• Dear John Boel: Please Let Us Get You Help & John Boel Is Finally Out At WLKY [November 8 & November 10]
• John Belski Out At WAVE3, Too [August 18]
• Real Story Behind The Mint Jubilee Mess [February 17]
• Bobby Jack Gone from WAMZ Radio [October 2]
• UofL: Land Of The Appearance Of Impropriety [October 25]
• My Beloved Francene Cucinello [January 15]
• Local TeeVee News People Rumor Fun [March 19]
• The Entire Metro Government Audit Is Here [March 24]
• Garson & Ivory Sink To Nasty New Low [October 28]
• Dan Spangler Sues Station for Discrimination [January 21]

An honorable mention for what sparked a year of begging from local shoppers: ear X-tacy Faces Closure, Owner Speaks Out [February 9]

Thank you for sticking with us for so long – particularly to those who disagree with us most but still continue to read and contribute. I (Jake) don’t get too personal here on a regular basis, but… much love to you.

Hope you and yours have a happy new year!

I hear there’s something in the works on that front but no one wants to talk on-the-record about it.

Now, via the WBKI website, we learn that Craig Hoffman (many remember him from his days at WAVE3 and, uh, I’ll leave it at that so I don’t have to delve into gossip territory) has been put out to pasture (thanks to his “resignation” a few weeks ago):

WBKI-TV thanks veteran news anchor Craig Hoffman for his many years of service and his numerous contributions to the station and wish him well in his future ventures.

Rumors have been swirling for months and months that Hoffman was allegedly involved in the Spangler mess and that he’d been butting heads with the station’s new right-wing ownership. His departure from the station did not, as some have suggested, come as a shock to the station.

So what gives?

Spangler was oddly canned from the station in June after helping to lead the station through a number of successes. Then the station’s new management/ownership severed ties with anyone remotely critical of them.

That was months ago.

I discovered this morning that Spangler is suing Louisville TV Group and Fusion Communications, his now-former bosses. And thanks to a tipster, I just got my hands on the court documents in which Spangler makes some pretty alarming allegations, so let’s dig in to the juicy, juicy…

13. Naturally, when Fusion purchased WBKI, Mr. Spangler wanted an assurance that he would be kept with the station he had been involved with for over ten years. During the negotiations of Fusion’s purchase of the station from Cascade Broadcasting, David McAnally, President of Fusion, assured the then CEO of Cascade Broadcasting, Carol LaFever, that there would be no need to include a mandatory carry-forward agreement for Mr. Spangler in the purchase agreement because Mr. McAnally and Fusion loved Mr. Spangler’s work and intended to keep him at the station into the future. In fact, Mr. McAnally indicated to Ms. LaFever that Fusion wanted Mr. Spangler to eventually become the Marketing Director of all of the Fusion-owned stations.

14. The assurances of job security made by Mr. McAnally and Fusion were related to Mr. Spangler and Mr. Spangler relied upon these assurances and remained at the station after the purchase by Fusion.

15. After Fusion took over the station, Mr. Spanger assumed the role of Station Manager, in addition to continuing hosting duties on the local morning show, Louisville Life This Morning. As in the past, Mr. Spanger excelled at this duties.

16. Shortly after Fusion took over the station it became clear that Mr. McAnally and Jeff Lyle, a managing partner of FUsion and Louisville TV, became intensely interesting in Mr. Spangler’s religion.

17. In early May 2009, Mr. Spangler was riding back from lunch with Terry Glaser, WBKI’s General Sales Manager, and Jeff Lyle. During the car ride Mr. Lyle asked Mr. Spangler and Mr. Glaser, point blank, what their religions were. Mr. Spangler, naturally, was shocked that one of his bosses would ask such an intensely personal and prying question. There was a long pause after Mr. Lyle asked the question, to which Mr. Spangler responded that he was a “non-practicing catholic.”

