Posted on 12/02/2008 8:45:28 AM PST by AnalogReigns
Jeff Katz, whose conservative zeal and verbal swordsmanship have been a mainstay of afternoon drive time for two years, was fired Monday by WBT-AM (1110).
Rick Jackson, WBT general manager, said he could not discuss the reason.
Katz will be replaced in the 3 to 6 p.m. spot beginning next week by Tara Servatius, a Creative Loafing columnist who has been in the station's 9 p.m. to midnight slot since May 2007 and has occasionally filled in for Katz in afternoons.
Listeners to the show Monday weren't told of the change. It was still the “Jeff Katz Show,” according to station promos, but with a fill-in host.
Katz was at KNEW-AM in San Francisco before joining WBT in August 2006.
Katz, 44, was named to the “Heavy Hundred” list of top talk show hosts in the nation by the radio trade magazine Talkers this year, but his combative nature with callers who disagreed with him led to occasional on-air friction.
In 2007, a local Muslim group called for an advertising boycott of his show, complaining Katz spewed hateful remarks about their religion.
Katz, a former Philadelphia Housing Police officer, could not be reached for comment.
Jackson said Servatius, who comes from a journalistic background, will bring a new style to the afternoon shift.
“She spends hours combing through the files researching her points,” he said. “People want facts rather than someone spouting an opinion. We may see a new kind of a talk show host in Tara.”
Servatius said Monday she plans to do the same thing with her afternoon show as she did in the night shift: “I like to dig into issues others aren't looking at.” She said the show will be about 50-50 in terms of local and national issues.
Jackson said WBT's internal research, including a focus group and perceptual studies, shows listeners have highly positive opinions about Servatius' show.
Servatius, 34, grew up in Charlotte. She is a graduate of Charlotte Catholic High School and the UNC Chapel Hill school of journalism. Before the alternative weekly newspaper Creative Loafing, she wrote for a now-defunct Charlotte weekly newspaper called The Leader.
Jackson said he and Bill White, WBT's program director, will go on the air Tuesday in Katz's afternoon shift to talk to listeners about the change.
“It's kind of a face-the-music thing for us, for people who want to call and vent,” he said. Mark Washburn: 704-358-5007; mwashburn@charlotteobserver.com
Katz is one of those guys who touted the right things, but often in ways more sharp or offensive, than convincing... I mostly agreed with him, but man, why'd he have to put it that way?
Oh well, talk radio guys are subject to firing....
The woman replacing him, Tara Servatius, is a top-notch journalist--and quite conservative as well. She knows her stuff and can back it up with facts.
I see Creative Loafing on shelves in resturants and store all over here in Huntersville.
I saw one of my coworkers reading a copy in the breakroom and I told him I was sory, but I couldn’t be friends with him anymore.
I can’t stand Tara. She is too cynical for me.
She is that good that I wonder how long WBT will be able to keep her.
I agree with you about Tara. She rocks. The only thing I don’t like about this shift is that it’s easier for me to listen to the radio at night than at drive-time, so I won’t be hearing her as much.
And given that she is the one replacing Katz, I don’t think PC had anything to do with it. She has no qualms about offending anyone.
He is the classic Rush follower. Can't believe he is still working.
Another sucker radio station will take him in and watch ad. revenue drop.
Tara Servatious has been the “token Conservative” in (wacky-liberal-free “newspaper”) Creative Loafing for years. She is, like myself actually, more of a libertarian conservative than a typical conservative. She’s solidly pro-life, and, has spent years exposing the corrupt follies of Charlotte, and NC government.
Incredible. They fire Katz but keep that idiot Michael A. Stevens on the air??? LOL
If you want to have fun, tune into WBT on Sunday evenings. They have a guy on, Michael A. Stevens, who is totally self-promoting and dumb as a box of rocks. He’s a minister and he defended Obama’s “G D America” minister.
Second thought, it won’t be fun. The guy is irritating.
I tend to agree, Servatius is hard to listen too...as she tends to get me depressed—seeing as how bad things are. Unlike someone like Rush, she doesn’t have the ever-present optimism.
