Jeff Dubay says he's forced out at AM1500 in cost-cutting move

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discochris said:
I don't see 1500 remaining sports much longer either. When KFAN went to FM I think it really put a nail in 1500's coffin. If they'd have moved to 107.1 at that point, it might have worked, but they didn't.

I don't know what is going on with the Ticket. They don't advertise at all - yet they have some name talent on the station. You'd hardly know they even exist.
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If anyone thinks KSTP/ESPN 1500 is going away - think again. By the end of this year they could very well be the owners of KFAN.

Hubbard Broadcasting is expanding again.

Hubbard Radio will buy the 10 radio stations of Sandusky Radio in an $85.5 million deal, expanding Hubbard’s station count to 30 and giving it national reach by adding two West Coast markets, Seattle and Phoenix.

The move comes about two years after St. Paul-based Hubbard closed a $505 million purchase of 17 stations, chiefly in big East Coast and Midwest cities, that marked a significant foray beyond the Twin Cities. Among the stations it acquired in that deal was WTOP-AM in Washington, D.C., the nation’s highest-revenue station last year.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
If anyone thinks KSTP/ESPN 1500 is going away - think again. By the end of this year they could very well be the owners of KFAN.

Hubbard Broadcasting is expanding again.

Hubbard Radio will buy the 10 radio stations of Sandusky Radio in an $85.5 million deal, expanding Hubbard’s station count to 30 and giving it national reach by adding two West Coast markets, Seattle and Phoenix.

The move comes about two years after St. Paul-based Hubbard closed a $505 million purchase of 17 stations, chiefly in big East Coast and Midwest cities, that marked a significant foray beyond the Twin Cities. Among the stations it acquired in that deal was WTOP-AM in Washington, D.C., the nation’s highest-revenue station last year.
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Nobody is saying that Hubbard Broadcasting is going away, or even KSTP AM, but they may drop the ESPN affiliation and no longer be a sports station. As has been mentioned, their ratings are awful and they continue to lag far behind KFAN.
 

Dubay was on the Ticket today with Morris and Sansavere. Don't know if it was a one-time shot or if he's part of their show now.
 


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"Phil Mackey is moving to mornings.

Effective Monday, Feb. 3, Mackey will join morning show host Judd Zulgad from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., 1500 ESPN program director Brad Lane announced Tuesday. Patrick Reusse will keep his current time slot, from 3-6 p.m."

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/..._in_the_morning_Pat_Reusse_to_host_solo012114
 

My vehicle gets HD radio, and I just noticed 1500 is now being carried on 94.5 on the alternate channel. If you get HD radio, this is an amazing improvement from listening to the awful AM version.
 






GophersInIowa said:
Who the hell wants to listen to that voice (Reusse) for several hours straight every day?
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ssssssuuuurrree bbbbeats ddddddbbbbbaayy sstttuttereing, interuppppting annnnnnnnnnd ssscccreaming evvveryyyy ddddday.
 





Oregon Gopher said:
That's a real classy take.
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That's normal for station19. He hates Jeff Dubay for some reason, and will rip him any chance he gets. His comment above is actually tame compared to his normal bs regarding Jeff.
 

I don't think pointing out someone's vocal shortcomings is out of bounds if the person talks for a living. If he doesn't want his vocal patterns to be made fun of, he should take a job where his ability to speak clearly is integral to the position.
 

Oregon Gopher said:
That's a real classy take.
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DMB123 said:
That's normal for station19. He hates Jeff Dubay for some reason, and will rip him any chance he gets. His comment above is actually tame compared to his normal bs regarding Jeff.
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Yes Dubay drives me crazy. Sorry to say it but voice quality does matter in the case of a radio show host.....just as Dpo mentioned. Could I have said in not so snide manner...probably so.
 

My biggest pet peeve of listening to him, was half the time he was eating something on the damn air and you could hear him munching and trying to swallow when he wanted to talk. Common man, eat at commercial break or when the damn show is over.
 

Wasn't it "over" for the Sports Talk format at KSTP when they refused to move the Twins broadcasts to FM and subsequently lost the rights?
 

The PA & Dubay show was the best local sports show, back in the day. Now, sadly, PA's ego is difficult to overlook and Dubay's need to offer an opinion on every sentence is also difficult to listen to.

Dubay's need to emphasize it was a cost-cutting move makes me wonder if it was more than just a cost-cutting move. I'm not convinced that the childish Twitter wars that he tended to get involved in didn't contribute to this. Bad PR for the station, perhaps? Maybe it was just ratings, who knows....
 

golfing18now said:
Dubay's need to emphasize it was a cost-cutting move makes me wonder if it was more than just a cost-cutting move.
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I would certainly think he was their lowest paid on air personality since he had no negotiating leverage when he was hired, so I don’t know how much they saved. Mackey and Zulgad together on the air? I don’t think that will do much to improve ratings. I tried to listen to Dubay and Zulgad a few times. It seemed that they almost always agreed with each other (and Souhan when he would chime in). That doesn’t make for very interesting radio. Not only did they usually agree, but they were very often wrong.
 

I have never missed a minute of listening to Dubay. That is because I haver never listened to him.
 

Well Dubay is likely done in the Twin Cities market as he is becoming toxic.

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_25383153/jeff-dubay-broadcast-career-peril-after-podcast-firing

Jeff Dubay: Broadcast career in peril after podcast firing, meltdown

By Bob Sansevere
[email protected]
Posted: 03/20/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT | Updated: 91 min. ago


Some people burn bridges. Other people don't just burn them. They blow them up like what happened in the final scene of "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

That's what Jeff Dubay did. He blew up his latest and perhaps last chance to have a broadcast career in the Twin Cities.

Dubay's most recent foray into media came to an ugly end Wednesday.

After several weeks of doing a podcast as part of the Tom Barnard Network, Dubay claimed in a Twitter post that the network's general manager, Sean Barnard, "acted in unprofessional manner pulling the plug on the Jeff Dubay podcast."

The tweet directed people to Dubay's Facebook page, which featured an ill-advised screed against Sean Barnard, who also is Tom Barnard's nephew. (Tom Barnard is the host of the KQ Morning Show and -- full disclosure here -- I have been a member of the KQ Morning Show with Tom for the past 25 years. Tom's podcast, The Tom Barnard Show, has no affiliation with KQRS. I also know Sean Barnard. He once worked at KQRS.)

Dubay's Facebook posts and the page itself were deleted about two hours after he attacked Sean Barnard. I read the attack before it was deleted. It was filled with rage toward Sean Barnard with Dubay depicting himself as a victim.

Here is an excerpt from the deleted Facebook post, without changes:

"Sean Barnard informed me today that he was terminating the agreement for me to be part of the Tom Barnard network. When pressed on the matter Sean said if I passed a drug test he would allow me to continue. This was as insulting as it was unw...arranted.Nonetheless I went to Walgreen's and purchased a test at my own expense, knowing I had nothing to hide. I returned home and phoned Sean to tell him I have met his demands and was ready to take the test and would wait for him if he wanted to witness it. He then went into a new set of conditions that included me going to a clinic and getting an expensive test at my own expense and missing my show on the evening of 4/18. A shouting match ensued as I now saw that I was being given a run around and the rules were changing all the time. Sean hung up and refused my calls, referring me to his attorney."

Later, Dubay tweeted that he needed help shutting down his Twitter page.

"Somebody help me," he tweeted. "I need to deactivate my account now and don't know how"

It was deactivated late Wednesday or early Thursday.

In a tweet before it was deactivated, Dubay wrote, "I've never felt more beaten in my entire life."

He also tweeted in response to a question about his Facebook page disappearing, "The lawyers threatened. Can't fight the machine"

In another tweet, he said, "Sean barnards lawyers have threatened me but the posts are the truth. Do your worst"

Just like with his Facebook screed, that was an ill-advised tweet.

Before starting the podcast, Dubay spent a year as the co-host of a midday radio show on KSTP's 1500 ESPN Twin Cities before being let go in January. He began his broadcast career with KFAN but was fired in 2008 -- after an arrest on suspicion of possessing crack cocaine. He later was convicted and spent time in jail.

I met Dubay a few times over the years and found him likable. Presumably, so did Sean Barnard -- for a while.

Dubay joined Sports Radio 105 the Ticket co-host Mike Morris and me on our 3-6 p.m. show for a day and did a nice job. Unfortunately, Dubay appears to have a tendency to be quick-tempered and knee-jerk. His attack of Sean Barnard was vicious and likely ruined any chance of Barnard being listed as a reference on Dubay's resume.

The podcast is done and so might be Dubay as a broadcast personality in the Twin Cities.
 

When watching the downward spiral from the outside one might wonder if he is using again... but he said he isn't.
 

Spoofin said:
When watching the downward spiral from the outside one might wonder if he is using again... but he said he isn't.
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We're not getting the story from the best source either. Sansevere is a Barnard bootlicker. "Dubay depicting himself as a victim." Well, it's entirely possible that he is. I'd be pissed too if someone gave me those conditions to keep my job and then (if Dubay is reporting accurately) seemed to change the rules as it went. Seems like they were looking for an excuse to move him along.
 

Unregistered User said:
We're not getting the story from the best source either. Sansevere is a Barnard bootlicker. "Dubay depicting himself as a victim." Well, it's entirely possible that he is. I'd be pissed too if someone gave me those conditions to keep my job and then (if Dubay is reporting accurately) seemed to change the rules as it went. Seems like they were looking for an excuse to move him along.
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Not fair. Bootlickers have more spine.
 

Spoofin said:
When watching the downward spiral from the outside one might wonder if he is using again... but he said he isn't.
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That was exactly my thought.

To respond to Unregistered - I get your point, but look at the recent history:

1) Jailed and subsequently let go for drug use masked as cost savings (my comments - Ok, let's give him a mulligan on this one. Lots of people come clean and live clean/productive lives)
2) Let go from another station. Suspiciously quiet as to the reason by the employers (my comment: Alright, he's had some bad luck. Bad management, bad situation, you pick it)
3) Trashing former employer on Social Media. (my comment: that is the lifeline of many television/radio companies. Very, very stupid, immature, childish. Would I want to hire someone that has done this in such a public way? Nope.)

He gets what he deserves from this point. I was secretly cheering for the guy. Everyone likes a comeback story. Any thread of a chance of a comeback in the Twin Cities area is over.
 

I listened to the PA and Dubay show from the very first day it aired. It was a great story the way they started as a fill in for the "temporary" departure of Jesse Ventura and ended up building a show that was more fun to listen to than the one it replaced. I sort of found PA to be too cool and Dubay to be not cool enough, and somehow it all worked together. PA without Dubay has become "must-tune-away" radio for me and of course Dubay's problems are well documented. What a shame.
 

I thought Dubay was the better talent between him and PA, but that doesn't count for much with Dubay's well documented issues. PA is truly unlistenable. I don't mind homers, but he's like a swooning teenager when he talks about the "dreamy" Vikings.

I have lost track of Dubay. Heard he had re-surfaced at KSTP. I'm a recovered alky and I don't know if his recent behavior is indicative of him using again or just being a "dry drunk." Either way, he needs to call his sponsor.
 

It's simple. An employer can require you to take a drug test. If you refuse, you have little recourse.

I feel for Dubay. But after Bill Cosby was told by friends that drugs would "enhance one's personality," the Cos said "But what if they're an @sshole?"

You want to work, you have to follow the rules.
 

"I've never felt more beaten in my entire life."
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Thought that was an odd and over-the-top statement considering he was once convicted of a felony and spent time in jail.
 

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