Warner Wolf Says Age Bias Led to Ouster From Don Imus' Radio Show
Legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf, known for his catchphrase “Let's go to the videotape,” has sued controversial radio personality Don Imus for age discrimination, alleging that Imus fired the 80-year-old Wolf from his show and replaced him with a younger sportscaster.
February 15, 2018 at 05:09 PM
2 minute read
Legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf, known for his catchphrase “Let's go to the videotape,” has sued controversial radio personality Don Imus for age discrimination, alleging that Imus fired the 80-year-old Wolf from his show and replaced him with a younger sportscaster.
Wolf said he was let go from “Imus in the Morning,” which is broadcast from WABC, in 2016 after working for the show as a sports contributor for almost 20 years.
For most of his tenure, Wolf worked from New York City, but in 2015 he requested that he provide his broadcasts from his new residence in Naples, Florida.
In October 2016, Wolf began working out the terms of a new employment agreement with WABC program director Craig Schwalb, who is also a defendant in the case, but before the new agreement took effect, he said Imus sent Wolf an email stating that he didn't think Wolf doing sports broadcasting from Florida was working.
“You asked me if I was OK with you doing sports from Florida,” Imus said in the email, according to Wolf's suit. “I said I was. We tried it. It sucks.”
Wolf alleges that the defendants replaced Wolf with Sid Rosenberg, who is some 30 years Wolf's junior, and was deprived of a $97,500 severance package.
“As the 'videotape' in this case will unquestionably show, defendants have failed to adhere to New York's anti-discrimination laws, and have unlawfully discriminated against Mr. Wolf based upon his age,” the suit stated.
Douglas Wigdor and Kenneth Walsh of Wigdor LLP filed the suit on Wolf's behalf on Thursday. Imus, a fixture of New York City radio since the early 1970s who used to work alongside fellow shock jock Howard Stern while the two were at WNBC, will be stepping down at the end of March, according to the Twitter feed for Imus' show.
Cumulus Media Inc., which owns WABC, filed in November for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, and thus is not a party to the suit pursuant to an automatic stay imposed under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
A spokesperson for the company declined to comment.
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