KLT'S OPERATOR SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT
"We didn't get Smitty fired", claims Jerry Coyne
Earlier today, I had a phone conversation with Jerry Coyne, the owner of Grayling rock station Q100 and sports Y101. He and his wife, Sheryl are in the process of buying Northern Broadcast's rock WKLT (97.5/98.9), 80s/90s hits The Fox (94.3/92.5) and ESPN Up North (106.7/105.5). Currently, Coyne's company, Blarney Stone Broadcasting operates the stations via a Local Marketing Agreement. However, he's been hearing about the controversy surrounding the ongoing sale of the NBI stations, the firing of Omelette and the firing of Black Diamond Broadcasting Rock 105/95-5's Smitty and quite frankly, he wanted to set the record straight.
In regards as to why the sale of KLT/The Fox/ESPN is taking so long, it's only because they're working on changing the perimeters of the sale. Originally, the sale involved the stations themselves AND the transmitter sites for all six stations plus the real estate, and the deal was too much. So, the Coynes and NBI are simply trying to configure a deal that doesn't involve selling the transmitter sites and BSB would own the stations only. People have speculated that since no papers had been filed by the FCC and the deal was announced a year ago that the deal fell though. That is not the case.
Then, there's the rumor that it was Coyne who fired Omelette. That was false, according to Coyne. NBI fired him because he and co-host Richard Coates were getting overpaid and the show wasn't making enough money to pay the two. Of course, O-Man and Coates are now at classic rocker The Bear (98.1/97.7).
And then, there's Smitty. A few of my sources claimed that former Rock 105/95-5 afternoon host/programming director was let go because Sheryl sent a nasty email to the station's advertisers about something he never did on the air: play a song with the word "cunt" uncensored. According to Jerry, Smitty was canned because he trashed KLT afternooner Tom Devitt on the air and since she's on the board of the Michigan Lottery, she told the organization about his actions and they threatened to pull their ads from Black Diamond's stations. A few other advertisers were notified to the point that Black Diamond had no choice but to fire the popular radio host, who was #1 males 18-34 in the last Nielsen ratings book.
Speaking of Smitty, he's now in an awkward situation. Currently, he's a bartender at the popular Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City. Tomorrow on Friday the 13th, his old station, Rock 105/95-5 is planning an event, welcoming new midday jock (and former WRIF/Detroit Drew and Mike show sidekick) Trudi Daniels to the station. However, on his Facebook page, Smitty released a video stating that the station is also welcoming a new afternoon jock as well and he'll be working that night as his old station taunts him. Apparently, there will be a ton of people there supporting him as well. All the event needs is Jerry Springer and all will be well.
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