In the movie, he never talks openly about his dislike for the station management
on the air until 'Pig Virus', plus he never once mentions in the paperback any diatribes
on the air about any management except WNBC ( page 459, Private Parts paperback, on my shelf.)
My point remains: Stern did not open a mic and bash his employers until he was secure enough in his job to do so. Obviously, Malloy was not that secure, right?
Unless you can show me an example in his book or movie where he goes on the air to smack down his boss while in Hartford, Detroit, or DC, you dont know what you are talking about.
Just because Stern, Godfrey,or Letterman can get away with it ( beauase they could pull in the ratings ) does not mean a low rated, late night radio personality wannabee like Malloy is in the same league. If he had a quarter of the talent, and a fraction of the ratings, maybe, but he didn;t That's why he was so unceremoniously canned
As I recall, you are somewhere around Atlanta. I was in New York. I was listening to W-NNNN-BC. Stern bashed management. Take my word for it or call me a liar.
Possibly bashing management takes a combination of talent, cajones and management secure enough to take it and smart enough to know a good thing when it happens.
Which is the chicken and which is the egg? Perhaps an outrageous personality (including bashing management) leads to ratings. Ratings leads to continued and greater freedom to bash management. Again, we are talking about national talk radio here, not Dothan or Augusta. Malloy is not a radio novice. He knows the envelope and when to push it. Like Phil, you are making assumptions here. None of us KNOWS what led to Malloy's firing. You say he said the wrong thing at the wrong time about the wrong person. Maybe. Or maybe it's about money and cutting costs. Maybe it's about his poor clearances (against Lionel, Colmes and - until June - Hendrie).
The issue is how they handled his firing and whether they should have let him stay on through the end of next week. Again, I say, AAR showed it's unique ability to make itself look bad in how they handled this. You assume Malloy would go on and bash AAR. Well, that's not what he's done on his website or other public statements. If he had, he'd look worse than AAR. Besides, better to have him bitching and moaning in late night with a small audience on only those stations which carry his show than to have Randi and Seder bitching and moaning to a bigger audience. Even if Randi tones it down, EVERYBODY knows about whom she is talking. (This is why Randi is not a major league talk show host; she does not have the combination of talent and cojones required to rail overtly.)
Malloy's been around. Don't assume he'd have complained on air. But if he did, don't assume he doesn't know how to do it right and make it entertaining.
