Wilbur Offers His Side Of Departure From KVI

Kirby Wilbur

A comment by his former boss at FISHER Talk KVI-A/SEATTLE drew a response from KIRBY WILBUR, the departed host whose firing last week after 16 years surprised the market.

WILBUR took to his blog to post a response to GM JIM CLAYTON's statement that the station chose not to renew WILBUR's contract because "his ratings are not strong. That's really what the decision is based on"; WILBUR, who says the terms of his departure were supposed to be kept private, wrote that he had offered to take a pay cut but had received no response, and that the ratings were not a problem, beating GLENN BECK on BONNEVILLE Talk KTTH-A (THE TRUTH) in 35-64 and "the highest-rated daypart on the station, consistently outperforming the rest of the shows on the station."

"Mind you, GLENN (BECK) has a national TV show, several best-selling books and lots of promotion money," added WILBUR. "We had nothing, zero, zip, nada to help us promote the show. And, if management was concerned about the ratings, at no time did they ask to meet with us on specific ideas or recommendations on how to improve them....

"If management had kept this a matter between us, where it belonged, I would have said nothing. But, 700 e-mails on FRIDAY, the loss of a significant advertiser, a steady volume of phone calls, I’m sure they were caught off-guard and had to say something."

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