18. Only minutes before this question, during the same car ride, Mr. Spangler had related a anecdote to Mr. Glaser and Mr. Lyle about his first day on a job he once had in New Orleans. Mr. Spangler had explained that despite living across the street from his new place of work he was almost late to his first day of work due to slow service at a nearby restaurant. Mr. Lyle responded to the story by saying that it sounded like the water was on “CPT.” There was a pause and Mr. Lyle went on to say that “CPT” stood for “colored people time.” During his story Mr. Spangler had never mentioned the race of his server. Apparently, Mr. Lyle had assumed that the slow service Mr. Spangler experienced was due to an African-American waiter and used the offensive racial slur “colored people time” to explain his opinion of why the service was slow.

Something tells me you’re going to want to read the rest of these excerpts after the jump…

19. On the same day, during the lunch that proceeded the events described in paragraphs 17 and 18, Mr. Spangler, Mr. Glaser, and Mr. Lyle had a discussion about an individual from the CW television network that the three of them had been working with. During the conversation Mr. Lyle said, “Let me guess, he’s Jewish, right?” Again, Mr. Spangler was shocked. Mr. Spangler happened to know this individual on a personal level and responded that he did believe the individual in question was Jewish. Upon hearing this, Mr. Lyle shook his head and said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it sounded like he was [Jewish].”

20. Several weeks later, during a conference to discuss the stations programming schedule, Mr. McAnally began naming off several shows that aired through the afternoon and early evening. Many of the shows named by Mr. McAnally had a primarily African-American cast and/or and African-American lead. After naming the programs Mr. McAnally stated to the group “It looks awfully dark during this time of day.”

21. On a separate occasion, Mr. Spangler and Mr. McAnally were reviewing a personality test that Mr. Spangler, and the rest of the staff, had been required to take. Mr. McAnally explained to Mr. Spangler that the test was designed to help them better understand how the employees worked together. During the review Mr. McAnally quoted a bible verse to Mr. Spangler.

22. On June 14, 2009 only a few days after the meeting in which Mr. McAnally quoted scripture to Mr. Spangler, Mr. McAnally informed Mr. Spangler that he was being terminated. Since his termination, the pretextual reasons for Mr. Spangler’s firing have shifted from an alleged economic reason to an unsubstantiated and false claim from Mr. McAnally that Mr. Spangler leaked details of a pending Fusion deal with another network.

23. After his termination Mr. Spangler was replaced by an individual who, on information and belief is a practicing Christian and attends Southeast Christian Church in Louisville.

24. Since Mr. Spangler’s termination, Mr. McAnally has informed individuals that he has “irrefutable proof” that Mr. Spangler disclosed terms of a private deal between Fusion and another broadcast company in an effort to undermine that deal. Mr. Spangler has never disclosed the terms of any deal involving Fusion and another company. Rumors such as these will seriously injure Mr. Spangler’s reputation in the broadcasting community.

Spangler is suing for Fraud, Promissory Estoppel, Slander per se and Religious Discrimination. For those causes of action, he is seeking (from the court docs):

• A trial by jury
• Judgement against the Defendants for substantial actual and compensatory in amounts to be determined by a jury of his peers
• Damages in the form of back pay, front pay and benefits
• Damages for embarrassment and humiliation
• Costs and attorney’s fees associated with this action
• Punitive damages and
• Leave to amend his complaint as proof develops

Upon request, Spangler declined comment. No one at Louisville TV or Fusion has responded to our request.

The “big” storm that hit the East End last night apparently did some damage to the signal emanating from WBKI, the CW station. Around 7:30 last night, viewers were treated to dead air instead of TMZ. A message came on the screen from Insight saying, “One moment please. The channel will be available shortly.”

That’s the standard message provided on all stations when cable service is down. But last night, all the other stations were working.

According to our sources, the message remained on the screen all night. The problem wasn’t discovered by station personnel until they started arriving at work early this morning. We’re not sure when the station came back on, but it was back by the time the morning show came on at 10.

Did anybody else see this? Did anyone notice?

UPDATE: Based on reports from our sources, the outage must have only affected select geographic areas, especially the East End of Louisville. We’re still looking into it.

