Support Don’t Suspend

(By Andy Bloom) Last week WBZ-FM/Boston afternoon show co-host Mike Felger made a tasteless and offensive comment. After former MLB pitcher Roy Halladay died while piloting his experimental aircraft, Felger commented that he “deserved to die.” While some called for his job, I believe in “support, not suspend.”

The reaction was immediate and harsh. In various radio forums, many called for Felger’s suspension and demanded an apology. I disagree completely.

Some radio managers will disagree with my view. Before reaching that conclusion, have a conversation with your highest-profile personality and discuss how suspensions impact your relationship as well as the shows that they produce.

Dismissal is an option, and a station’s right, but suspension causes a rupture in the trust between air talent and management and usually results in hosts delivering blander and less compelling content.

Early in my career, I learned a lesson from Fairbanks programming chief George Johns. Johns listened to my aircheck. Afterward, he took a piece of paper and drew a line a third from the bottom and another a third from the top. On the top third, he wrote “black.” On the bottom, he wrote “white,” and in the middle, he wrote “gray.” He said, “Kid, all my guys live here in the gray. Every once in a while they cross the line into the black, and I slap their wrists. You’re living in the white. It’s vanilla and boring. Come see me when you understand living in the gray zone.”  It’s a lesson I never forgot, but I didn’t fully understand until I met Howard Stern.

I can feel the collective eye-roll when I mention Stern’s name. But Stern is like the gravitational force of the sun. He’s part of all the lessons regarding talent that I know. You develop thick skin working with Howard Stern for over a decade. Suspension was never an option.

A few extraordinary incidents come to mind from the years I worked with Howard: Stern’s  admonition to African Americans during the Los Angeles riots in 1992; and, after Selena’s murder (he said he would love to hop into the casket with her). Perhaps most memorable was after Magic Johnson’s revelation he contracted the HIV virus. Howard said he deserved to get the virus because of his behavior (not unlike Felger’s comment). Mere weeks after Stern’s entry into Los Angeles, this was the scariest episode in my years working with him.

It is the only time I ever called Howard to ask him to back down. He wrote about it in his book, Private Parts.  I was receiving calls from people who knew his home address. They were threatening to do some horrible things. I didn’t tell Stern those specifics, and he never backed down. Eventually, more people adopted his view that Johnson’s behavior caused his situation and the hullabaloo died down.

Working with Stern taught me to ride out controversies and remain supportive of talent. It proved helpful moving forward and is something many of the air personalities I work with appreciate about me as their program director and talent coach.

Today, people’s “right to be offended” and have their grievances acted upon is more powerful than ever. Comments are blown totally out of proportion on Twitter and Facebook. Usually the objections aren’t from real listeners, and they aren’t really offended. It’s become too easy to create a storm and watch how easily companies capitulate. Sometimes it’s best to just shut out the noise.

Management asks air talent to live in the gray zone, to walk the line, without a safety net doing 15-20 hours of live radio every week. If that’s what you’re asking, then don’t be surprised when talent crosses the line into the danger zone once in a while.

Support, don’t suspend. If management doesn’t support its talent, then hosts adjust by delivering bland shows. If management wants compelling, “stupid” comes with the territory now and then.

I’m not a fan of “apologies” either. I bring the talent into my office and discuss what they said. If they misspoke and didn’t mean what they said, an apology may be in order. If they meant what they said, then I support them. It’s their opinion, and while it may not be a majority view, we pay personalities because they are interesting.

To be clear, boundaries exist. Hosts have to know racist jokes are no longer in the gray area and are unacceptable. Saying somebody deserved to die, while stupid, doesn’t reach the level of management action. The New York Post published a similar headline that read: “Video shows Roy Halladay had a death wish.”

Mike Felger’s comment about Roy Halladay may be stupid and tasteless. But if I were his manager I’d back him up.

Andy Bloom is president of Andy Bloom Communications, specializing in talent coaching and development. He has worked as an operations manager, as communications director for Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-OH), and VP of programming for Emmis and Greater Media. Visit his website www.andybloom.com.