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
And with WDYT 1220 increasing their wattage and advertising, Sean Hannity had to have been pulling away listeners from Katz.
I look forward to hearing Tara in that slot because I think she's done great so far and would be a huge improvement. With a little work, and more emphasis on solutions instead of just talking about what the problems are, she might even turn out to be as good as Jason Lewis.
I think Pete is a very good reporter, but he sucks as a radio host. Same thing for Tara, but her topics are so interesting I usually listen anyway. Katz was/is a putz who used to exaggerate for effect then acted like his hyperbole was a direct quote. No need to lie when you have the truth on your side. Larsen does the best 30 minures on radio. Unfortunately he has a 3 hour show. Jason Lewis was not fired. He quit to go back near his wife’s family and to have a shot at filling in for Rush. XM radio saved me from WBT except 12-3.
Kaliner was surprisingly good when he was filling in for Tara for a couple of weeks earlier this year. I expected him to be terrible, so maybe I just had low expectations.
Tara is obviously trying to transition from print reporter to radio host so she isn’t without her flaws, but she overcomes them with the quality of information, topics, guests, etc.
And I didn’t mean to imply that Jason Lewis was fired. Far from it, and I’m sure he’d still be on WBT today (with probably double the audience of Katz) if he hadn’t decided to return to Minnesota. I hope he gets his own syndicated show, and soon.
By the way, what’s the line-up on XM?
What’s the story on WDYT? They have Sean Hannity? Anybody else?
10 AM G. Gordon Liddy is on 166. Laura Ingraham is on at 12, and Hannity is at 3. Channel 121 is Fox News Channel. You get the audio of the TV shows. FOX talk radio is on 128. Bill O’Reilly is on there, I think at 12. No matter what kind of music you like there is at least one channel playing it all day.
Thank you so much. I will definitely tune them in.
Today’s 3:00pm program on WBT was so lame. It’s the job of management to keep quality programming on the air. They now have a PR nightmare on their hands.
Katz was a northerner and Jewish and he was very negative about Obama. WBT sees the writing on the wall. Charlotte is turning into another Atlanta and they don’t want to alienate those in power.
Drat! Since she became the evening regular, Tara has been “must listening” for me. She has actually become my favorite radio host, just barely edging out Monica Crowley. I tune in to Glenn Beck or Chris Plante in the morning, usually skip Rush, then on to Monica at 3 and Tara at 9. Sigh. Now they’re up against each other.
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