There’s Crazy, and Then There’s This Sypher Woman: Without an attorney to advise her to keep quiet, Karen Cunagin Sypher decided to file a complaint about Rick Pitino with the police. She hasn’t found anyone to replace Thomas Clay as her lawyer, and now her cell phone’s disconnected. Guess that’s why there’s no new TV interview. [AP]

Yea, Shouldn’t Have Said That: After his West Virginia comments, in which he described pre-merger Louisville as becoming poorer, blacker and older, Jerry Abramson finally issued an apology yesterday.  It was a Biden-like slip, equating poor and black. So why is David Tandy defending the Mayor on this one? [Fox41]

The $950,000 Question: The C-J Editorial Board reluctantly criticizes Metro Government for its handling of this Cordish issue while blasting Kelly Downard for making a big deal of it. Apparently the Mayor is content to wait until Bruce Traughber can work a trip to Baltimore into his busy schedule to get some details on that $950,000. Could it be he knows there’s no justifiable explanation? [Courier]

Not a Possibility: Did you see the headline and get all excited about the big deal the city’s backers would make out of this news? Louisville Named Best Place to Live by Money Magazine.  Oops, Louisville, Colorado. Best Small City in America. Not a small town in Kentucky in the top 100. Bummer. [Money]

Jake Talks with Jack: So many questions. Will Jack Conway’s baby wait until after Fancy Farm? Is Conway worried about being a regional candidate? Does Jack laugh at Jake’s crude humor? [Page One]

Is The Name All That’s Changed?: It’s now the WBKI News at 10.  But still a WHAS newscast. Hmm.

No Cussing Either: It’s going to be quite an adjustment for high school football coaches next month. The new sportsmanship classes coaches are attending this week stress positive reinforcement, i.e. no cussing at players. No “Run Until Somebody Quits.” And you can bet that those practices will have plenty of witnesses. [WLKY]

Dugan Ryan, the executive producer of the program, will host the final edition of what’s been known as “The Freak Show” tonight. Even though former host John Renshaw left the show in May, the 11:30 p.m. program has been airing with the same name with guest hosts.

There are no plans to continue the sports talk show lineup, which originated on radio more than tw0 years ago and moved to TV early this year.

“I think the market is underserved for sports talk,” said Ryan. “I’d like to find a way to get us back on the air.”

WBKI-TV will air a nationally-syndicated show, The Daily Buzz, for two hours daily beginning Monday at 7 a.m.  It will also debut the CW World Report at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

A Conspiracy Theory: Let’s connect the dots between Jerry Abramson, the downtown arena, the Water Company site, Cordish, gaming, Steve Beshear, his old law firm. Can you find a conspiracy in there? [Page One]

Never Mind: TARC found some stimulus money so it can avoid the fare increases and service cuts threatened at its last board meeting. Today the TARC board approved using 10 percent of its $18 million in stimulus money for operations, the maximum allowed. Bus fare remains a buck fifty. [Courier]

No Gay Pictures, Or Else: Really? The Southern Baptist Convention is in town and is getting ready to kick out a Texas church because it didn’t take a strong enough stand against gays in regard to whether or not to include pictures of gay families in the church directory. Not making this up. [Peter Smith]

Maybe Turfway Could Move to Ohio: If the Buckeye State adopts slots, and Kentucky doesn’t, Turfway Park president Bob Elliston says his facility will close in 2010. Take heart. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has long opposed slots, but recently reversed his position. [Courier]

X-tending High School Football Deal:  Bisig Impact Group’s Radio Network will be doing St. Xavier sports  on radio for another five years. The deal includes football, basketball and baseball games, airing on 790 WKRD-AM and online. X has been on the radio with Bisig for 17 years. [Biz First]

Slots Surprise: Not likely, but wouldn’t it be cool if the Senate budget committee considering the slots bill actually approved it. It arrived at 4. David Williams says it won’t get out of committee. [BG Politics]

Wilder the Victim?: How did this story about a Jeffersonville attorney turn into a pity party for Larry Wilder? The Mayor vows to punish the police officer who took the photo, and everybody’s lining up to protect the guy who got drunk and passed out in a garbage can. You get the feeling the photographer is going to get more punishment than the attorney. [News & Tribune]

Hoffman gave no specific reason for the change, mumbling something about the way new management always makes changes, that they’re adding some things and taking away some things, that it was nothing personal. That’s not exactly true.

