They can’t say they weren’t warned. As we reported back in August, Cumulus gave all employees until October 11 to get their COVID-19 vaccine or face termination. WYCD Detroit co-host Roxanne Steele was one of several employees told not to return to work after refusing to get vaccinated.
The Colorado Times Recorder is reporting that Jeff Crank is out at KVOR in Colorado Springs. Crank started a podcast to continue his show.
Tim Hill is out of a job at Sports station WNKT-FM in Columbia, SC, where he was also the PD. According to The State Hill said his various religious exemption requests were denied. Hill posted this video on Facebook where he says it was something he felt he had to stand up for. “I’m raising three boys and I’m trying to teach them to stand up for what they believe in.”
Steele told Radio Ink last night that she’s going to take a bit of a break to recharge and has no plans to leave the Detroit market. She’s open to having conversations about working in radio again.
Here’s what Steele posted on Facebook after being let go. “I know what you might be thinking. I’ve already heard it from co-workers, friends, and family. Just get the shot. For me there’s a bigger picture people seem to be missing. If you are vaccinated and that makes you happy, I’m happy for you. I’m just personally not ready to get it. I have my reasons and it’s nobody’s business. I shouldn’t be bullied or forced to do something I don’t want to do, and that’s exactly what’s going on. I’m not against the vaccine so to say. I’m objective to the mandate of being told what I should do or not do or else. It’s very un-American. People should be able to choose to take this shot based on their specific medical and health needs, not for fear of losing their job or education or being looked at as an outcast. In a society that teaches us to be kind, and don’t be a bully, don’t discriminate, etc., when did we lose sight of that? I’m proud that I’m standing by what’s best for me. And what’s best for me may not be best for you and that’s OK.
“Radio is a very cutthroat industry and it’s too risky for me to just ‘get the shot’ for the sake of keeping my job that would quickly fire me. My gut feeling has been telling me that day was near anyway but for different reasons. Ever since I signed my contract so much has changed. Sometimes the universe answers questions for you and that’s how I’m looking at this situation. I love radio and I always will. I’m so thankful for the incredible years I’ve had living out my dreams and embracing my passion. This situation is just another chapter in my book. I’m not done yet, but I don’t know what’s next for me. I’m giving it to God and he will lead me to where I’m suppose to be.”
Read her full post HERE.
I just discovered Jeff Crank was ousted, and I’m concerned that Dan Bongino (spelling?) may be in peril also. All I know is I listen to KVOR (Colorado Springs) because of their hosts, not because of their parent company’s policies. Because what I know of Cumulus Media does not do anything for me. I also found out that I can listen to Jeff Crank’s podcast now anytime I want. I am a very traditional “radio guy,” I’ve even been on the air myself. Tell me, though, why would I listen to anyone on the radio with commercial breaks when I can listen to podcasts any time I want? (Especially when my preferred show choice is taken off the air). This is something that radio execs should be considering. They shouldn’t let their own politics and opinions interfere in there business decision-making. No dire threats from me or anything of the sort; it’s just that when I’m listening to Jeff Crank in the future, I won’t be hearing from KVOR’s sponsors. Isn’t that really super clear to Cumulus? Maybe I don’t understand their business model.
Just get off Cumulus. Bongino is available several other places.
Why would you want to listen to Dan Bonguido anywhere? The most wonderful knob on the dial is OFF!
The great thing about WOKE ness is that the authors are too drug addled to comprehend what they’re doing. Too lazy and too uneducated, too unsophisticated etc.
does Cumulus not care about their business. This isn’t 1984
Who controls the your future?
I already appreciate there is no accounting for “stupid”.
What does stagger me is how individuals that are so uninformed, so ridiculously motivated by sinister, outside sources and that are so delusional – they are willing and eager to share their ignorance in a public forum with arrogance and certainty.
I can’t imagine the terrible hubris of waking up a Trumpist Republican that is also “bathed in the blood of the lamb”.
These are the same people that have car keys, the vote, the capacity to produce progeny, the right to be packin’ weapons and that are also preparing to participate in train wrecks of their own designs.
“Good mornin’, America. How are ya.”
Please check your motivations, Ronald T. – at the door. Not sure who you are insulting more, those bathed in the blood, or the Blood of the Lamb.
I support these fired employees 1000%.
Apparently he does not remember his kids needed to be vaccinated to go to school. Why didn’t he stand up for them then?
My mind was made up last year when biden and comma la told us all that the vax was no good. They condemned it completely and I took THEM at their words. I didn’t know what brilliant scientific deity gave them such enlightenment but I believed them. Now they reversed themselves and we’re still supposed to believe that they merely rejected their scientific gods for the heretics Of Wuhan? Ohhhhhh the humanity…..
Lol. But, you just insulted commas.
Negative ghost rider, no such thing happened. Quit watching Fox news.
Yes it did happen, and both of them knocked the vaccine and Trump during their campaign. I know it’s hard for you not to be a lying bul lshlt artist, but give it a try.
