Kiro-Am Fires Gallant, Komo-Am Fires Mccarthy

Please join us in congratulating Bill Gallant and Tom McCarthy, who have left their respective radio stations. We wish them all the best as they pursue new opportunities.

They have been fired.

Since they work in radio, they are not exactly astonished. Radio is a very personal mass medium. Ironically, it is the most dysfunctional mass medium when it comes to people skills.

As for you disappointed listeners, too bad. Deal with it. There is a proud tradition in radio of leaving listeners in the lurch.

What can you do to exact revenge? Remember your favorite fired radio personalities when you fill out those ratings diaries mailed by The Arbitron Co.

What can you do to protect your loved ones from similar hurt? Don't let them become disc jockeys or talk-show hosts.

Lights out

The frequently combative Gallant, who was the only talk-show host in big-time local radio who could be considered liberal, was let go by news-talk KIRO-AM (710) Tuesday, after his Monday-night show.

The official reason was his contract was expiring and they decided to make a change.

The way Gallant tells it, his 9 p.m.-to-1 a.m. program was highly rated, but his liberal point of view was probably too much for Salt Lake City-based Bonneville Broadcast Group, which is owned by the Mormon Church.

Also, he had been a union shop steward for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and might have angered the company a year or so ago when a new segment of support staff at KIRO-AM, talk-news KIRO-FM (100.7) and all-news KNWX-AM (770) sought representation.

Gallant can't think of any other explanations for his sudden firing. His contract didn't run out until month's end, there was no indication he was performing poorly and he would gladly have made changes to satisfy management concerns about his program, Gallant said.

He wonders if his program of Sept. 5 was the last straw. The topic was the Republican gubernatorial campaign and the accusations being traded by Ellen Craswell and Jim Waldo.

You remember how Waldo claimed that Craswell intended to appoint only good Christians to state posts - a claim from which Waldo later backed down?

"I read quotes from speeches," Gallant said. "I said, `Look at this. She's a sweet and nice person, but what she's advocating is a theocracy.' "

It was off to the races for him and his listeners.

"People were screaming and yelling and I was cutting them off the air," Gallant said. "I took a deep breath and said, `Folks, I gotta tell you how uncomfortable I am with this show - I'm a devout Catholic on a station owned by the Mormon Church," talking about religious intolerance.

"I might have seemed to be attacking religion," Gallant said. "I wasn't attacking religion. I was attacking people who are hiding behind their religion."

Tom Clendening, director of programming and news for Bonneville in Seattle, denied Gallant's scenarios were reasons for his dismissal.

"Bill's show was heated on a pretty regular basis," Clendening said. "The show he's referring to, I got no complaints about. I've received no pressure from the corporation to make this change."

That's all Clendening will say about the situation, citing the usual sensitivities surrounding a personnel matter.

Mike Webb will fill in until a permanent replacement can be found. Will it be a liberal? "I don't know," Clendening said. "We would look for the best host."

The honeymoon's over

Gentlemanly McCarthy, whose friendly patter accompanied spinning platters before his station went news-talk a year ago, left KOMO-AM (1000) with a generous severance.

He is disappointed but says Fisher Broadcasting Co. handled his dismissal with class.

"We parted amicably and I loved the people there," McCarthy said. "It was a four-year honeymoon at KOMO."

Said Rick Van Cise, the station's program-and-news director: "I analyzed opportunities to grow KOMO's afternoon audience and decided to make a format adjustment. I think it should be said certainly, and I honestly believe this, that he's a fine broadcaster. This isn't a question of his talent at all, but a programming shift of what we need to do to grow our audience."

Co-host Bonnie Hart will continue on the afternoon program. It's a news block now, but KOMO-AM on Monday afternoon will unveil a new format - the first of several major changes in store at the venerable station.

While it will still be a source of news and information, "we'll be enriching it with exciting local programming," Van Cise said of the afternoon show. "It will be really not like anything I hear on the air right now. It will be a hybrid of many things."

While McCarthy intends to continue filling in as a weather anchor for Fisher's KOMO-TV (ABC), he might be finished with radio.

"I'm twice burned now," he said, having been fired before by WTIC-AM in Hartford, Conn., where he hosted an afternoon talk show. "I'm feeling very insecure in this business, not that there ever has been security."

TV-Radio Beat appears every Friday in The Seattle Times. Electronic-media reporter Chuck Taylor can be reached at (206) 464-8524 or on the Internet at ctay-new@seatimes.com.