[CBFF] NBR - WMVP drama in boss' office

[Jerry Madsen]

The WMVP/WSCR soap never fails to disappoint.

I've got 10 bucks that says McNeil will be back on The Score within
the next three years.

Jerry

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WMVP drama in boss' office
Teddy Greenstein
ON SPORTS MEDIA AND COLLEGES

June 29, 2007

The shows went on Thursday at WMVP-AM while the real drama played out
in an office where Dan McNeil met with general manager Jim Pastor.

At stake was the immediate future of the station's franchise show,
"Mac, Jurko & Harry."

Jeff Dickerson replaced McNeil on Thursday—"Mac is off," Dickerson
said on the air—during the second day of McNeil's three-day suspension
that resulted from his insulting Comcast Sports-Net exec Lissa Druss
Christman on the air.

Neither McNeil nor Pastor would comment Thursday, taking a pass on
questions about whether McNeil's transgression will blow up Chicago's
highest-rated sports talk show.

A source said McNeil, who was set to begin a two-week vacation Monday,
was contrite during the meeting and Pastor would refrain from making
any snap decisions.

McNeil, who has been suspended numerous times during his career, spent
19 days in the penalty box last June following an ugly on-air spat
with co-host Harry Teinowitz. It's believed WMVP executives warned
McNeil, who has nearly three years left on a deal worth more than
$600,000 per, of a "zero tolerance" policy regarding future incidents.

Though ESPN-owned stations such as WMVP bemoan personal attacks,
WSCR-AM hosts are permitted to use salty language and fire off
insults.

As if to prove that, WSCR's Mike North on Thursday jumped on Kimberly
Bell, who's shopping a book about her supposed eight-year extramarital
affair with Barry Bonds. North, during his morning show, said Bell was
"being a bitch about it."

Did North purposely say that to support McNeil and/or to flaunt the
Score's lenient policies?

"I might have done it subconsciously," North said. "I tell you, to be
suspended for saying that word is a scary thing. It's in the
dictionary. They'll say it at the Westminster Dog Show."

Yeah, but ...

"They're very highbrow over there," North said of WMVP. "I wouldn't
last two days there. I look at it as: We're the playground. We push it
as far as we can. You want to go to church, listen to them."

ESPN hates bad publicity and has been getting plenty of it lately.
Michael Irvin got bounced from "Sunday NFL Countdown" in part because
of a drug-related arrest and for saying that Cowboys quarterback Tony
Romo's athletic ability could be traced to his maternal relatives
being involved with slave "brothers."

ESPN dismissed baseball analyst Harold Reynolds last year after a
sexual harassment complaint.

And here's the latest: The Associated Press reported Thursday that a
makeup artist from ESPN's since-canceled talk show "Cold Pizza" is
suing the network plus host Jay Crawford and commentator Woody Paige
over charges of sexual harassment.

The woman, Rita Ragone, claims she was subjected to crude sexual
comments from Crawford and that Paige pinched her and once grabbed her
backside so forcibly, she was "propelled forward and into the air."

"It is not true," Paige said in an e-mail to the AP.

What's the strangest place … ?
A Cubs version of "The Newlywed Game" hits the Score at around 8 a.m.
Friday. Will Ohman and his wife, Allison, will take on Mark DeRosa and
his wife, Heidi. Jesse Rogers and George Ofman, who are filling for
North, will host.

This just in
Mark Grace and Matt Vasgersian will call Saturday's Brewers-Cubs game
for Fox (2:55 p.m.). … More American viewers (2.8 million) tuned into
the Spanish-language telecast of the Gold Cup final between the United
States and Mexico than watched the deciding Game 5 of the Stanley Cup
finals on NBC (2.0 million). That doesn't include the audience that
watched the Gold Cup on Fox Soccer Channel. … Hunters and fishermen,
rejoice: Comcast has added The Sportsman Channel.

tgreenstein at tribune.com

Copyright (c) 2007, The Chicago Tribune