Did it have anything to do with what we’ve been writing about changes at the station, I asked. Of course not, he said. I asked if it wasn’t because the new owners, who are publicity-shy and have refused requests for an interview, were bothered that we wrote about the upcoming cancellation of the morning and late-night locally-produced sports programs?

Maybe it was our affection for Spangler, the dispatched morning show host with whom we’ve been doing our on-air shtick for 15 months, never missing a single week.

The real reason may have been the way we criticized the new on-air talent, Adele Guarino-Sanders, who has been doing segments on the show this week. She has no TV experience, is awful on camera and when Googled brings up a trail of court cases in which she’s the defendant.

On Wednesday, Hoffman called to make sure that I was planning to show up for next Tuesday’s show. He said there might even be an expanded role for us and that he was considering other ways to expand our brand in station programming. 24 hours later, he called to say our segment was being discontinued.

Next week, Hoffman’s on vacation and Guarino-Sanders is scheduled to host the morning show. I told Hoffman on Wednesday that I’d show up, despite reservations about the host. He assured me it was just one week, to get through that, and he’d be back as the regular host the following week. But 24 hours later, Hoffman called to say everything was off.

There are no regrets. The show gave us a video outlet and brought new fans to the ‘Ville Voice and Page One. Spangler was an enthusiastic fan, and the segments just wouldn’t have worked without him. It was fun while it lasted.

The good news: Now we have time to work with other stations that have been angling for months to pull us on-air on a regular basis.

Calling it a business decision, Craig Hoffman said today that the two shows will be off the schedule by July 4. Hoffman, the station’s community relations director, said the station is discussing the idea of a new local sports show that would debut in late summer or early fall. That show, he said, could include a role for former University of Louisville QB turned media personality Dave Ragone.

“I would not be surprised to see him do something here down the road,” Hoffman said.

The current shows — Dave and Sports in the Morning (6-8 a.m.) and The Freak Show with John Renshaw (11:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.) — both suffered a loss of personnel recently. Renshaw left town unexpectedly in may, while Ragone’s broadcast partner, Scott Padgett, took a job on Coach John Calipari’s staff at UK.

Those shows were part of a broadcast agreement between the station and Dugan Ryan, who produced and sold the shows. Ryan said he’s interested in working toward an agreement with the station’s new owners about future programming.

The sports shows were canceled on radio last November when Cumulus Broadcasting changed formats of its 93.9 station, which had been all sports talk. They started doing the show from the CW studios in January.

Spangler said that about 4:30 yesterday, he was told that he was being let go due to budgetary considerations and asked to leave immediately.

Craig Hoffman, a former WAVE-TV on-air reporter who filled in as host when Spangler was on a business trip a few weeks back, is expected to host the morning show today. Hoffman is a full-time staff member and producer at WBKI. We attempted to reach him and Fusion representative Dave McAnally without success last night.

We can’t confirm, at this point, if other station employees have lost their jobs, or tell you anything else about future programming. The station has begun airing CW World Report, a national news program for CW affiliates, at 5:30 p.m.

Fusion won the auction to buy the station and completed the deal in May, and we have reported that the station plans to move to the Kaden Tower in September.

Spangler has hosted the morning show since its inception in March 2008, at last count more than 300 shows. It expanded from 30 minutes to an hour  earlier this year. While it’s never done well ratings-wise, the show’s emphasis on local activities and people made it a staple of morning TV.

On a personal note, it’s sad to see someone who’s become not only a polished and smooth on-air personality, but a close friend, lose his job in such an unceremonious fashion. Dan’s enthusiasm for his guests and all things Louisville is contagious, and no matter what the future of the station, we’ll miss seeing him every week.

In the last few weeks, we’ve been kidding him about renaming the morning program “the Dan Show” — sort of an unofficial honorary title for a guy who’s always been humble and lacking in ego. Yesterday was Dan’s last appearance on the show.