Arthur's Comments About Quebec Cabbies Draw Fine

If you want to chat with your driver, hire a limousine

Comments made by now-MP ANDRE ARTHUR when he was a talk show host on the old CKVL-A/MONTREAL have come back to haunt him, as a QUEBEC Superior Court judge slaps him with a C$220,000. judgement for insulting Arab and Haitian cab drivers.

ARTHUR and the station's then-owner METROMEDIA CMR will have to pay over C$300,000. in aggregate for the NOVEMBER 1998 show, which drew a lawsuit from the QUEBEC ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL TAXI DRIVERS for saying that he couldn't understand what cabbies are saying because he could not speak what he described with the "n-word." He called taxis a "Third World" form of transportation, suggested that the drivers bribed their way to licenses, and their cars are dirty and garbage-strewn.

All Access, April 24, 2006

Murphy, Dick Broadcasting, Target Of Lawsuit

You mean there's a difference between charged and convicted?

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that North Carolina woman has filed a lawsuit against area morning deejay Jack Murphy, alleging that Murphy made defamatory statements about her on his radio show.

Verla Englert alleges in the lawsuit that Murphy – who does mornings at WKZL-FM – made false statements in April 2005 about her criminal record. The suit also names Dick Broadcasting Co. Inc., which owns the station.

According to the suit, Murphy said that Englert had been convicted eight times for assault with a deadly weapon.

A web site for the North Carolina Department of Correction does not list any convictions for Englert for assault with a deadly weapon. She was charged in 2000 with assault with a deadly weapon, but a prosecutor dismissed the case, records show.

In 2004, she was found guilty of simple assault, a lesser offense than assault with a deadly weapon.

The lawsuit says that Englert sent a letter to the station in June 2005 saying that Murphy's comments were false. The comments, Englert maintains, were not retracted.

Radio Ink, April 24, 2006

Phony Doctor Arrested on Sex Counts

This has nothing to do with a talk radio host. But I had to publish it anyway.

MIAMI — A 76-year-old man claiming to be a doctor went door-to-door offering free breast exams, and was charged with sexually assaulting two women who accepted the offer, police said Thursday.

One woman became suspicious after the man asked her to remove all her clothes and began conducting a purported genital exam without donning rubber gloves, investigators said.

She phoned the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the suspect fled. He was arrested at another woman's apartment in the same Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood on Wednesday, a sheriff's spokesman said.

The white-haired suspect, Philip Winikoff, carried a black bag and claimed to be visiting on behalf of a local hospital.

He told the women that "he was in the neighborhood offering free breast exams," sheriff's spokesman Hugh Graf said.

Winikoff was not a doctor, Graf said. He worked as a shuttle driver for an auto dealership.

LA Times, April 21, 2006

Boston Area Talk Show is Jailed in a Swindling Case

Host of show entitled "Estate Planning with Jerry Battista" was apparently planning his own estate.

He allegedly bought a Jaguar and new clothes, spent thousands on strip clubs and lavish trips, but now a Marshfield lawyer, Gerard Battista, is spending time in the Plymouth House of Correction.
Prosecutors from the state Attorney General's office alleged yesterday in court that Battista, 58, had swindled $1.2 million from four of his clients and had used the money for personal expenses.
Battista, who is the host of two radio call-in shows on WATD 95.9 FM in Marshfield, was hired by a couple in July to assist them with the sale of their house in Cohasset and the purchase of a property in Florida, Rice said.
Battista’s show -- Estate Planning with Jerry Battista – was carried by WATD on weekends.
State police assigned to Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's office arrested Battista at Logan International Airport after his return flight from El Salvador, where he had been visiting his wife's family.
He pleaded not guilty in Plymouth District Court yesterday on one count of larceny by a single scheme over $250. He was held on $500,000 cash bail and was ordered to surrender his passport.

Boston Globe, April 19, 2005

San FranciscoTalk Host Fired Over Death Threat

Another month another naughty talk host canned at KIFR

CBS Radio talk KIFR (Free FM 106.9) San Francisco has fired a talk show host and two staffers after an on-air reward was offered to have fellow station talker/comedian Penn Jillette killed.

Local host John London, his producer Dennis Cruz and sports reporter Chris Townsend were suspended last Friday (4/7) and subsequently fired over weekend, according to the San Jose Mercury News, for spending two hours on April 5 complaining about Jillette’s Free FM syndicated show where he labeled Mother Teresa a fraud. At the beginning of his show the following day, London remarked, “$5,000 to the person that kills Penn Jillette. If he suffers, I’ll make it $7,000.”

Jillette’s remarks centered on a bit where claimed that Mother Teresa has set up refuges for dying people for her own “sexual kink” and “sexual kicks.” He also said, “Mother Teresa is a bad person” and called Paris Hilton “much too moral” to play the deceased nun in an upcoming movie.

London told the Mercury News his offer was “obviously sarcastic,” and that he was “sickened” by Jillette’s remarks. “What he said wasn’t satire. He raped her morally, when she couldn’t respond.”

