Inside Radio published a story two weeks ago titled “In Sensational Lawsuit, Former Sales Rep Accuses Audacy Of Discriminatory And Retaliatory Conduct.” The suit was filed by a Philadelphia employee and mentions other Philadelphia employees, but it didn’t gain any traction here, maybe because the locals don’t know or care too much about the inner workings of radio sales.

What’s wild here is the amount of detail in the complaint, which was filed by a former account executive named Paul Bolognone, who was diagnosed in 2022 with “a serious heart condition that required multiple rounds of testing, major surgery, and a recovery period with various physical restrictions.” It goes on to say that Bolognone was terminated under the guise of a code of conduct violation, which the lawsuit claims is retaliation for the plaintiff lodging “internal complaints regarding sexually inappropriate comments made by his supervisor and a co-worker regarding a female employee.” Bolognone is seeking damages for discrimination and retaliation, plus back pay and associated punitive damages and legal fees.

The suit is about 15 pages long and alleges that two other employees were overheard talking about whether or not they would “fuck” another female employee. The woman reportedly also heard the discussion and filed a sexual harassment complaint. It then goes into detail about Bolognone’s efforts to work from home while dealing with medical issues, and some of the difficulties he says he encountered along the way.

Then there’s a passage that comes out of left field, saying this:

“(General Sales Manager Rob Kaloustian) stated that, at an event held by Defendant, a client’s General Manager’s wife was ‘hanging all over’ former Eagles player, Seth Joyner, and ‘making out’ with Joyner. Kaloustian stated that Joyner was at Defendant’s office that day and had told Kaloustian that he had been invited to the General Manager’s house to have dinner with him and his wife. Kaloustian then stated to Plaintiff, ‘Wait till [Joyner] pulls out his big black cock.’ Although Kaloustian and (another seller) laughed, Plaintiff remained silent.”

It then goes on to say that Bolognone emailed HR about the sexual comments regarding both Joyner and the female seller, but “received no response.” He was later terminated.


Right, so the summary is that the Plaintiff feels like this was a combo discrimination and retaliation job because of his health issues and the internal complaint about his supervisor’s conduct. The passage about Joyner is used as an example of the latter.

I asked a few people over there what they thought, and this was generally laughed off as typical radio sales behavior. Boys being boys isn’t exactly a legal strategy for Audacy to pursue, so we’ll see what they do in response, which is the next step in the legal process.