King-Am Owner Sued Over Hardwick's Firing, Suicide

The widow and estate of longtime Seattle radio personality Robert E. Lee Hardwick yesterday sued the owner of KING-AM (1090), claiming his 1992 firing was based on age discrimination and prompted his suicide two months later.

The lawsuit, alleging wrongful termination and wrongful death, was filed in King County Superior Court on behalf of Hardwick's wife, Sheilah Hardwick of Tacoma; the couple's son, Robert Lee Hardwick, 7; and Hardwick's estate, which represents his three adult children.

The suit seeks unspecified damages.

The defendant is Classic Radio Inc., which owns news-talk KING-AM and classical-music KING-FM (98.1). Classic Radio is owned by Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins and Harriet Stimson Bullitt, former majority owners of the regional King Broadcasting empire.

KING radio General Manager Jack Swanson yesterday said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Hardwick, then 61, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in a pickup just off Highway 2 east of Stevens Pass on June 3, 1992. He had been fired from KING-AM, where he was a morning host, on April 7. Poor ratings and a desire to draw younger listeners were the publicly stated reasons.

Yet two weeks before Hardwick was fired, Sheilah Hardwick said yesterday, program director Steve Wexler, who has since left Seattle, "put his hands on Robert's shoulder and announced to the staff that `this is the voice around which we will build our

station. The changes are over, and this is the team we're going with.' "

The lawsuit says Hardwick's 1991 evaluation noted he "has done an outstanding job of refocusing his career" and "sounds young, thinks young and delivers a warm, sensitive approach to (a) traditionally heavy (news) format."

Sheilah Hardwick also contends KING-AM's average morning ratings were not as high before her husband joined the station in 1990 and have not been as high since he was fired.

Pat Cashman, the KING-AM morning host who replaced Hardwick and holds that position today, is younger, has had lower average ratings and has not been fired, she said.

Said Victoria Vreeland, the lawyer handling the suit: "The law says that if you're over the age of 50 - in the protected category, and he was 61 - and you're terminated and replaced by a younger person, then the employer has to demonstrate a legitimate basis for the termination. . . . The reason they gave isn't legitimate.

"You can terminate based on performance, but his performance was good, not poor."

Robert Hardwick is possibly the biggest name in Seattle radio history. He worked at KVI-AM (570) for 21 years and did stints at KAYO-AM (1150, now KEZX) and KTAC-AM (850, now KMTT) in Tacoma.

He had a flair for the dramatic. In 1965 he championed a tugboat trip to British Columbia to bring Namu, an orca whale, to the Seattle Aquarium.

In 1976 he jet-skied from Ketchikan to Seattle. In 1980 he swam from Seattle to Bremerton for charity.

Hardwick also was, by his admission, a complicated person, and he had a record of disappearing for weeks at a time.

He once quit a job by walking out during a newscast. After a hiatus from radio, Hardwick joined KING-AM in 1990 and seemed to be reprising his career.

He was excited, his wife said. "He'd come home and say, `You know, I've really found a home. . . . They're really professionals," she said.

After the firing, the lawsuit states, Hardwick became "seriously depressed."

"He felt a loss of dignity, a total loss of purpose and an inability to work in a field that he loved, and he felt he had no way to take care of his family," Sheilah Hardwick said.

The lawsuit comes at a time of transition for KING-AM.

Having sold King Broadcasting's television and cable holdings, the Bullitt sisters are in the process of divesting themselves of their remaining properties - the two KING stations, owned under their Classic Radio company.

KING-AM is to be sold to KIRO Inc. after approval by the Federal Communications Commission, expected this fall.

KING-FM will be donated to a nonprofit corporation to be known as Beethoven Inc., and the station's profits will benefit three Seattle arts organizations.