98.5 employees get trained up
Employees at 98.5 “The Sports Hub” have gone through sensitivity training in the wake of talk show host Tony Massarotti getting suspended last week over his comment about Black people sitting behind his co-host Mike Felger.
Massarotti returned to “Felger and Mazz” on Monday following his four-day suspension without pay for his “insensitive” and “hurtful” remark.
When the suspension was dropped, Beasley Media Group announced that on-air Beasley employees in the Boston area would be taking sensitivity training, and Felger on Wednesday said they’ve already completed the course.
During “The Off-Air Show” on Facebook, Felger was asked who stole his car in New Orleans. That comment from a Facebook user goes back to the Mazz suspension. “We’re not going back to the car theft in New Orleans,” Felger said during “The Off-Air Show.” “We’re not going to mention that anymore.”
Back on Feb. 17, Felger was broadcasting remotely from New Orleans. He was doing the show in a hotel business service center, and two Black individuals were sitting behind Felger at the time.
“They can’t hear us, right?” Massarotti asked Felger, who said the people couldn’t hear the hosts broadcasting from Waltham. “OK, so I would be careful if I were you because the last time you were around a couple of guys like that, they stole your car.”
During a previous trip to New Orleans, Felger had borrowed his parents’ car for a night out downtown, and a thief stole it.
On Wednesday, Felger said he wouldn’t comment about Massarotti’s suspension.
“We make no excuses,” Felger said. “You’re responsible for anything that goes out over the air.”
“It’s a tough environment out there, though,” he later added. “We did our sensitivity training, and as an example, they showed us the Don Lemon cut on CNN.”
Lemon was under fire for saying women in their 50s were past their prime, and co-host Poppy Harlow challenged him. Felger did not say anything after Massarotti made his comment, quickly moving on to the next caller.
“I thought she was the textbook example of how you handle it in the moment,” Felger said of Harlow. “It was phenomenal.”
Later on “The Off-Air Show,” Felger went on a rant about people being fired over a single remark.
“You want to call out a bad comment, please by all means,” Felger said. “If someone is racist, sexist, stupid, whatever it is, call it out and call that person out, and if that person needs to miss a day or two of work to get the point, that’s all good.
“Rip the (expletive) out of me if I say something wrong,” he added. “… But the lose your job thing, that’s just like, that really bothers me.”
People who are recidivists and continue to make horrible comments should not keep their jobs, he said.