Dicky Ducks Out... Involuntarily

Indie 103 is a radio station in LA that makes it usually safe for me to listen to radio in LA. Dicky Barrett, the morning show host, recently left the station... supposedly because he was working full time on his other gig as announcer for the Jimmy Kimmell show or soemthing. I'm not a fan of morning yap-yap shows, nor was I a fan of Dicky's band - the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but I really did enjoy Dicky and his pals and their intelligent, bawdy humor and rockin' good tunes.

So now the story is Dicky got fired for talking politics. Not just politics, but abortion. Here are some choice bits from his press release:

DICKY BARRETT FIRED

LA'S INDIE 103.1 PULLS HIM
AND HIS MIGHTY MORNING SHOW FROM THE AIRWAVES

The station was built to fuck with KROQ (Infinity) by people from KISS-FM (Clear Channel); it was just supposed to be a short lived pain in the ass that that took away a few ratings points, and talked some shit about KROQ. Inadvertently (and you can credit Steve Jones and the other celebrity DJ's) it became good, and got a lot of national attention, and credible press (''the coolest station in America'' rolling stone etc. ) At that point, the FCC said Clear Channel who operated Indie 103.1 out of the Entravision offices could no longer do so. All business ties on paper were severed. It became a full Entravision property... But the hard right leaning Clear Channel program director and station manager (along with a lot of the behind the scenes technical employees) were already firmly in place.

It is in Clear Channel's best interest that Indie 103.1 exists - the PD, Michael Steele (who brags about ''breaking Britney Spears'') and the station manager, Dawn Girocco (a long time radio sales woman) are believing their own hype and considering themselves radio geniuses who masterminded the Indie 103.1 phenomenon, so it's now time to implicate their superior ''radio wisdom'' and conventional ''radio strategy'': #1) Morning shows need to be musically formatted and the music needs to be heavily rotated - #2) All guests must be approved by Michael Steele (Dawn Girocco really, she's Dick Cheney, Steele's George Bush) ''no guests controversial to soccer moms listening in the a.m.'' There were other things that were more annoying, then actually detrimental to the show... ''say the time, and call letters till your blue in the face''

I reluctantly, and unhappily against my better judgment, went along with all this for about two weeks, hoping they would come to their senses. During this time, they brought in a longtime radio guru, to consult (he also worked at one point for Clear Channel). His assessment was the show was ''really good'' and I was a ''legitimate talent and a potential radio star." Not the information these people wanted me to have. When I made an on a r remark about not liking the new overplayed Morrissey track, I was marched into the President of Entravisions' office (Jeff Lieberman, a fan of Mighty Morning show. In front of me, Jeff told Dawn he was not prepared to ''strip Dicky of his opinion,'' she was obviously and visibly embarrassed. Then he asked her if she gave me the book about morning radio that he gave her to give to me... ''no, it's at home'' she said. ''Why the hell, is it there?'' he asked, she looked humiliated.

This was the beginning of the end for me, and the writing was most likely on the wall. Two weeks after that I had a substantial, unauthorized, pro-choice conversation on the air with a South Dakota disc jockey and a few callers, the straw that broke the camels back. This is not the direction supporters of the current administration want the station going in.

I was fired that day.

I loved doing the show and loved the people who loved it.

Thank you,
Dicky


Check this out for more dirt. Tragic.