WRKO host Howie Carr heads into Suffolk Superior Court yesterday.
Posted on 10/14/2007 11:01:18 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie Carr live thread for the week of Oct 14. Including his Sun 10/14 Herald column.
The show is still up in the air; meeting is supposedly being held tomorrow. Greater Media wants Howie to do mornings for them but Entercom still feels he is their property, etc. Todd Feinburg has been filling in in the meantime. If I hear anything I'll pass it along.
details are in today’s Herald. I’ll ping the list (”Ruling
could come today”)
from today’s Herald; ping for the Howie Carr list
Carr ruling possible today
Lawsuit over ’RKO pact has radio host in limbo
by Jessica Heslam/ Boston Herald
Tue 10/16/07
A Suffolk Superior Court judge could issue his decision as early as today on whether he’ll reconsider his earlier ruling that has kept Howie Carr from getting behind the microphone at WTKK (96.9 FM).
Carr has asked Judge Allan van Gestel to reconsider his earlier ruling that the right to match provision in Carr’s contract with WRKO (680 AM) is valid and enforceable. In 2002, Carr signed a five-year agreement with WRKO that contained the provision, which gives the station the right to match a competitor’s offer.
In July, Greater Media’s WTKK offered Carr a deal worth up to $7 million to host its morning drive show, which WRKO matched.
In court yesterday, Carr’s attorney, Bret Cohen of Minz Levin, pointed to a case involving the legendary Brockton boxing champ Rocky Marciano and his former manager and trainer, Gene Caggiano.
The two entered into a contract that said if Marciano became a professional boxer within five years, he would hire Caggiano. When Marciano didn’t hire him, Caggiano sued. A judge ruled that their agreement was enforceable, but it was reversed by the state’s highest court.
Cohen said Carr’s contract with WRKO ended last month and that the law says “you cannot have a contract to agree to a contract in the future.” Cohen said the Entercom-owned WRKO is trying to hold Carr, also a Herald columnist, to a contract “where the most critical elements were unknown at that time, and that is length and amount of money.”
But WRKO attorney Shep Davidson said Carr is under contract to WRKO until 2012 and he referenced a case involving the Boston Celtics and former player Brian Shaw, who wanted to leave the team to join one in Italy. A federal judge said Shaw had to honor his contract with the Celtics.
While Carr’s attorneys say the right to match provision is illegal under state law, Davidson argued that the statute doesn’t apply to this case because there was never “a gap in the employment relationship.” Quoting the contract, Davidson said the right of first refusal “allows Entercom to continue (the) artist’s services.”
Davidson also asked the judge to ban WTKK from publicly talking about the possibility of Carr joining their lineup.
The Globe’s take on it:
Decision on Carr’s future may come today
Judge to rule on whether WRKO pact still in force
By Diedtra Henderson, Globe Staff | October 16, 2007
Radio talk show host Howie Carr, whose tortuous contract negotiations have kept him in limbo between two stations, may learn as early as this morning whether he can return to the airwaves on a new station.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Allan van Gestel yesterday afternoon heard arguments from lawyers representing Carr, his current employer, WRKO-AM, and his suitor station, WTKK-FM, which reportedly has offered the popular talk show host and Boston Herald columnist a more lucrative contract worth $7 million over five years. Media accounts suggest that Carr earned $790,000 in 2006. A Carr spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment on those figures.
Carr has been off the air since Sept. 19, although WRKO continues to promote his 3 to 7 p.m. weekday radio program, The Howie Carr Show.
At issue is a contract Carr signed with WRKO that was due to expire in late September. According to Carr’s lawyers, Entercom Boston, which owns WRKO, could have extended that contract if it had exercised a renewal option by the deadline. Instead, Carr received a more lucrative offer from WTKK, owned by Greater Boston Media. WTTK had hoped to begin airing his talk show in the morning this fall.
Entercom says that by matching the competitor’s offer it has kept Carr under contract through 2012. In an interim memo last month, the judge sided with Entercom on that issue.
During yesterday’s hearing, Carr’s lawyers sought to reverse the interim ruling.
“He does not wish to return to Entercom, and the court’s previous order restricts his ability to pursue a career path of his choosing,” Bret A. Cohen, Carr’s lawyer, wrote in asking the judge to reconsider the ruling.
