Former WNIR host Jim Isabella has announced he is running for Mayor of Akron, where he worked as a conservative radio host for nearly a decade.
A report from Doug Livingston of the Akron Beacon Journal claims Isabella is seeking to become the first Republican Mayor of the Ohio city since 1989.
“The odds are very much against me, and I know that. But I feel like I have nothing to lose,” said Isabella, who is still seeking signatures for his petition to be placed on the ballot.
“They’re looking for the guy to break the stranglehold,” Isabella said of local conservatives, “and a guy who really can speak his mind freely.”
Isabella left WNIR in early 2022 after he and the station couldn’t come to an agreement on several points of contention, mainly his ability to work elsewhere without a non-compete agreement. The conservative nighttime host was off the air for more than five weeks in 2020 after contracting COVID-19, leading to a hospitalization.
The former radio host, 64, admitted he has lived in Medina, a city about 30 minutes away from Akron, for the past seven years before returning in December after separating from his second wife.
