Jeff Dubay's improbable return to the Twin Cities airwaves via 1500ESPN ended unceremoniously earlier this year when the station cut him, seemingly as part of a series of salary dumps the Hubbard-owned TV and radio stations made.
Dubay was gracious in being kicked to the curb, thanking the Hubbard empire for the opportunity and looking optimistically toward his future.
What I'll never understand is the non-complete clause in a contract. I get why radio and television stations have them, but what I don't understand is why the clauses seem to apply when a station kicks an employee to the curb, without cause. If you're going to cut a guy and stop paying him simply because you can't afford or don't want to continue paying his salary, why is he prohibited from being hired immediately by another station in the market?
It was made clear in stories about Dubay's dismissal that his non-compete clause was waived.
It didn't take long for Dubay to turn up on sports radio, this time at the lackluster CBS Sports Radio affiliate 105 The Ticket. Dubay was invited to contribute to the award winning afternoon duo of Mike Morris and Bob Sansevere.
In the incestuous world of radio, The Ticket is a sister station of 92KQRS. Longtime KQRS morning drive god Tom Barnard happens to be in the process of building his own little online radio empire. They like to call it podcasting, but the reality is that Barnard is building a talk radio outlet that isn't broadcast the way God intended it to be, over the airwaves. Barnard has spent more than a year ramping up his side project into what will probably become his full-time gig in the next few years. To do that, you need a roster of talent. Dubay was ripe for the picking.
Dubay's podcast debuted March 3. It was just one hour and was broadcast live at 8 p.m. Twin Cities time. The idea must have been that the downloading and podcasting of the hour would be a big draw rather than listening to the show live over the Internet. Why would people who follow and watch sports want to list to sports talk during prime time, when the majority of sporting events are played?
As the world learned this week, Dubay's podcast was dropped by Barnard's network during its third week. Dubay fired off a tirade against Barnard's nephew, a honcho for Barnard, and hours later began excising his social media footprint. Of course Dubay's online sins live on in perpetuity, but the hot-headed Dubay no longer has a Twitter account in his name to rip those who want to take cheap shots at him.
Much of what we know as of this week came to light thanks to a blog on the St. Paul Pioneer Press website, a blog written by Sansevere. Sansevere continues to write opinion pieces for the fledgling St. Paul paper in addition to his periodic radio appearances as Barnard's sidekick in the morning and on the afternoon gab fest with Morris. Sansevere deemed it necessary to share tidbits of Dubay's online meltdown and handicap Dubay's future in broadcasting. When it comes to Sansevere's handicapping, I'd have a hard time arguing against his logic.
Dubay's defenders seem to think their "common man" has been railroaded again, and seem to think Barnard is some sort of godfather who put the hit out on Dubay because Dubay crossed Barnard's nephew. The theory also suggests Sansevere's ripping of Dubay was an order by Barnard to strike first rather than employ damage control after the fact.
Others seems to think that Dubay's tirade is an indication that he has taken a liking to the crack cocaine he found so enticing several years ago.
We're unlikely to know what really went down between Dubay and Barnard mafia.
What we do know is that unlike the 1500ESPN dismissal, Dubay failed to handle the bizarre end to his short-lived podcast career under Barnard's umbrella with the same grace.
I have no idea how you make money doing a one-hour podcast, but the idea behind Barnard's podcast network is to make money, presumably by selling commercials. There couldn't have been much money to be made during the first week of Dubay's podcast, but presumably the idea was to cultivate an audience and hope the dollars followed. That would take months, if not years. There's no way you can make a value judgment on a podcast in less than three weeks.
Dubay claims he was the victim of Barnard's nephew and the nephews habitual imbibing. Barnard's camp really hasn't said much to justify pulling the plug so quickly.
Let's pretend Dubay is back smoking the crack pipe. If so, he's committing career suicide. But at this point I doubt that. His tirade was simply Dubay being Dubay. He was wronged by an organization that quickly reversed its belief in Dubay's draw.
Better yet, let's pretend Dubay was the victim of Barnard's alcoholic nephew. Either way, Dubay's anger management issues resulted in an online tirade against those who wronged him. Justified or not, Dubay just affirmed to the broadcasting industry that he's a loose cannon who can't control his temper.
Despite the fact that his supporters, probably fewer than I imagine, long for him to grace the Twin Cities airwaves, KFAN isn't going to hire him back in any meaningful way. There's no room on the payroll, and none of the on-air personalities are going to give up the Clear Channel paycheck any time soon.
1500ESPN isn't going to bring him back, either. There's a possibility, I suppose, that The Ticket would look for a sports radio retread, a la Morris, to drive more local content, but that seems like a remote possibility.
As noted previously, whatever be Sansevere's motivation for digging Dubay's broadcasting grave, he hit the nail on the head: Dubay's hatred of you, me and anyone else that doesn't kiss his ass is likely to spell the end of the Jeff Dubay rebirth.
And yet I won't count the guy out.
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