During the hearing, Cohen argued that Carr’s contract should be read at face value: It expired on Sept. 19.
Van Gestel, in statements from the bench, said the contract with WRKO remains valid.
“It continues,” van Gestel said. “That’s where you and I disagree,” he told Cohen, of Mintz Levin.
Cohen, in one of many legal cases drawing from professional sports, pointed to a case involving boxing great Rocky Marciano. The boxer’s trainer attempted to enter into a written contract that would have kept him the trainer well into the future, should Marciano turn pro.
“The law is clear,” Cohen said, arguing that neither the boxing great nor Carr could be forced to agree to a contract in the future - especially one that failed to spell out the contract’s length or compensation.
“There is a dollar amount and a period of time,” countered the judge.
Van Gestel then reached for a sporting case of his own, citing a contract involving a race horse that locked up future earnings for contests not yet run. That contract was found to be enforceable.
Nancy Sterling, Carr’s spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The judge, in this morning’s hearing, is also expected to decide whether to grant an injunction that would limit WTKK from discussing Carr’s potential move to the radio station.
Shepard Davidson, a lawyer for Entercom, said WTKK has used such language on its website as “they hope, they wish, they want, they expect” in describing Carr’s interest in moving to the station. The statements seek to “torpedo” Entercom’s relationship with advertisers, Davidson argued, in seeking an injunction to silence “plainly misleading” promises that Carr is headed to WTKK “soon.”
Josh Davis, a lawyer representing WTKK, said the judge should reject the injunction request because it seeks to enjoin “words, as opposed to actions.”
So does this mean he’ll not be coming back to radio, or will time change things with respect to his contract? This is too bad. Guess the radio won’t be getting better any time soon.
The decision means that Howie is tied to WRKO for the next 5 years, if they still want him as they have claimed. He can’t be forced to work for them, he just can’t have a show anywhere else. I guess there could be another appeal, but....
Well, they’ll be paying him a lot - maybe he’ll come back to WRKO anyway. Maybe they’ll even relent and give him the morning show, if that is what he really wants. And maybe the devil will have to buy a pair of ice skates tomorrow...
(The Tue. ping)
Yes—the options looks like:
—return to WRKO
—sit out radio
—go to WTKK and risk a lawsuit from Entercom
—appeal to a higher court (where?)
Globe story:
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Judge rules against Carr in WRKO case
Radio talk show host Howie Carr, whose tortuous contract negotiations have kept him in limbo between two stations, remains under contract with his current employer, WRKO-AM, a judge ruled today.
But the ruling, issued this morning by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Allan van Gestel, sharply ratchets up Carr’s salary to match the offer given by a competing radio station.
At issue is a contract that Carr signed with WRKO that was due to expire in late September. The station is owned by Entercom Boston.
Prior to its expiration, Carr fielded a lucrative contract from a suitor station, WTKK-FM, which reportedly has offered the popular talk show host and Boston Herald columnist $7 million over five years.
“Entercom, by exercising its right of first refusal, continued Carr’s services beyond the Sept. 19, 2007 original expiration date of the Agreement, upon the compensation arrangement and the term of employment offered by the other station,” van Gestel wrote in the seven-page ruling.
The judge sharply rejected Carr’s July 10 statement to the media that the Entercom contract transforms him into a “virtual indentured servant.”
“Carr is not, as he argues in his brief, ‘in essence [subject to] a lifetime employment agreement’ with Entercom,” the Judge wrote. “And wherever he legally finds himself, it is of his own conscious doing. He has not, as he publicly claims, been placed into some form of high-paid indentured servitude by this Court.”
(By Diedtra Henderson, Globe staff)
Herald story:
October 16th, 2007
Judge blocks Carr from jumping to WTKK
Posted by Jessica Heslam at 9:57 am
Howie Carr has hit another road block in his quest to join rival station WTKK, with a judge today denying the radio host’s request to reverse an earlier decision that the right to match provision in his WRKO contract is valid and enforceable.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Allan van Gestel also denied WRKO’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have banned WTKK executives from talking to Carr, and making any public statements about him, for the next five years.
Attorneys for both sides argued their cases at a court hearing yesterday before van Gestel, who issued his decision earlier today.
