Not long after WRKO-AM (680) fired talk show host John DePetro in 2006 for making homophobic remarks about two state officials, WTKK-FM (96.9) gathered its on-air talent, out-of-town and local, for an all-star event. Each host was invited to deliver an opening monologue, then take a seat onstage for a round-table discussion.
Like WRKO, WTKK thrives on provocative programming, none more envelope-pushing than Jay Severin, the station's feisty afternoon drive-time host. A self-described libertarian and "rock 'n' roll Republican," Severin has long been locked in a ratings war with another right-of-center local radio personality, WRKO's Howie Carr. When Severin walked onstage, however, he wasn't sputtering about Hillary Rodham Clinton or Jesse Jackson, two favorite targets of his.
In fact, his mouth was duct-taped shut.
As he subsequently made clear, not only was Severin demonstrating solidarity with DePetro, he was putting his bosses on notice that he would keep speaking his mind in the pot-stirring manner to which he and his listeners were accustomed. As one attendee later put it, "Part of Jay's shtick is he never backs down. Contrition is just not his thing."
Whether Severin can afford to stay unrepentant is questionable.
On April 30, WTKK slapped Severin with an indefinite suspension for making derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. "In addition to venereal disease," he said at one point, "and other leading exports of Mexico - women with mustaches and VD - now we have swine flu." Continuing in that vein, Severin called America "the magnet for primitives from around the world," adding: "Millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you." He also said hospital emergency rooms had become "essentially condos for Mexicans" and expressed surprise that Americans hadn't been exposed to more serious diseases before, "considering the number of criminaliens already here."
A firestorm of protest followed, led by organizations such as the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition. In suspending Severin, Greater Media Inc., which owns WTKK, issued a statement affirming its commitment to "basic principles of civility, common decency, and respect for all cultures."
Three weeks later, there are no signs of Severin returning to the airwaves.
Severin had been warned before about crossing the line from edgy to hateful. With his ratings dropping - from third place in his time slot last fall to 14th place (with roughly 151,000 listeners) during the first quarter of 2009 - and advertisers pulling out, Severin, who earns what is widely assumed to be an annual salary of $1 million or more, suddenly looked vulnerable to a lethal combination of economic and cultural forces. Negotiations between Severin and Greater Media are ongoing, according to WTKK spokeswoman Heidi Raphael. Station executives and Severin declined to be interviewed for this article.
The most baffling aspect of Severin's suspension is not what he said, but the blowback it caused, say media observers who have followed his career and who now speculate that Greater Media is looking to shed salary in disciplining Severin, assuming they want him back at all.
"This is probably more driven by economics than anything," says Emily Rooney, host of WGBH's "Greater Boston" and a regular Severin listener. "I was tuned in that day, and nothing Jay said jumped out at me."
Since the election of President Barack Obama, Rooney added, the tone of Severin's program has become increasingly negative, conceivably to the point of alienating management and listeners alike. "Two weeks' punishment seems normal in these situations," Rooney says. "Anything longer, and you're talking firing."
Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, agrees that Severin had been sounding "unhinged" lately, even compared with other conservative talkers like Carr and Michael Graham. "At least they're on the same planet we are," said Kennedy, who writes a blog called "Media Nation." "Jay is somewhere else. Maybe there's a way to bring him back and boost ratings, but he'll have to do it with a different type of show."
Severin's history suggests that is unlikely, given his penchant for rhetorical grenade-tossing. From calling Al Gore "Al Whore" to recommending that rather than the United States befriending Muslims, "I think we should kill them," as he said during a 2004 broadcast, Severin has made shock-talk his stock in trade. (He did apologize for the latter comment, maintaining that he was speaking about terrorists, not Muslims in general.)
Radio personalities like Severin "go on a dangerous mission," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, which covers the talk radio industry. "They have to go to the edge of the limb, and sometimes they get left there" by station management and advertisers.
Such was the case with Don Imus two years ago, when his crude remarks about a women's basketball team prompted CBS Radio to cancel his syndicated show. Imus returned to the airwaves last year.
Severin "comes from a partisan background and plays it that way," said Harrison, whose magazine ranks him number 57 (Carr is number 56) on its list of America's 100 most important talk radio hosts. "We consider him important because of his longevity and because he occupies a major time slot on a major station in a major market. Jay is a primary example of localism."
Media critic Rory O'Connor, coauthor of "Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio," is less admiring of Severin's talents. He and Imus are "serial transgressors" on matters of race, gender, and ethnicity, O'Connor says.
Severin, 58, has been something of a mystery man since debuting on local airwaves in 1999. Born James Severino, he graduated from Vassar College, then worked as a Republican political consultant before WTKK hired him for its afternoon drive-time show once Greater Media converted the station (formerly jazz-formatted WSJZ) to all-talk.
In an 2000 Globe interview, the former left-leaning Severin cited Rush Limbaugh as his media hero. But Severin also called himself less serious than Limbaugh and harder to pigeonhole politically: in favor of abortion rights, a "nearly radical environmentalist," as he put it, and a swinging libertine unabashed about discussing his bedroom exploits on air. He has seldom discussed his marriage and family life with the same vigor, though. Severin has been married to Renee Klock, a writer and editor, since 1997; they live in Manchester-by-the-Sea with their young daughter.
Severin has courted controversy off the air as well. In 2001, WTKK was forced to acknowledge that he was regularly broadcasting a "live and local" Boston show from his home studio in Sag Harbor, N.Y. His claims to have a master's degree from Boston University and a Pulitzer Prize for online journalism were exposed as fraudulent, too, and his feuds with several high-profile women in Boston media - including Rooney and Margery Eagan, a WTKK colleague - have further fed the perception of Severin as a difficult, diva-like personality.
In 2005, Severin left WTKK to sign a syndication deal with CBS Radio's Westwood One, where he hosted a nighttime talk show that aired nationwide. He was replaced in the WTKK lineup by Graham. Severin also appeared on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show as a political commentator. After WTKK picked up Severin's show for its 7-10 p.m. slot, its strong ratings helped persuade Greater Media to draw him back to the Hub, buying out his CBS contract and signing him to a seven-year deal.
When she took over as WTKK program director two years ago, Grace Blazer told the Globe that she believed her station's hosts could freely speak their minds without straying into Imus territory.
"For instance," she said, "Jay Severin goes to the edge but doesn't necessarily cross it in a disrespectful way to his audience."
Whether he is now perceived to have crossed that line could determine whether Severin, contrite or not, has another act ahead of him in local talk radio.