They never sad any such thing, you right wing tool. They said they wouldn’t believe Mango Mussolini if HE told them it was good . Given his 30,000 documented lies that’s a reasonable position.
Its all about me! I have a giant ego and nobody can tell me what to do.
Very telling- these people would rather risk death than work for Cumulus.
Don’t tell me what I have to do! Don’t bully me into doing it! I resent it!
Well then, drive a car unlicensed. After all, learning to drive your daddy’s car should suffice. Right? Why be forced to take a driving test to gain the right to drive. Also, buy the heaviest safest car around so you don’t have to risk your own death by motor vehicle accident. Right?
You’re just plain ignorant. This is an engineered biological weapon, if you got the jab, you will find out, for you are the guinea PIG. I don’t feel sorry for people that are dumb enough to get this, you’re on your own. If it’s so great why are people dying from it?
Who’s dying from the vaccine??
Provide links please.
Yikes!
Sounds like you’re hung up on a conspiracy theory…
There are aliens underground too
Are you refering to Lord Kimbow?
Conspiracy BS! Are you also into QAnon and flat earth?
If part of her decision is based on God’s will then someone should tell her that COVID don’t believe in Jesus. NH
Covid? Do you mean the WUHAN VIRUS from Wuhan China?
A Cumulus employee, that I know well, had Covid sometime back. He has natural immunity due to having the full blown virus. Natural immunity is far better that having the jab. He refused the jab and has little chance of collecting unemployment. I know, from personal experience, The jab can have unintended side effects that can be nasty. He was a long term model employee and deserves more than a Cumulus blanket mandate. What a shame!
Another bad decision but she’ll probably have her GO FUND ME page up by afternoon. People never make decisions like this without having a backup plan so they can continue to call attention to themselves.
Does not mean your anti vaccine. Means your against across the board mandates that do not give we the people a choice in how we choose to live, protect and treat the virus. One size fits all is more harm than good by creating this divisiveness in our society. It is worse than the virus. And yes, maybe other radio talent like these and Dan Bongino, will stand, go to bed at night and wake up with their junk in tack. Stand with first responders, Dr’s, nurses and we the people.
I see the vaccine gestapo is out in full force today.
Exactly. The vaccine totalitarians can never get enough of forcibly living other people’s lives for them.
Mandates are unAmerican. God bless those whose livelihoods are at risk due to the import of communist China’s health policies. Coercion is never the solution in a free society.
I guess, then, that we should have the freedom to be infected with a DEADLY disease that causes the lungs to fill with fluid, literally drowning its victims. And that we should have the freedom to spread that disease to everybody else. Think about COVID and what it has cost the families and friends of its victims. Then start showing more intelligence than that of a house plant.
You mean like the polio vaccine?
Oh that’s right, back then people had sense enough to TAKE the shot.
Actually, it’s not: this is the free market at work. An employer has the right to set requirements to be employed by their company. The employee has the freedom to choose whether to fulfill those requirements or forfeit their job. It sucks that these people are out of work, but they CHOSE to be out of work. Neither side did anything wrong here.
These employers are not doing the government’s work for them out of a sense of altruism or concern for anyone’s safety. Somewhere and somehow, there’s a financial gain to be made by these businesses though the government.
Free market, amen.
I just hope that those who don’t want/get the poke, for whatever reason(s) they have at least support their decision by no longer listening to Cumulus-owned stations. Given the level of current technology it’s easy to do and is just another company I have added to those that I am no longer a patron.
Spreading a deadly disease is unAmerican. 700,000+ Americans are dead thanks to the filthy, maskless, unvaccinated disease-spreading radicals who’ve enabled this plague to continue. The Godless, unChristlike, radicals who can’t understand simple facts about how a virus spreads are making things worse for authentic Conservatives who’ve taken personal responsibility, gotten vaccinated and wear a mask around others.
How many vaccines did you have to have to go to school or summer camp? Thank God your parents were smarter than you, or you’d be dead of polio or diphtheria by now
I have absolutely NO sympathy for any of these people who were fired by Cumulus…or any other company…for refusing to be vaccinated. And they should be denied unemployment benefits. People, we are not talking about a cold or sore throat here. COVID-19 is a deadly disease. I lost two former co-workers to it. One got sick and died before the vaccine existed. The other, who went to another station some years ago, did not have himself vaccinated. He died in December.
It’s mind boggling how much ignorance is being propagated by the social media and talk radio. If people thought this way in the 1950s, refusing to get the Salk vaccine, or in the early 1960s, refusing to take the Sabin vaccine, we would still suffer under polio epidemics. How was smallpox, another deadly disease, eradicated? By universal vaccination. COVID-19 is NOT a political issue. It is not a religious issue. It’s a public health issue and a major threat to our country.
I had my booster shot yesterday and I wear a face mask when I go to the store or to church.
