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MORNING RADIO MELTDOWN (2#) -

# Curtis and Kuby was a successful bicker team in the morning drivetime slot in the New York City Metro area for almost a decade.

New corporate ownership arrived recently and ended the show's run. Their show was replaced with Don Imus.

Most listeners are acutely aware of
the following fact from David Hinkley:

"Curtis and Kuby regularly had more
listeners than Imus when Imus was on WFAN."

Although I have moved outside the C&K listening area, I am deeply saddened by these events.

So much so, that I spent much of last night catching up with the background of this situation on the Radio Message Board from which I learned that the radio station's new owner fired Kuby a month before the end of the show's run. I am appalled at how shabbily the new owner treated Ron Kuby. As a former listener, I often didn't agree with either Curtis or Kuby, but I don't think that Kuby should have been discharged in this utterly tacky way. I'm quite confident that Curtis must have had some non-compete clause in his contract, making this abuse of Kuby absolutely gratuitous.

Meanwhile, the return of Imus is being turned into a distasteful industry. I understand that Barbara Walters is scheduled to interview him. She's really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one, in my opinion.

# So, it was the first day out of the gate this morning for Imus... and what has it produced thus far? Anti-semitism.

His new sidekick is an African-American woman named Karith Foster. And this is her idea of a joke:

Despite her Texas roots, "I'm really a Jewish girl from Long Island trapped in this body, which technically makes me a JA-AP [Jewish African-American Princess]," she jokes on her Web site.

"So it's not 'talk to the hand,' but 'talk to the manicure.''

Just for the record: I dress mostly from LL Bean and I don't get any manicures. And I'm not laughing.

I am offended and disgusted that I still have to put up with this kind of obnoxious crap in the 21st Century.

The radio station's new owner replaced an entertaining, educational and worthwhile show with a cranky sourpuss and his crew who made their debut already spewing anti-semitism.

The Curtis and Kuby bicker team was valuable for numerous reasons, not the least of which was that they provided a model for listeners demonstrating that people can disagree without killing each other. In an era when the public discourse has become increasingly pervaded by incivility, it will be sorely missed.

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