While he spent most of his time complaining about a negative article in The Boston Globe about him, former WEEI Boston morning man Kirk Minihane did shed a little more light on why he’s no longer on the air at the station.
Minihane went on WGBH-TV and said Entercom wanted him to sign a document he would never, ever sign. “It basically said you can’t be interesting, you can’t be mean-spirited, you can’t take chances, you can’t rip the Red Sox, you can’t rip The Boston Globe. And I said, ‘I’m not going to participate.’”
Minihane said there was just a philosophical difference between the station — Entercom, the ownership — and himself. “They wanted to go one way. I didn’t want to go that way.”
Minihane had to take some time off from the show to deal with mental health issues and when he said he was ready to come back on the air, that never happened. He was allowed to go on with Gerry Callahan for part of a show last week but that was really the end of his five-year run. He told WGBH host Jim Braude he was not very happy about the way that situation was handled. “Am I frustrated about how Entercom handled me leaving the Kirk and Callihan show? Absolutely. I’ve been pretty open about that on Twitter. I was open on the air about that.” He sure was. Entercom gave Minihane an opportunity to do something most hosts never get. He was able to go on the air, for one final time, to say goodbye — and bash as many Entercom employees as he could, including program director Joe Zarbone, who he says he’ll continue to bash when he moves over to Radio.com, where Entercom has given him his own show.
Minihane is clearly a great example of a host who brings on ratings and is also hard to manage.
Watch the full 10-minute interview on WGBH HERE
absoulity wrong
Zara, obviously Entercomm does not agree with you, which is why they banned Minihane from the station. And advertisers and station listeners agree with the other commentator here– they do not want to hear the toxic rantings from someone like Minihane, who clearly is just desperate for attention and will say anything just to promote himself. That worked one time, with Howard Stern. Since then, hundreds of wanna-bees like Minihane have used that approach, and failed miserably.
There is absolutely no room for the negativity and toxicity that Minihane spews out on the air. WEEI even had sponsor pressures, as well as listener objections, to Minihane. Sports radio is about fun, entertainment, and talking about the players and the teams… and WEEI delivers that even better, without Minihane. They made a very shrewd move relegating him to relative obscurity on streaming, where he can do minimal damage.