Posted on 07/10/2007 9:14:03 AM PDT by raccoonradio
(under Breaking News/Herald site) A day after shaking up Boston’s talk radio scene with a bombshell announcement, WRKO talk meister Howie Carr has slapped the AM station with a lawsuit, accusing them of illegally trying to block his new deal with rival WTKK-FM.
The lawsuit, filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, accuses the Entercom-owned WRKO (680) of including illegal restrictions in Carr’s contract designed to prevent the witty Herald columnist from jumping ship.
WTKK has offered Carr a five-year contract for his own morning-drive show. His contract with WRKO ends in September.
“Without relief from this court, Mr. Carr will be unlawfully precluded from pursuing this opportunity, and will be forced to continue working for an employer whom he no longer wants to work,” said the lawsuit, filed by Carr’s attorney, Bret Cohen of Mintz Levin.
“Mr. Carr seeks a declaration from this court that these provisions are illegal under Massachusetts law and unenforceable as applied to him, and an award of his attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in bringing this present action,” the lawsuit says.
Carr’s contract with WRKO contained a renewal option, which would have allowed Entercom to extend his contract by one year had the company sent a written letter to Carr by March 19 of this year.
According to the complaint, WRKO Program Director Jason Wolfe asked Carr to sign a one-week extension two days before the March deadline, which Carr signed. Over the next month, Carr gave Entercom two more extension deadlines for the renewal option, but the company failed to extend Carr’s contract.
About a month ago, Wolfe contacted Carr to discuss his contract, and Carr told him he had reservations about staying at WRKO, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says WTKK would give Carr a bigger audience, a“substantially higher profile” and more“bonus potential” than WRKO.
Howie Carr list ping!
‘RKO really did lose their collective minds some time ago! Nothing like a good lawsuit to smooth things over, though! ;-)
Of course he won't.I hope the Colonel isn't his replacement for many reasons...not least of which is I can only understand about 10% of what he says.
maybe they’ll pick up Jerry Doyle live in the meantime (or
swipe Hannity from WTTT); both shows air at 3 pm EDT
Jason Wolfe will be out before Howie's contract is up.
Well Howie, did ya' read what you signed?
If so, why did you sign an 'illegal contract'?
I had 96.9 on my presets but deleted it a few weeks ago. Between Michelle McPhee’s grating voice and the midday show...yikes!
Who cares who Howie’s replacement is? Rush, then Howie is my daily routine and I will not change. I’m getting a recorder to tape Howie while I’m still sleeping. Then I’ll play it at 3PM every day. This is the natural order of things and will continue to be. Not only that, if I’m driving and listening I won’t continue to lose Howie every other mile. C’mon Howie, you can tell us....where is Whitey??
hook up a stereo/radio to your comp.
get a program like AudioRecordWizard3 ($25) or Audacity (free).
Set the timer and make sure you leave your comp on.
Later on you can hear it via mp3 player etc
...also you could tap into the stream of WTKK and set the
“recorder” up to tape the “wave out mix”...
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold. Howie's chowin' down on this feast.
Howie hits a home run with this one:
1. He gets the old Imus slot, "In your FACE Imus!"
2. He goes head-to-head against that BLEEPIN' Felon.
3. He doesn't have to put up with any more friggin' Red Sox preemptions.
4. He probably gets more money.
I expect to hear him say "My Heart Feels Like An Alligator!" today.
Maybe this move will finally rid us of that fat liberal BLEEP Sandy and her warped, toe-licking fans.
Get the popcorn ready.....
We won’t be hearing Howie anytime soon on WRKO,IMO.The most frustrating thing is that no one on the radio will talk,or be allowed to talk about any of this.’RKO certainly won’t let this on their airwaves.
I like Sandy...she keeps Howie honest!
>>I expect to hear him say “My Heart Feels Like An Alligator!” today.
Not on the air, we won’t. Avi Nelson is filling in and
HC may not be back on 680 anytime soon, perhaps never
again...as long as this isn’t settled. And as has been
pointed out in various places, once WRKO realized they
could lose Howie they suddenly are making every effort
to keep him—all they had to do was sign a letter last
March or a couple times since then saying they’d
extend his current contract...
...and now that he’s going, you have a station which:
a) now has their star player off the air, while this
is being settled
b) is seriously thinking of keeping someone who is
clearly not happy with where he’s working and
whom he’s working with
Expect Entercom to not have a prayer in keeping him
away from WTKK, and expect Jason Wolfe to be asking
people “paper or plastic?” as part of his employment
in the near future.
yes and I’d suspect ‘TKK won’t discuss it either...though
I’ll be Finnebomb talked about it today
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