The fired talk show host said he was told that Jillette, whose show preceded London's, received death threats as a result of his own words about Mother Teresa and claimed that the station had a “dump button” and could have edited his (London’s) remarks.

“What I said may have been in bad taste,” London added. “But it wasn’t illegal, as they are claiming.”

A spokesperson for the station declined comment and told the paper, “It’s a personnel issue and we don’t comment on them.”

Just last month, KIFR fired local host Darian O’Toole after allegedly rambling in what some have referred to as an incoherent state and falling asleep on her show.

Billboard Radio Monitor, April 11, 2006

Officials Concerned Over AZ Talk Host’s Call To Kill Border Crossers

Officials in Phoenix still don't get the joke that Brian James was trying to make about shooting Mexicans.

As reported in the Mohave Daily News, Talk host Brian James of KFYI Phoenix suggested recently on the air that a solution to the immigration problem in Arizona would be to kill illegal immigrants as they cross the border. Two local officials feel those remarks may have intensified racial tensions in the state and they expressed that concern in a letter sent Friday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Brian James, who’s a fill-in talk show host with KFYI, said, “What we'll do is randomly pick one night every week where we will kill whoever crosses the border. Step over there and you die. You get to decide whether it's your lucky night or not. I think that would be more fun.''

He said he would be ‘‘happy to sit there with my high-powered rifle and my night scope'' and kill people as the cross the border. He also suggested that the National Guard shoot illegal immigrants and receive ‘‘$100 a head.''

In a letter to Martin, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and US Attorney Paul Charlton called the remarks irresponsible and dangerous.

‘‘At no time during this hour did Mr. James disavow violence or indicate he was joking,'' the letter said. ‘‘This type of threatening and inciting speech is dangerous and totally irresponsible for anyone, particularly a licensed body using public airways. We are deeply concerned that, given the intensifying conflict over immigration in Arizona, this speech may lead to violence. Tempers are short on both sides, and the situation is highly volatile.''

Goddard and Charlton urged Martin to consider sanctions against KFYI for what they say was an abuse of public airwaves.

Radio Ink, April 10, 2006

KFYI/Phoenix Host's Immigration Comments Draw Protest

KFYI PD Laurie Cantillo claims that the host, who talked about shooting illegal aliens was careful to say that he and the station do not advocate violence.


A fill-in host at CLEAR CHANNEL Talk KFYI-A/PHOENIX has drawn fire from protestors angry over a MARCH 8 show in which he raised the idea of shooting illegal immigrants as they cross the border from MEXICO into the U.S.

The ARIZONA REPUBLIC reports that the ARIZONA INTERFAITH NETWORK held a rally on the state Capitol lawn MONDAY to protest host BRIAN JAMES' comments, in which he said "what we'll do is randomly pick one night - every week - where we will kill whoever crosses the border, Step over there and you die. You get to decide whether it's your lucky night or not. I think that would be more fun."

JAMES told the paper that the remarks are being taken out of context and that "I do not in any way advocate shooting illegal immigrants.... I am not at this point, nor was I then, advocating shooting anyone. I was simply trying to make a point." PD LAURIE CANTILLO told the REPUBLIC that JAMES was careful to say that he and the station do not advocate violence.

Radio hosts suspended for abusing Indian

You must admit those Indian phone reps are a bit obnoxious

Star and Bucwild, the hosts of a popular morning radio show in the United States, were suspended by their station for making an abusive and threatening call to a call centre employee in India.
Power 99 FM in Philadelphia told rediff.com that it suspended the duo for a day, January 12, 2005 after receiving an unprecedented number of protest emails.
The live segment occurred on December 15, 2004, when Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, made a call to inquire about a product known as Quick Beads.
The call was handled by an Indian call centre employee who identified herself as Steena.
Midway through the call, Star became abusive, calling Steena a 'bitch' and a 'rat-eater' before threatening to choke her.

IST, December 10, 2005

Beck would Kill Michael Moore for Cash…But he’s only Joking

Those leftist wackos at Media Matters Made Me Do it. I was just doing comedy. Can’t those Commies take a joke

Responding to Media Matters For Americas claims that Glenn Beck said he wanted to kill Michael Moore, Beck yesterday on his show said the comments were taken out of context, and offered this clarification. "The Media Matters website is this George Soros website that takes on anyone who’s a conservative. They’re taking me on because two days ago I was talking about the things you would and wouldn’t do for $50 million. And I said I’d lose a digit. So I was going down all the things I would and wouldn’t do, for instance I wouldn’t cheat on my wife. I wouldn’t do anything with my family that wasn’t building them up, oh, and I wouldn’t murder anybody. But then I started pondering out loud, because this show, a lot of it is comedy, I questioned out loud, well wait a minute, if it’s Michael Moore, would I kill Michael Moore for $50 million. And I think I came up to the solution that I would kill him for $10 million. And Media Matters has printed, out of context, me wondering, well, could I choke him with my own hands. They had selected excerpts, they didn’t have the context that it was, ‘what would you do for $50 million.’ And it was comedy. It had none of that. They also didn’t put in there where I said, this is clearly wrong, where I came out of the comedy mode. But they’re doing this, so all of our stations, just beware, you’re going to get these leftist wackos, who don’t even listen to this show, writing your station and saying Glenn Beck wants to kill Michael Moore. Yeah, like I really want to kill Michael Moore."

