I just got off a call with Brian Hall, the program director at WWNC, to ask him to clarify statements he made to me and to the Asheville Citizen-Times regarding popular local talk radio show host Matt Mittan.
Hall reiterated what he told the Citizen-Times in a front-page story today: that Mittan was indeed suspended Thursday for questioning the sanity of national conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck. Mittan made his comments on Wednesday.
The only problem is that Hall told me Thursday night that Mittan wasn’t really suspended, that it was all just a little publicity stunt. I spoke to Hall in person at a YWCA awards banquet at the Renaissance Hotel Thursday, and I asked him about Mittan. Hall said Mittan had indeed stirred up listeners with his Beck comments on Wednesday. Mittan was sick on Thursday, Hall told me with a chuckle, but instead of saying Matt was out sick, the station put out word that Mittan had been suspended.
Hall now denies that that’s what he told me.
Meantime, I know what I heard.
Was the suspension real or not? At this point, I really can’t tell.
Hall says Mittan will be on the air at 3 p.m. today at 570 AM WWNC and will explain his side of the story. As the Citizen-Times reported today, Mittan says:
“I’ve never attacked Glenn Beck. I voiced concern about his mental stability based on what I heard on a show this morning and what I see as a deterioration of his cognitive capacity over the last few weeks or the last couple of months,” he said.
As Mittan takes to the airwaves, I’ll be in the studio right next door as a guest on Local Edge Radio, AM 880. Should be good fun.
Hall told me in our phone conversation this today that he’s amazed at how the Mittan suspension story is spreading. Hall says liberal talk radio show host Ed Schultz wants an interview, and the story is starting to spread on the interwebs.
5 Comments
Dude is it true that you reporter that Matt gave a speech at a tea party rally when he was actually out of the state?
Tune in? No. I think not. Could not care less about 570. They still on the air?
Jason,
I listen today on WWNC radio & heard Matt call you out for doing such a poor job in reporting this story. I know you to be a fair person & always doing your best to get the news out to the public either via print media or online blog.
I again thank you for standing up & giving the real story here. I do hope that Matt is feeling better with a day off work, after all this is all about Matt.
Mr.Hall do you see what you are doing?
Richard Bernier
This is the first I have heard of any of this. But I always thought that Mittan had a brain, he just wasn’t using it his full capacity. Now it looks like he may be thinking for himself.
Station management would have to be F’n stupid to suspend him for a day just for questioning Beck’s sanity. I hope that is was just a gag.