OK, my apologies. I'm about to break my own rule about bringing open politics onto this site, since it turns off so many people. And I've delayed posting this because I didn't want to deal with what inevitably will come next. So this is hopefully a one-off, I promise. 

But this radio story is so high profile and has made such big headlines around the world (including England and Australia), it's almost impossible to ignore. It took place this week at a legendary station in the biggest radio market on the planet involving one its most famous hosts.

It happened at WABC-AM in New York, when the owner very publicly fired the city's former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, an on-air host. WABC is an ultra-right conservative station, so what did the one-time politician do to get himself turfed? 

Despite repeated and endless warnings from owner John Catsimatidis, Giuliani simply would not stop spreading the "stolen 2020 election" lie that even the most staunch Republicans now admit isn't true. The owner was worried about the repercussions from the former mayor's constant yammering about "fixed" Dominion voting machines, well aware of the lawsuit on this subject that cost Fox News multimillions of dollars. 

So he suspended the Trump ally when, despite repeated warnings, he refused to stop spewing the theory on air - with the station even using its dump button to silence their own personality. It was the proverbial last straw. 

The news hit the New York media like an exploding bomb, with endless articles about the high profile dismissal, even as Giuliani went on YouTube and other shows to accuse his ex-boss of trying to cancel and silence him, and in an unhinged rant, even blamed President Joe Biden for having him pulled off the air, a claim that is completely without evidence.

Catsimatidis has since issued a statement about the incident that remains on the WABC website. It's quite an amazing document and for the owner to make such a public profession about an internal issue is almost unheard of. It talks about a letter the owner sent him, begging the ex-mayor to stop spreading lies on the air. 

"Last Thursday, shortly after receiving this letter, Rudy closed his show by talking about electronic voting machines, and our board operator dumped the audio, as instructed. We have a copy of this audio in our records. Once again, he was warned not to discuss this topic, and only hours later proceeded to do just that.

This is when Rudy issued me a second ultimatum. After his show was abruptly pulled from the air on Thursday night, May 9th, Rudy texted me at 6:41 pm, saying “I am disregarding every order given in this letter.” It is important to note that Rudy was not even suspended yet at this point in time.

On Friday morning, May 10th, at 8:57 am, I texted Rudy, saying, “Rudy I love you. I’ve supported you for 40 years. I look forward to sitting down together one on one.” Rudy responded by stating that he will continue to disregard the instructions in this letter."

It's a real life soap (or should that be dope?) opera and you can read the entire statement here. 

This story isn't over. Well, hopefully, it's over on this site, but I suspect it will go on and on and on in the press in the Big Apple for a long time to come. 

A rare story about a local radio station that has made headlines around the world.