Replies

(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.