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This would prove to be a source of much contention 

Tony Bruno and Josh Innes had me on their show today to basically have a debate about my previous post– that CBS Philly and WIP running with reports about Dez Bryant from Terez Owens is reckless at best. All fair, all part of this silly little February game. But the conversation quickly turned to our RADIO WARS coverage, which often focuses on Josh and the recent turmoil at WIP. You might imagine how things devolved from there. The audio is here.

Innes pressed me on my continuous reporting that he’s operations manager Andy Bloom’s “boy.” Which he is, according to the numerous people I’ve spoken to over the last year. Bloom, whose career is still a thing partly because he played a role in bringing Howard Stern to the Philly airwaves some time ago (many people have told me, separately, that he seems to think Innes is his next Stern), has put his eggs in Josh’s basket. That’s not a slight to Innes, or even Bloom, but it’s reality, or at least the best version of reality that anyone can possibly report.

Then Bloom, whom I’ve never had a conversation with in my life prior to today, saw an opportunity for classic, 90s shock jock radio sitting on a tee and jumped in the studio, calling me a “fraud” and a “first-rate a-hole” and accusing me of F-ing over people’s lives. Like a big, gravelly-voiced baby, Bloom explained how he had a problem with our (almost entirely accurate) coverage of the changes at his station. He may not have liked it*, and I get that, but that’s his problem. And I can’t help it if a good number of his employees, ex-employees and competitors think he’s a joke.

*Even if we basically served as an extension of WIP’s PR department with all of our posts about the new Afternoon show, including the one about his stupid-ass idea to give Innes a fake suspension– also accurate, by the way.

I pressed him for an example on the F-ing over people’s lives thing, because I was generally perplexed by that one, but Bloom, bravely, walked out of the studio after encouraging me to call him in his office. Which I did.

Typically, out of respect, I’d extend the professional courtesy of keeping a private conversation off-the-record, even if no such terms were discussed or even implied. But, when you call me an asshole on live radio without even attempting to explain the statement, you lose my respect.

Bloom, who’s the sort of prick who would have a Twitter handle like (@MediaMogulBloom) with an avatar of himself standing at the podium in the White House press room, explained, in no uncertain terms, that most of his ire stems from the fact that Rob Ellis found out about his demotion from me, on this site, and not from him. “That’s not my fucking problem,” I replied.

I like Rob, and genuinely feel bad that he found out he was being demoted on this site. But when basically everyone who works for WIP knows that you’re out of a job, one would assume (in this case incorrectly) that the boss had the decency to notify you as well. Alas. I also found it delightful that Bloom had the gonads (which weren’t present in the studio, apparently) to read me the riot act about integrity and doing the right thing, when he’s the guy who put Ellis through hell on Earth by making him co-host with the guy who everyone knew was about to take his job, and who let Innes go on the air day after day and bury Gargano, whom Bloom supposedly has or had some great respect for. Fucking hypocritical bullshit. GET ME THOSE SWEET SOUNDS: