For those of you that care to know more about the Ralph Barbieri bombshell, I sort of knew this was coming down the road.
I take no pleasure in seeing one's professional demise, but then again, you guys don't know Cumulus.
Ralph did.
And for that, he got this. No big surprise here. And it's gonna get ugly, as a sage close observer who knows the ins and outs of the business told me after there appeared to be a local detente between Ralph, Cumulus and Knibber. Ah, but the story moves on and potentially more uglier roads.
Where? Where things like this tend to always go to when an irresistible force meets an immovable object: to court. Can you say L.I.T.I.G.A.T.I.O.N.?
Let's start with some basic salvos.
This whole shebang was destined to this path. Saner minds, if you can even think about the word "sane" in this story, would have suggested that the Cumulus big boys negotiate a deal with the local Italian radio superstar who was beginning to see and live the twilight of his professional career come to an end.
That sounds reasonably good on paper, but when you involve massive egos, narcissistic templates and big-time company relations, rarely, if ever, do things come to a logical, "amiable" conclusion. Not here. Not now. Not yesterday and certainly not today.
Barbieri, despite almost 28 years of service at Knibber saw the handwriting on the wall and despite what he said, was ready for a new set of contentious negotiations. He turned out to be right. Even at that, I don't believe he was ready to meet the Cumulus executioner. By all accounts, even with a paltry deal that had a November 2012 expiration date, the Razor felt bullet-proof. As he should have, but there's a new cold hard world out there in radio land these days and Ralpheroo met it head on. Which brings us back to the lawyers and boy, do the lawyers always seem to be front and center in big burning man events like the Ralperroo-Cumulus showdown coming soon.
And I do believe it's coming down to the legal arena. How do I know? Just read this.
Without taking any sides, I do believe this has the grounds to be salaciously, agonizingly, ludicrously and for the media outlets, the Internet, the gee-look-at-me websites, absolutely delicious. Of course I could be wrong, but I tend to doubt it.
Reasons aplenty. Take a three-decade guy with a ton of local juice who comes out of the closet to disclose he's got early-stages Parkinson's disease and go fire that! That's what Barbieri was thinking. Beyond that, Ralph was thinking one last contract until he could retire at age 70. One last payday. Only the Bungeroth boys wanted no more of the Razor and that was evident last fall when they wanted to fire the feisty Italian, but held off for temporary pr purposes, underline temporary.
The big bean counters in Atlanta and locally at 55 Hawthorne began noticing the numerous off days, the relentless vacation times, the mounting sick days that that began to accumulate, or maybe, "Cuuumulate", if you like choice words here.
Barbieri had to figure he'd survive the dogfight. Again, just one last contract. Two-Four years would be fine and maybe we split the difference if we come down that road. YOU DON'T KNOW CUMULUS. Trust me, you don't. Cumulus likes underlings. Cumulus likes the little people to do the little things. One more dime is one less dime in the Atlanta kitty bank. That's how these bastards think and to hell with guys who think they have us over the barrel, even those who make decent coin in the 4th-largest radio market. Screw you!, pal, and well, you know where I'm going...
I don't know the specifics of Barbieri's contract or, more importantly, the "language" of the contract. I got to believe there's some significant clauses in there having to do with days off, vacation, sick days, those kind of legal entities that contract lawyers study and provide for certain clients.
Was Barbieri fired with cause? Huge question. If so, and I do believe he was, then we have issues to be resolved and those issues can only be resolved in the legal dept. A source speculated that Cumulus "probably paid him off after they 'terminated him, gave him a little more severance and told him not to talk or he'd lose his last golden parachute." And knowing Ralph, he probably told them to stuff it on his way out the door before getting on the phone to his lawyer, Bob Moore.
What we're about to see and hear played out is a good old-fashioned legal dogfight. The angry Italian radio guy in SF versus the mean-ass corporate radio raiders in Atlanta. And there is NO settlement here, folks, you can bet the house on that one. This will be the mother of all lawsuits with age, PR, and every other banana thrown in--I gotta believe the Cumulus lawyers know this too and thought long and hard before handing down the gauntlet, but throw down they did.
Can hardly wait for round one.
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