Dan Le Batard went off yesterday on the management at his local radio station 790 the Ticket in Miami during the end of his show’s local hour. The diatribe was the result of Le Batard being upset with station officials who wanted him to not to talk about a story in the Miami Herald about a local woman who is heading to prison for an illegal penis surgery that left a man with “mangled” private parts. Le Batard’s show had interviewed the author of the story in the previous segment.
Le Batard said “We’ve got someone locally already doing what Mike was fearing nationally, which is threatening to yank us off the air if we play it. Nothing matters to me more than you don’t control what comes out of my mouth. And we’ve got someone going crazy locally saying they’re gonna yank us off the air if we continue to talk about this, and what I’m telling you right now is fire me. Not only never do that again but fire me now if you want to control me that way.”
“I don’t want to get up at 9 o’clock in the morning. I’m doing this for Miami and I’m doing this for 790 the Ticket. Yank me off the air now. Fire me now. Cancel my contract. You can have your money and you can have your 9 o’clock hour and I can get my sleep because this is infuriating. This isn’t even happening nationally, this is happening locally. You do not control what comes out of my mouth. You’re threatening to take me off the air because I’m talking about a story that was in the Miami Herald? Man, get the hell out of here.”
“This is what my parents fled. You will not control this. No you will not. Money doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to be up at this hour and now you’re saying you’re gonna control what I say at this hour when I’m doing it for you? I’m doing it from 9 to 10 for you, so that you can have our show. I did this show for free locally because of how much Miami matters to me. You have to be bleeping kidding.”
Le Batard didn’t appear today on his show but that was due to a scheduled absence to attend Pablo Torre’s wedding. Whether or not he appears on Monday remains to be seen.
To hear the full rant click the audio below.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
