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CNN’s Rick Sanchez did a segment last week on Reese Hopkins (pictured, right), a former Boston-area radio talk show host who is charged with raping an 11-year-old girl in 2004 in the Manhattan apartment he shared with his fiancée. The alleged victim was a friend of his fiancée’s daughter. Hopkins has been imprisoned for 18 months, most of it on Rikers Island, on $100,000 cash bail. We’ve covered this case on and off for 15 months, and I’ve spoken with Hopkins from prison. In Glenn Sacks eyes Reese Hopkins case (Boston Herald, 1/16/09), I explained: I’m not going to declare...

Howie thread for the week--note that Howie Carr has been suspended by WRKO/Entercom for the week of Apr. 19 due to his badmouthing the station. Various fill in hosts. If there are any Howie columns they will appear here. Things have gotten ugly at the "sneaker building" (the New Balance bldg in Brighton where WRKO is) as WRKO management has finally had enough of Howie's on-air digs at him. Stay tuned here for commentary on this, the usual fun, and so on

Conservative talk radio host Howie Carr of WRKO 680 AM has been suspended for a week, effective Friday, for publicly and repeatedly using his program to bad-mouth the station, a company executive said. Julie Kahn, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Boston, which owns the station, said Carr’s behavior toward his employer has become increasingly caustic and intolerable. ‘‘His behavior and his anger at the company is unacceptable because he denigrates the company, the medium, the station, the signal, and he’s a highly, highly, highly paid employee,’’ she said.

Republican consultant Charley Manning is replacing the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh on WRKO radio starting Monday. Jason Wolfe, program director for WRKO-AM (680), confirmed to the Herald that Manning will take over the station’s weekday noon to 3 p.m. slot. Manning, who has served as a campaign adviser to former Gov. Mitt Romney, emphasized that his new show, “The Charley Manning Show,” will be local. The GOP strategist said his show will “touch on all of the local issues that everybody is talking about, but with a special look at politics.” “I’m looking forward to really getting into politics, especially...

Last week it was noticed that WRKO Boston was running Howie Carr reruns 1-5 am instead of Coast to Coast. Apparently they lost the rights to that show to WKOX AM 1200 (which began to run it a few days later, though most of the time they're in Spanish--for now; full switch to conservative talk radio for 1200 happens in April.) Now I look at WRKO's site and it lists "Red Eye" weeknights 1-5 am. If it's what I'm thinking it is, this is the new show (new nationally, at least) hosted by Doug McIntyre of KABC and WABC fame...

WRKO 680 Boston is apparently joining WABC New York and KABC Los Angeles in dropping Coast to Coast from its lineup, though apparently for a different reason. The NYC and LA stations are picking up the new Doug McIntyre show from Citadel while WRKO will be re-running Howie Carr from 1-5 am And this latter case in Boston probably has to do with the fact that Clear Channel is launching a talk station in April on AM 1200, WXKS. Premiere radio syndicates Coast To Coast, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity--and Rush Limbaugh. No doubt Coast to Coast is heading there. Premiere/Clear...

This is the live thread for election day coverage on THE HOWIE CARR SHOW (etc.); Mass. Special election Scott Brown (R) vs. Martha Coakley (D). ALL are welcome (not just Howie Carr regulars) Join us! This thread will be active all through the election day and afterwards too.

Clear Channel plans to debut a new conservative AM talk radio station in April and is trying to steal WRKO lynchpin Rush Limbaugh - who has been on ’RKO’s airwaves for 15 years. Spanish music station WXKS-AM (1200) - which recently upgraded to 50,000 watts and is based in Newton - is flipping to a news talk format. Clear Channel is currently in talks with its subsidiary, Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates Limbaugh’s show. Clear Channel also wants to snag Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, whose show airs on WRKO-AM (680) on Saturday night. “We haven’t signed anything. We’re trying...

Howie thread starting with his Sun Herald column. Howie is in Italy this week as part of Conservative Tours. Fill ins are Jody Applegate (Mon), Avi Nelson (Tue-election day, and Wed.), and Col. Hunt (Thu & Fri)

Boisterous talkmeister Howie Carr has made no secret that he feels trapped at WRKO - but it appears he’s stuck there. Peter Smyth, chairman and CEO of radio station owner Greater Media Inc., said yesterday that he has no plans to go after Carr again. Carr’s contract with rival WRKO is up in 2012. A legal battle ensued two years ago after Carr struck a five-year deal worth up to $7 million to replace Don Imus in the morning-drive slot on Greater Media’s WTKK-FM (96.9). Carr’s bosses at WRKO-AM (680) were stunned to learn their star was jumping ship. The...

Howie Carr thread for the week. radio doings: a report in yesterday's Boston Globe-Democrat says that ESPN is going off the air (WAMG 890) tomorrow and one thing that may well happen is WRKO's sister station, WEEI...you know, the folks who took over Howie's studio...could move to FM (93.7, based in Peabody, most likely, and perhaps 97.7, with a tower on Great Blue Hill) with ESPN landing on AM 850. Nothing is official but Entercom is "in talks" with ESPN. Meanwhile there is also speculation that Entercom may dump WRKO's 680 signal and send the programming perhaps to 107.3 (currently...

Howie thread for the week. He returns to the air Mon 7/27 after hip surgery. I'll post his Sun column but right now (8:35 am) I can't get into the site -- heavy traffic (Gates case?) at bostonherald.com Stay tuned.

Howie Carr does indeed have a heart. The hardboiled WRKO radio host and Herald columnist tried to dissuade a female caller - distraught over the bleak economy - from killing herself, divulging that his own grandfather committed suicide during the Depression. The caller, who identified herself as 54-year-old “Carol,” told Carr during yesterday’s show that she moved to Jonesport, Maine, three years ago, bought a $59,000 house and had been trying to get a job, without success. In a stunning on-air admission, “Carol” revealed that she swallowed 100 pills in a suicide attempt last February when she was about to...

Howie thread starting with his Sunday Herald column

Former Massachusett House Speaker Thomas Finneran’s desperate bid for a last-minute presidential pardon has failed, after President Bush issued his final acts of executive clemency by commuting the prison sentences of two former U.S. border agents accused of shooting a Mexican drug dealer. A White House aide said the clock ran out for Finneran, convicted of lying about his role in legislative redistricting. Finneran enlisted the help of three former Republican governors to convince the outgoing GOP president to forgive him of the federal felony. “There are no further announcements expected regarding pardons,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. Neither...

Former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran, seeking to cleanse the stain left by his 2007 conviction for obstruction of justice, is angling for a last-minute pardon from President Bush and has lined up a group of former Massachusetts governors to back his request. Finneran submitted an application for a presidential pardon last month, and the four governors - Democrat Michael Dukakis and Republicans William F. Weld, Paul Cellucci, and Jane Swift - followed up with a letter to the White House praising his integrity. Finneran has already been "severely punished," the governors wrote, citing the loss of his state pension,...

Howie Carr thread covering the two week period beginning Dec. 22. Howie will probably be off from Dec 24 till just after the new year. Columns will be posted here as of course will be discussion of the radio show. Not sure yet who guest hosts will be (maybe Avi Nelson, Todd Feinburg, or Col. Hunt) and my guess is on Christmas and New Years Day, it'll be a best of. Happy hhhhhhhhhhhhhholidays! (As Howie says, making fun of those who take the Christmas out of Christmas)

Howie thread starting off with his Sunday Herald column

Howie thread for the week; I'll post his column once it goes up on Herald site.

Is Barak Obama a Marxist ? pol #s currently at yes----13% No ----87%