In 2002, Carr signed a five-year contract with the Entercom Communications-owned WRKO.
The contract included a right to match clause, which gives WRKO the right to match a competitor’s salary during the term of his contract and within 180 days after it ends.
Greater Media’s WTKK (96.9 FM) offered Carr their morning drive show in July, a deal worth up to $7 million. WRKO quickly matched the offer, and by doing so, says Carr is under contract to them until 2012.
Carr’s lawyers argued that the provision is illegal under state law.
Carr has been off the air since his WRKO contract expired last month.
I’ll have more here throughout today.
to all—what does it all mean? We won’t know yet—no
word yet from Howie and his lawyers and I wonder if
they’re trying to appeal to a higher court.
Note:
>>The contract included a right to match clause, which gives WRKO the right to match a competitor’s salary during the term of his contract and within 180 days after it ends.
And the judge said, hey, the offer was made while Howie
was under contract to WRKO, case closed. But Howie does
not want to work there!
He may just prefer to sit it out but he’s giving up a lot
of money if so. Do we have to still sit through the
Not Howie Carr show on WRKO and his various affiliates
while all this goes on?
“....“Carr is not, as he argues in his brief, ‘in essence [subject to] a lifetime employment agreement’ with Entercom,” the Judge wrote. “And wherever he legally finds himself, it is of his own conscious doing. He has not, as he publicly claims, been placed into some form of high-paid indentured servitude by this Court.”......”
I’m not a lawyer, but two things are pretty obvious to me:
1) That little paragraph could come back to bite that judge in the buttocks.
2) In Montana terminology, WRKO just poisoned their own well. If Carr decides NOT to continue the legal battle, I’d bet he’s retired from radio and on his way to Florida within a New York minute.
Additionally, is this ruling stating that Howie is being forced to accept the Entercom offer? Forced?
—Howie contract was due to end 9/19/07
—Howie announces Greater Media gave him an offer
back in July
—Entercom matches the offer (allegedly)
—The judge rules that Entercom is entitled to match
the offer—and it’s implied _Howie is being forced to
accept it_! He can’t just say, OK, but no thanks? Thus
he is forced to extend his contract another 5 years
for an employer he doesn’t want to work for.
What does he do now—say something nasty on the air
and get fired? Then he can join WTKK?
I hope he appeals it; what else can he do? Sit
out radio? Return to a station he hates to
work for? Appeal? Or even go to WTKK anyway
and risk a lawsuit (THAT would be a given) from
Entercom. In the meantime listeners suffer
with more Not-The-Howie-Carr-Show.
We’ll have to wait to hear from Howie and
his lawyers.
Is Howie indeed the puppet that Entercom
portrays him to be in the new feature on
the ‘RKO site?
Maybe Howie should have kept his mouth
shut and waited for the contract to end
and then “accept” the Greater Media offer.
Note that it was said that WRKO, in matching
the competiting station’s offer, “ratcheted
up the pay”. So does this mean that Howie gets all those performance incentives WTKK was
offering, since that would be a “match”?
(Or were those offers added AFTER the
original offer?) Does this mean Howie gets a morning show on ‘RKO because that was one
of his demands?
Unless legal action changes things Howie
could be working for an employer he doesn’t
like for the next 5 years. And in the
short term, listeners suffer with Howie
OFF air.
More Entercom follies, from today’s Herald, about their
former morning show host—who claims that an insider at
WRKO trashed his Wikipedia entry:
by Jessica Heslam, in today’s Herald:
A former WRKO radio host says he’s keeping his “legal options open” after someone at his former station allegedly maligned his Wikipedia entry by adding that he was “heavy into Satan worship” and “enjoys sex with wild pigs.”
Scott Allen Miller, who was replaced by Tom Finneran in morning drive slot in February, learned on Friday that his entry had been altered. Every computer connected to the Internet has an IP address, which Miller said he traced on the Internet to Entercom Communications, owner of WRKO (680 AM).
Miller said he reported the vandalism to Entercom’s IT manager, Sid Schweiger, who verified that it was an address registered to Entercom. Miller said no one at Entercom has reached out to him.
“It just shows that months later, after I’ve gone, somebody there thinks it’s cool to use a company computer to go online and take shots at me for no reason,” Miller said.
