Horsesh*t. Preemptive negotiation tactic.
I just read the same opinion on a radio board; someone said that maybe they do want Howie but at a lower salary. “Hey, looks like maybe we can fit you in on the schedule, Howie, but we can only give you $XXX...”
As I mentioned elsewhere, will WTKK be smooth jazz again by the time ‘12 rolls around? Ratings not the best, hence the recent change that has put Smyth’s pal Don-O in merely a two hour slot, only one hour of which, as I understand, is live
I can’t picture a station like WBZ picking him up (would they want to give up some of their news-time by day?
Would he be too shocking for BZ, or could they tone him down slightly? His ratings recently were halfway decent though. The “Second rate talk show” (as one person at radio-info.com put it) recently finished #1, even doing better than the sports guys down the hall.
Whether that would keep up, I don’t know, but suppose his ratings dropped and Entercom didn’t renew him...
I could visualize a company like Salem Communications perhaps (though VERY low possibility) trying talk again and you could have
Howie and a bunch of syndie conservatives, say, on a “Talk 590” or “Talk 950”. Look at what happened to
Jerry Williams. He had short-lived efforts at “WMEX 1060” and WROL 950 IIRC, though Jerry was in the early stages of the disease that would take his life (Parkinson’s, I think) and he wasn’t having a very easy time on the air.
Howie does hint at a move to Florida, something el Rushbo has done—the latter to escape NY taxes. Howie says he could escape MA taxes, and weather. As for income he does say he has a second book coming out (not sure on
whom—the Kennedys?) and is pitching a third.