called the slur a "slip of the tongue.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3-23-06