Banned In Boston : WRKO cancels McGuirk's controversial tryout

Last Friday's announcement that controversial former Don Imus Show producer/sidekick Bernard McGuirk would co-host Tom Finneran's morning talk show "Finneran's Forum" on WRKO-AM 680 for three days this week created a stir and a good amount of local and national media publicity. Late this afernoon, bowing to pressure from Boston's African American community leaders, WRKO's management decided to scrub the McGuirk's Wednesday thru Friday guest co-hosting appearance on the station.

WRKO's decision comes a day before Sadiki Kambon-led The Black Community Information Center Inc. planned to protest outside the radio station's studios in Brighton for considering McGuirk as a possible co-host on Finneran's floundering morning show.

This is not the first time, Kambon and BCIC have been protesting Entercom Boston's management decisions. Three and a half years, Kambon called for the outright firing of WEEI's top-rated morning team "Dennis and Callahan" after they compared an escaped gorilla from Franklin Park Zoo to a METCO student. Initially, Dennis was slapped with a two-day suspension and Callahan continued working. However, after two major local sponsors pulled their advertisement from the station in protest, the duo then received a two-week suspension.

[Ed. Note : Just like with the METCO incident, WRKO and Entercom heard back from some of their bigger sponsors who were likely somewhat uncomfortable with McGuirk's upcoming visit to the station. While WRKO's format may be talk, it's the advertisers money that really talks as the station's management decided not to risk the negative publcity if some sponsors were to begin pulling their ads from the Talk Station. In addition, this year and for the next decade, Entercom is paying very large sum of money to the Red Sox to carry majority of the team's games on WRKO. So, at this stage of the game, keeping station's and Sox broadcast advertisers happy is more imperative than any potential gain from jump-starting Finneran's floundering show with a controversial radio personality.]

Jessica Heslam in the Boston Herald:

Boston’s WRKO-AM has pulled the plug on former Imus sidekick Bernard McGuirk, who was slated to “guest host” with ratings-starved morning man Tom Finneran this week.

McGuirk, canned for his hand in the “nappy-headed hos” exchange that cost both him and Imus their syndicated radio jobs, was expected on WRKO’s airwaves this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Julie Kahn, vice president and market manager for Entercom, the parent company of WRKO, and Jason Wolfe, the station’s program director, made the decision to ax the embattled yakker’s appearance today.

“Julie Kahn and Jason Wolfe have decided not to go ahead with the guest hosting of Bernie this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Maybe in the future. But not at this time,” said George Regan of Regan Communications, which represents Entercom.

Calling McGuirk a “racist,” several of Boston’s black community leaders had planned to show up at the station’s Brighton studios tomorrow morning to demand a meeting with management to protest McGuirk’s appearance.

Kahn herself called Sadiki Kambon, director of The Black Community, to tell him McGuirk wasn’t going to be on WRKO’s airwaves. Kambon said he and others had planned to protest if the station put McGuirk behind the mic.

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