“They’re legally obligated to stop that kind of thing,” Miller said. “I am keeping all of my legal options open.”
The derogatory and graphic references to Miller were added in September and someone later corrected it, the former WRKO talk host said. Miller said Entercom is responsible for “the action of its employees on its network, and I would expect them to take responsibility for that.”
However, Entercom Communications said yesterday it is not investigating. Several bloggers, including Miller, have reported the incident.
“This sounds like the silly season,” said George Regan, spokesman for Entercom. “I know Halloween is coming up, it’s right around the corner, and we’re not going to get involved in this lunacy.”
When Miller left the station, he said he and Entercom executives signed a non-disparagement agreement. “We’re both bound by this mutal non-disparagement clause that prevents us from slinging mud at each other,” Miller said, “and I’ve lived by that.”
As I stated on the other site.....Howie should return to RKO afternoons, regular slot, call Grace Ross a fat lesbian and fat Matt a fag....that should get him fired instantly, leaving him open to slide over to TKK,,,,it worked for Depetro!
Yup, just responded to your post on the other site
(radio-info), too! Who knows.
From Boston Radio Watch by Mark Schyder:
Carr is stuck in neutral…again
Boston’s talk radio personality Howie Carr will have to remain off the air until further notice. His much-anticipated morning drive debut on WTKK 96.9FM has been delayed again. For the second time in less than a month, Carr and his attorneys were in Suffolk Superior Court this morning trying to resolve a sticky contract dispute between his old station, WRKO AM 680 and his new station WTKK 96.9FM.
In a motion, Carr and his legal team asked Judge Allan van Gestel to reconsider the September 19th decision when he ruled that the talk show host never officially terminated his expiring WRKO deal thus triggering a clause in the old contract which automatically extended it by five more years when WTKK’s now-infamous $7 million offer sheet was signed by Carr and immediately matched by WRKO. (BRW 9/19)
In this morning’s decision, the judge once again sided with WRKO AM 680 by ruling that the contract extension was valid and is enforceable.
In the meantime, WRKO hasn’t acknowledged publicly that Carr has quit and doesn’t want to be back on its airwaves. Although midday personality Todd Feinburg has been filling in for Carr for the past month, the station still refers to the 3-7pm program as the “Howie Carr Show” in on-air promos and on its website.
Logic dictates that it’s not likely WRKO will make any kind of permanent programming change to replace Carr until the Red Sox postseason ends which may happen as early as this week or as late as Halloween. As far as the defection by advertisers goes, it may not have much immediate impact on the revenue side as many have anticipated when Carr ended his afternoon run on WRKO last month. As one veteran radio advertising exec told BRW last week, many advertisers are often sold on package deals anyway. Corporate radio’s package buy typically sells around the cluster’s top performing dog(s) – in this case that would be Entercom’s big moneyprinting machine known as WEEI AM 850. The stations with smaller ratings and revenue in the same cluster are usually thrown into the package.
As long as WEEI remains in the mix, and from the looks of Boston’s rejuvenated sports scene things will stay that way for the foreseeable future, it’s really insignificant for WRKO whether Carr stays or goes. For the past few years WRKO has been treated as an afterthought by Entercom from the programming end with cuts in the news and diminishing talk talent pool. All this makes sense. WRKO is a victim of WEEI’s huge success. As long as both stations remain co-owned, it will always be about WEEI’s strong identity, massive target audience and market brand.
Well, whatever happens, apparently the listeners get the shaft. It’s amazing the negativity out there, I would guess that Howie may have lost quite a few listeners. If he doesn’t end up in the AM slot, will he be able to make them up after this fiasco?
It would be neat if this was big enough news to be played on the news bumps on WRKO today, and that it would have to be discussed on Todd’s program. The radio silence with respect to this stuff is very annoying.
I have to wonder about a move to Florida, as many have suggested. It would be rough on his family to have to switch schools, especially during the school year (plus school quality in MA is somewhat better than FL - probably even private school). Only they know though.
Agreed...and yes Entercom’s radio silence will continue. No doubt Todd, etc. has been told not to discuss it.
On the survey, did you mention the firing of the local news staff?
How about the lack of [honest] coverage about Beacon Hill and Deval Patrick's shenanigans?
good points
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