Phil G, stop with the facts and common sense!
Radio stations that operated remotely by VoIP during much of the pandemic are requiring shows to be produced in person at the studio. Steele says she don’t like being told what to do. Most people don’t like being told to wear seat belts, motorcycle helmets, show up for jury duty, to drive under the speed limit, obtain insurance, pay car registration, to be paid by direct deposit rather than by check and to follow those pesky FCC rules and format changes that limit what we can say and play on the air, but those are the mandates the government and employers impose as conditions of living in society and working on the radio. If people in radio don’t want to follow the rules intended to protect the health of people in the workplace; one can always podcasting.
She took a stand and was prepared for the consequences. I applaud her.
Plenty of misinformation out there. You ‘first responders’ to her on this thread should do some independent research.
Think on this: a person who receives a polo vaccine would not expect to get polo afterwards. That’s the point of getting the vaccine. Fully ‘vaccinated’ individuals have gotten covid following their shots. Doesn’t that strike you as odd? It should. Think about it…
The goal of getting the shot is to not die and to minimize the effects of a breakthrough infection from someone who was not vaccinated. If everybody was vaccinated very few people would be infected with breakthrough infections. Nobody who has been fully vaccinated has died from a breakthrough infection; since August I believe 5 talk show hosts who were not vaccinated have died for covid, a factor in NAB cancelling their convention that was supposed to be happening this week in Vegas. California, the state with the strictest covid policies, has the lowest number of new covid cases and deaths.
I had 2 family members die after getting a covid shot so its not correct that no one dies. one was 58, the other was a perfectly healthy, vibrant 27 year old who developed blood clots. another friend got covid after vaccination (F 52) and was in ICU for 3 weeks. she still has memory issues and a permanent brain fog and muscle aches. she had to quit her job. shed already had covid in 5/2020 and was made to take the vacc. anyway. a lot of these people, especially the ypunger people, HAD covid. why arent they testing ppl for antibodies before they demand everyone get vaccinated? natural immunity is stronger than the vaccines . the french and Israelis have done extensive testing on this. other countries have been using several types of theraputics. why are we in the US just bullying and demanding everyone get the shot? not everyone needs one. Ivermectin is not “horse paste” ..i take it for Lupus but have been denied getting my 4 years-ongoing prescription refilled because Biden decreed we may not have it, and pharmacysts may not fill prescriptions. there are 3 or 4 other drugs that are helpful and other intelligent countries have found to help. why isnt the US allowing it or trying to get other things besides “get your shot shot shot”?. between the vaccinated and those who have natural immunity- yet we arent checking or testing or looking at that statistic- we are probably well over ‘herd immunity,.’ we will never get to 0 cases. the line has been moved and can been kicked so, so many times as to when how we “just” have to follow the latest dictate or executive law or random edict or order to “comply”. every day its a new demand which wipes out the last 2 or 6 or 17 we complied with. the country is being whittled away into a totalitarian hole. unvaccinated illegals are being bussed and flown in, all over, daily. there are new outbreaks of leprosy, Whooping cough, RSV, polio and other diseases being brought here by these people that we have no immunity to, including the Covid Delta version which came from india. my new illegal neighbors from columbia are working the system so magnificently with help from “advocates” and gov. help they are bragging to us how much swag is flowing in. commands to get shots is just the tactic to get everyone divided and distracted. wake up and be rational, not emotional.
You mean like the flu vaccine? Nothing is 100%
Not really. Nothing is 100% effective.
You presume to know more about vaccines than the majority of experts who have dedicated their lives to medical science. You know… spending years, if not decades, of their lives learning everything there is to know. Doesn’t that strike you as odd? It should. Think about it.
If this only affected her, she would be right. But we’re talking about an infectious disease. It is spread in the air. So when she shares a workspace with other people, her personal decision affects others. Have we become so selfish that we can’t understand that what we do individually can affect others? In addition, her choice affects everyone else’s healthcare costs. They have a company insurance plan, which, by the way, mandates an annual physical. They also mandate a no smoking policy in their offices. So this isn’t a selective thing. We need to learn that what we do as individuals affects others. One would think that someone who speaks to others every day on the radio would understand that. If she feels strongly about her personal rights, then the company has now given her more time to focus on herself.
These are the ramblings and weak justifications of someone who is also Jesus-induced and has failed to examine her priorities.
My body – my choice, my ass.
She doesn’t have polio because of a vaccine that was administered when she was a non-discerning kid.
This woman is so stultified that critical thinking is beyond her.
Another American phenomenon crashing into and wrecking realities.
The irony is: She figures she’s perched on a principle.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov
Unfortunately now, that ignorance is amplified by Social Media and the Mainstream media, who are as desperate for eyes and ears as the easy to spot liar, grifter, coward, fraud and corrupt unfit incompetent Russian dupe we elected president.
Agree. Biden is a dupe.
The article neglected to say where this Scientist got her Medical Degree.