“Maverick! Engage, Dammit!”

Boston Phoenix blogger Adam Reilly offers an insightful post-mortem on talk radio’s role in Scott Brown‘s election to the U.S. Senate. The bottom-line: Relationships and engagement matter — a lot. True, most Beantown talkers were ideologically pre-disposed to support the Republican Brown.  But Brown also benefited tremendously from his long-time courtship of  the radio crowd. [...]

Mass Gov Rips Severin — Three Days Late

Put it in the record books: WTKK/Boston talker Jay Severin is the luckiest man in talk radio.  Earlier today, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick ripped Severin for the anti-Mexican remarks that got the host suspended on April 30th.  Patrick, addressing the issue on his own monthlyWTKK talk show, said he was embarrassed to be associated with WTKK [...]

Severin Returns, Apologizes, Moves On

WTTK-FM/Boston talker Jay Severin returned to the airwave today with a comprehensive apology for the harsh comments about Mexican immigrants that got him suspended without pay on April 30th. Severin’s apology came at the start of the show, cordoned off by lengthy music beds.  The acerbic host apologized for letting down his audience, his co-workers, the Mexican and [...]

Severin Set to Return to WTKK on Tuesday

WTKK-FM/Boston today announced that  suspended host Jay Severin will return to the airwaves on Tuesday at 3pm.  Severin was yanked April 30th after the station received complaints about Severin’s harsh remarks connecting  illegal Mexican immigrants and the swine flu. Now it’s white-knuckle time for WTKK and owner Greater Media.  The Boston Hispanic community has been oddly quiet on [...]

Severin Twists, Globe Sucks Its Thumb

Jay Severin’s open-ended unpaid suspension from WTKK-FM/Boston is coming up on the one-month mark with no sign of resolution.  Severin was yanked on April 30th after the Greater Media-owned station received complaints about some nasty remarks he made about illegal Mexican immigrants. The Sunday Boston Globe marked Severin’s looming milepost with what is known in the newspaper business as a thumb-sucker [...]

New Week, No Change in Severin Stand-off

Still no word on if/when suspended talker Jay Severin will return to WTTK-FM.  Meanwhile, The Boston Globe reports advertisers are starting to get hinky about their association with Severin, who got put on ice April 30th after some typically harsh remarks about illegal Hispanic immigrants. To quote the great Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, “Boy, do I hate [...]

No Way Severin Situation Ends Well for Anyone

Jay Severin, Greater Media’s self-inflicted wound, is about to go septic.   Severin, who hosts afternoon drive on Greater Media’s WTKK-FM/Boston, was suspended without pay this past Thursday for some nasty remarks about Hispanics.  Now comes word that Severin’s suspension will last “until further notice.” This situation gets worse for Severin and WTKK with every passing [...]

Community Service that Resonates

Given the current emphasis on localism and community service, news/talk programmers should be ready with a plan to expand their station’s efforts.  Here are two potential partners that can make a PD look fantastic to his general manager, sales managers and audience.  Both organizations help support military families, a group dealing with the one-two punch of long deployments [...]