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Jay Mariotti


Brian

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Gone from ESPN Radio. Not clear if he quit or was fired, but Reiny must be happy.

 

Not sure about "Around the Horn" status either.

 

Please edit his last name. I got big hands, gimme a break. Hit the wrong button.

Edited by aboz56
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Since I'm forced to sit here the last half hour of work to answer a phone that never rings, I went to ESPNradio1000.com to check on this... under "shows" it still says Mariotti and Silvy, but only Silverman's bio is up... have no idea if this is a change or just something that's always been like this.

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Kotex Boy has been fired by WMVP!!!

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines

 

Mariotti, WMVP's short marriage over

Radio host cites Bulls, Sox policy

By Teddy Greenstein

Tribune media reporter

 

December 28, 2004, 9:24 PM CST

 

Jay Mariotti is off Chicago's airwaves, and he says his departure from ESPN Radio's WMVP-AM 1000 is the result of the station's desire to curry favor with the White Sox and Bulls.

 

Mariotti said the station asked him to tone down his criticism of the Bulls and White Sox, whose games are broadcast on WMVP and whose contracts are close to expiring.

 

The station is in negotiations with the teams on a new deal.

 

A source said Mariotti received a written edict last month ordering him to ease up on the Bulls and Sox. Station executives followed that up with oral reminders.

 

Both sides finally had enough.

 

"We agreed that if I wouldn't agree to their editorial conditions, then I should leave," Mariotti said Tuesday.

 

"I'm not going to compromise my integrity to do favors on the air for the White Sox and the Bulls. When they ask me to treat two teams differently than the others, that's a red flag for me, and it has been happening quite a bit over the last few months."

 

WMVP's response? There was none.

 

Neither new station general manager Jim Pastor nor program director Len Weiner replied to several phone messages left for them Tuesday.

 

A spokesman for Bulls and Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said Reinsdorf had no prior knowledge of Mariotti's departure from the station.

 

"We weren't involved in this decision," said Scott Reifert, the Sox's vice president of communications. "The decision was made solely by ESPN Radio."

 

That said, when since-dismissed station general manager Bob Snyder hired Mariotti in February to host a daily radio show, few expected the marriage to last.

 

Mariotti has sparred publicly with Reinsdorf for a decade.

 

Yet WMVP pays more than $7 million per year to broadcast Sox and Bulls games, making those teams the station's most important business partners.

 

With the station's Sox deal expiring after the 2005 season and its Bulls deal ending after the 2005-06 campaign, negotiations had reached a critical point. The station apparently felt it had to appease Reinsdorf.

 

"It has been a struggle for most of the year, but I didn't waver on the air," said Mariotti, the Sun-Times sports columnist who also appears on ESPN's "Around the Horn."

 

"I thought it was important that listeners get an even assessment of every team in town. … I have to call it like I see it."

 

Mariotti also has feuded publicly with Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson, Reinsdorf's friend and adviser.

 

Their verbal war nearly escalated into a fistfight in the press box at the Metrodome in Minneapolis before and after a Sox-Twins game in July.

 

Told Tuesday that Mariotti was off the air in Chicago, Harrelson couldn't hide his glee.

 

"I'm happy for the fans," Harrelson said, "because he's a vicious guy.

 

"I said he wouldn't have that [radio] job long and I don't think he'll be a columnist much longer. He never lets the truth get in the way of a story. The city will be a lot better off without him."

 

Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune

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