For her it’s the facts, ma’am, only the facts....
These talk radio hosts got fat while ad rates were constantly climbing, now we get the see the reverse; Hosts getting fired all over the place because collapsing ad rates (their only real source of income) dont justify their paychecks.
I wasn’t thinking of anything specific. It’s just that Jeff was, how can you say it, “tactfulness”-challenged.
We don’t know (yet?) what got Jeff fired, but his bosses are supposed to be on WBT this afternoon at 3 PM to give an explanation.
‘BT is still a solidly conservative station, so I can’t believe it was Jeff’s politics—he probably just (finally) PO’d the wrong person with WBT (I’m guessing).
I can say that Keith Larson this morning (a long-time WBT talk host) didn’t indicate any sorrow at Jeff being gone. No acrimony either, but no regret....
Ironically enough, the guy who was fired from ‘BT 2 years ago, making a place for Jeff Katz, Jason Lewis, is subbing for Rush Limbaugh today on ‘BT—right before the explanation of why Katz was fired....
The station manager refused to give his reasons for the firing, but then he came out with this: “People want facts rather than someone spouting an opinion.”
It sounds to me that, whether or not this firing was justified, that was his reason.
**“People want facts rather than someone spouting an opinion.”**
Excuse me sir, I spend the other 21 hours a day Listening to “Opinions”.
Had a friend in Radio biz as Morning Drive conservative talk host. No one, to this day, TRULY knows WHY he was fired, except the Manager.
Ratings increased every quarter, DITTO with AD revenue...
only thing I can think of is a “Moron.org” type of Attack, but THEY would have made it public ... “We Ousted XXXX”
I DUNNO!!
One of the callers said he said something bad but well deserved about Muslims.The managers did not dispute it.
Everyone knows the rich Muslims have ACLU “American Censoring Lawyers United” hit squads everywhere to sue anyone who says any thing negative about the so-called Religion of Peace.
The weasels at WBT caved,but no matter,Jeff was too damn good for the scum-bags anyway.Charlotte’s going leftist anyway so screw ‘em.
I wish Jeff would come to WVOC here in Columbia,SC—we know how to treat our consevative talent.
I’ve been listening this afternoon. These managers are losers.
If they were good managers they would have handled the entire situation differently.
They’re trying to b.s. their way out of their mess.
Jeff was raising money for military stationed overseas. These losers could have waited at least until after Christmas.
My own personal opinion, he irritated the Muslims and the blacks. WBT is caving.
These managers are, well, managers, and clearly not talk-show hosts. I’ve been listening, and falling asleep too....
There’s a reason why they hire others to be on the radio!
I’m just as conservative as he is, and agreed with Katz 95% of the time. However, his voice and mannerisms sound very Northern (dare I say “Yankee?”), which is annoying to even my mid-Atlantic ears....and was the opposite of “winsome” in his presentation of opinions.
The managers keep saying over and over it was strictly a business decision, and I have no reason not to believe them...which means: Advertisers. I can believe it, as, if I were an advertiser, though I’d agree with Jeff, I wouldn’t want my product associated with someone so obnoxiously strident about his opinions...as Jeff Katz has been. Most of the advertisers are old-time Charlotte businesses, and rely on southern charm—of which Jeff had none.
Jeff’s a good guy, but HE NEEDS TO LEARN TACT!!! And maybe he’d do better in a slightly cooler climate, at a higher latitude too....
These managers are full of baloney.
At first they said they were going to answer questions. Then they said they wouldn’t give the reason he was fired.
Then they said it was simply ratings. Now they are saying it’s not just ratings.
I like Michael A. Stevens, at least enough to give his show a listen when I’m in the car. I don’t recall him “defending” Wright, but then I didn’t hear everything he said.
Stevens is certainly no liberal however and has taken a lot of flack for voting for McCain from other blacks who call in.
Besides, he has what is probably one of the weakest time slots, late evening Sundays, when they’ll put on practically anyone. I’d much rather listen to Stevens than those godawful liberals Lionel or Allen Hunt.
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