UPDATE: Still no sign of Severin. Hannity on again.
http://microfurry.250free.com/milkcartonaa.jpg
This has been all over the Boston board and I think it got mentioned here, too.
It's an interesting situation in that WTKK would like to keep Jay but Infinity
covets him for WBZ early evening (though admittedly he's be pre-empted more
than a few times by Bruins hockey). Jay apparently made the deal with Infinity
knowing that his contract with GM was expiring at the end of the year, and
the Infinity announcement had said "Jay Severin Has Issues" would begin in
January, and in many major markets though there was no announcement of a
Boston station.
The Boston Globe had an article (Clea Simon) about Severin's new show while
op-ed columnist Scot Lehigh had an article the same day talking about the
"Phony Pulitzer" as well as the fact that Severin uses a fake name (shocking!
By the way, Larry King is really Larry Ziger, and Dr. Demento is really
Barret Hansen) and broadcasts from his home in Long Island (though that was
also common knowledge, and had been lampooned for awhile by Severin's
WRKO competition). This goes back to when WTKK first went on air and had a
slogan of "live and local". OK, he was live but not necessarily local. For
awhile he has been followed by tape delayed Hannity and tape delayed Laura
Ingraham.
I don't know if WTTK took him off hoping people would forget about him--
maybe Jay is in negotations to land either at WBZ or WTKK (or even WRKO,
which expressed some interest earlier). It was curious of course that
Severin was _absent_ the day the Globe column ran, rather than confronting
Lehigh's column. (Severin took him on before, after a critical column,
and dubbed the writer "Scat He-Lies"...he also addressed critical
columns by Dan Kennedy and Clea Simon in the past.)
But it could well be that Severin was pulled off WTKK so that the "where
will he wind up?" situation can be resolved. Whether Severin, on advice
of his agent, did this, or whether GM wanted to, we don't know. A Boston
Herald item mentioned the Severin absence and quoted GM/WTKK as saying
that Jay had a week off for "personal matters" (or was it "family matters",
can't remember). Which leads us to believe that it's GM "benching" him,
not Jay himself upon advice of his agent OR Infinity. But who knows:
Infinity may have told WTKK "we'd like you to pull him off while we
straigten this out." But I don't think so.
As WTKK has done in the past when Severin is ill or on vacation, they
started running Sean Hannity live as well as in the 10 pm delayed slot.
The newscaster has said "Stay tuned for Sean Hannity", not "Stay tuned
for Sean Hannity, in for Jay Severin". The 6-7 pm hour has been filled
by WTKK's Eagan and Braude and they have said he'll be back next week
(meaning THIS week).
It could be that GM has "benched" Severin while all this is going on,
knowing that the exposure this has gotten in the media could lead to
callers asking what's going on, etc.--in which case Severin could just say,
"It's station business and I can't comment on that right now". Will he be
back today? (nope. see top)