RadioInk.com December, 10, 2006

The Radio Business is Not a Contact Sport

We suspected something was wrong when Mike’s picture was taken off the website

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 March 21, 2006.
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.

Kentucky Sports Talker Fired After DUI

Maybe he thought he was running away from an angry listener?

Talk WVLK-A/LEXINGTON, KY sports talk host TIM WOODBURN has been fired after his arrest for DUI and running from police, reports the LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER. WOODBURN entered a not guilty plea MONDAY after his arrest SATURDAY and asked CUMULUS for a 30 day leave of absence to go to rehab but was fired instead. LEXINGTON police allege that WOODBURN cut off a police cruiser, then procceded to drive erratically and refused to stop when the police car turned on its emergency lights, finally stopping, whereupon he got out of his car and ran away. The report says that WOODBURN was arrested when he fell while trying to scale a fence. WOODBURN tells the HERALD-LEADER that he plans to enter rehab in COLORADO on MARCH 26.

Florida Host Sued For Defamation

I didn't call him a pedofile. I just said he should stay away from young boys

GENESIS Talk WAMT-A/ORLANDO host DOUG GUETZLOE is being sued by a local businessman for on-air comments that the plaintiff had tried to "pick up young boys" and was "trolling for children." The ORLANDO SENTINEL reports that RICHARD MASK of WINTER GARDEN, FL has filed suit over the JANUARY 10 "GUETZLOE REPORT" show on WAMT, on which GUETZLOE said that MASK had been seen talking with two children in a trailer park and warning that "I don't know what his problem is, but he needs to stay away from young boys." GUETZLOE denies that he said MASK is a pedophile, telling the SENTINEL that "you have to take my comments in context."

St Louis PD Accused Of EMail Harassment

"I can tell you that I have done nothing. Anything that has been alleged, I absolutely deny it"

CH Holdings talk and sports KTRS St. Louis PD Al Brady Law has been accused of e-mail harassment by a former employee, according to the Toledo Blade. Clear Channel talk and sports WSPD Toledo, Ohio, morning show producer Meghan Smith has filed a complaint against Law with Toledo police, accusing the station's former PD of e-mail harassment. Law spent just less than two years at WSPD before he joined KTRS in late October. Smith says that Law has sent "several harassing and menacing e-mail messages to her over the last year and a half," according to the police report. "The most recent message was on [Feb. 9] and was laced with vulgarity and words she interpreted as threats," the report went on to say. Law denies the allegations. "I can tell you that I have done nothing. Anything that has been alleged, I absolutely deny it," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Darian O'Toole Meltdown?

Howard come back, we need you in San Francisco

Whatever's on the mics or in the coffee at CBS Talker KIFR (106.9 FREE FM)/SAN FRANCISCO is spreading. On FRIDAY, (2/24) midday personality DARIAN O'TOOLE was interviewing comic DAVE ATTELL, and was reportedly slurring her words. 20 minutes into the show, DARIAN was replaced with a "best of" show. You'll recall that back on JANUARY 12th, afternooner JOHN LONDON went on a rant that included calling and airing a conversation with CBS RADIO Chairman/CEO JOEL HOLLANDER, and slamming the rest of the talent on FREE FM. LONDON was on the air the following day, and ALL ACCESS has learned that O'TOOLE was expected to return to the air today at her normal time, 10a (PT), but TURI RYDER is in her place telling the audience that "DARIAN is a little under the weather."

Maryland Talk Host Apologizes For Hitler Comparison

Why do some talk show hosts have to keep comparing people to this guy

KTEN TV reports on February 25, 2006 that WFMD Frederick, Maryland Talk host Blaine Young has apologized for comparing the president of the Frederick County Commissioners to Adolf Hitler. Young said growth opponents led by Commissioner "Lennie" Thompson tend to blame real-estate developers for county problems in the same way Hitler blamed Jews for Germany's prewar economic decline. Thompson responded by called Young "an unmitigated liar."

DJ caught in payola investigation

Entercom programmer has become the posterboy for Payola

Former top 40 WKSE (Kiss-FM) Buffalo, N.Y., PD Dave Universal says he feels like he has become the poster boy for payola.In an interview that aired Thursday evening (Feb. 16) on ABC News’ "Primetime," the deposed Entercom programmer defended the practices that led to his firing, saying that he was simply encouraged to make money for his employer. The ABC report expanded on the widespread investigation by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer regarding alleged payola in both the record and broadcasting industries.Universal estimated that record companies typically paid about $100,000 a year to get songs played at Kiss-FM. "I did really well," he said. "I was Entercom's golden boy for a long time."

Billboard Radio Monitor, February 18, 2006