Ralph Barbieri, Cumulus Media square off
So how can Cumulus Media, owner of KNBR, take a 28-year veteran like Ralph Barbieri, co-host of its afternoon drive show and a Bay Area Radio Hall of Famer, and terminate him with no notice? Because it can. Or can it? Five days after his dismissal on April 10, Barbieri had a team of lawyers on the attack.
Led by his friend Angela Alioto, they charged Cumulus, in a press release, with wrongful termination “for an alleged ‘cause,’ i.e. ‘for being late.’ ” Alioto and associates said “the termination is nothing less than Age Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, Breach of Good Faith And Fair Dealing, and Breach of Contract, inter alia. Barbieri is 66 years old and has a slowdeveloping form of Parkinson’s disease, which he spoke publicly about for the first time last October, 2011. As a result of this wrongful termination, Barbieri has lost his entire salary and all health benefits.” Barbieri, Alioto added, “was escorted off the premises, like a common criminal.”
Cumulus, which had said no more than that the firing was “a management decision,” shot back with its own press release. Bill Bungeroth, VP & Market Manager, called the charges “inaccurate” and “baseless,” and said Barbieri was let go after he “refused to honor some of the most basic terms of his contract.”
Bungeroth, who also oversees KGO, where a format switch last December left several veteran talk show hosts without jobs, added that Barbieri was offered six months of salary and health benefits (essentially paying off a oneyear contract he signed in late October), and that “his response to that offer was to make disparaging statements about KNBR in the press.”
The termination, Bungeroth said, had nothing to do with Barbieri’s age or ailment, which he disclosed to the Sporting Green’s Scott Ostler. “KNBR renewed his contract this past fall with full knowledge of those circumstances. At that time, Ralph publicly recognized that the Company ‘didn’t view the Parkinson’s as a red flag.’ That statement is true. It never has.”
Barbieri responded to Chronicle Sports Editor Al Saracevic, confirming the six-month offer, but claimed that the deal could be terminated by Cumulus after one month.
Barbieri, whose ouster topped Sfgate.com’s weekly tally of most popular searches, was saluted the day after by an emotional Tom Tolbert, his on-air partner of 15 years. Barbieri, he said, lasted a remarkable 28 years at one radio station in part “because he was very passionate, very opinionated, whether you agreed with him or not. He was a bulldog.” More barking to come. I read the news today: KCBS reporter Bob Melrose has retired after 36 years on the job. He got farewell toasts from his colleagues in the newsroom April 12. Reporter Barbara Taylor, who, like Melrose, joined the station in 1975, noted, “We were two little twentysomething nobodies in awe of people like you who were reporters for Rolling Stone. We toiled on the editors’ desk for a couple of years until we finally clawed our way up to become reporters … exactly the opposite of what happens at newspapers and magazines. But in broadcasting the talent rules, so everyone on the editorial staff is desperate to get off the desk and on the air. Although Bob worked harder than anyone else and everyone at KCBS loves him, he never got the attention he deserved. He wasn’t a fancy anchor and didn’t get to go on special assignments. He was the guy the station called at 2 in the morning and told to get out of bed and go chase a fire or an explosion. And he never said no.”
Melrose did get a little attention in 2010, when the Society for Professional Journalists’ regional chapter gave him its Career Achievement Award. But he preferred pointing to prizes, like a Peabody Award in 1993, that he won as part of a team of reporters. “Every day was kind of a highlight,” said Melrose, who, at 61, is looking forward to doing “a little traveling and decompressing.” Radio news, he said, “is a young man’s and woman’s game.” At his newsroom farewell, he said, “KCBS is, was and always will be, CBS. And that means something.” Two of us: The social group the Broadcast Legends drew one of its biggest crowds ever when Frank Dill and Mike Cleary headlined its quarterly luncheon in Berkeley on March 28. The former KNBR morning team told stories, often finishing each other’s punch lines, while interviewer Stan Bunger of KCBS sat contentedly between them.
They recounted Dill’s on-air flirtation with the sexy actress Angie Dickinson and pranks they played on each other. They thanked former PD Ron Fell for pairing them, in 1978. Cleary, who left in 1995, had been the midday guy, following Dill’s show, and began showing up an hour early, sitting in, adding character voices and “fooling around,” as he put it.
Before the program, Dill told me, “The greatest thing about this day is that I’m seeing some people we used to work with that I haven’t seen in many years, and what I’m most proud of is, I’m remembering their names.” Cleary, who in recent years has done a travel show with his wife, Mary Ann, said they’d given up the program. “We’re retired,” said Mary Ann. “Actually, we’re rewired, not retired.” There will be an answer: Letty B, the midday DJ (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) on KMVQ (“Now”), has been named the Hottest Woman in Radio, according to Popcrunch, a gossip site that specializes in photos of attractive women. Letty, who was No. 26 in last year’s poll, said, “The active social media campaign by my producer, Marcus ‘Chunk’ Bonfiglio, really made the difference.” She added, “Last month at Stonestown, I ran into a woman who had won a gas card from me, and she was so grateful for it, she said I was so nice to her on the radio, it almost made me cry. It’s great to help out and just be a part of the community here in the Bay Area.” Mr. Moonlight: Welcome back, Doug Wendt, reggae DJ heard on local airwaves from the mid-’70s through the mid-’90s, on KTIM, KQAK, KFOG, KUSF and KPFA. Beginning Tuesday at midnight, he’ll be on World One, a.k.a. KECG (88.1 — El Cerrito and 97.7 San Pablo), and online via Shoutcast (Search “KECG”). Besides the recorded “Midnight Dread,” he’ll host “Wendt’s World Beat” weekdays at noon. As Wendt says, “I flow with the go.”
ABen Fong-torres is a freelance writer. sadolphson@ sfchronicle.com