DAVID LEE ROTH: 'I Was Booted, Tossed, And It's Going To Cost Somebody'

April 21, 2006

The Associated Press is reporting that rocker-turned-radio host David Lee Roth, who accepted the no-win task of replacing ratings king Howard Stern in January, was bounced from the airwaves Friday (April 21) after barely three months on the air in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and four other markets.

"I was booted, tossed, and it's going to cost somebody," Roth said on his last show, intimating that his lawyers would go after CBS Radio for the full compensation due from his reported $4 million contract. The timing of the move was interesting: It arrived just days before the Roth show's first Arbitron numbers.

CBS Radio spokeswoman Shavonne Harding said the company would have an announcement soon on its plans. She declined any other comment, and would not say who will replace the former VAN HALEN frontman on Monday's morning drive time shift.

Roth said he was only told about the syndicated show's demise while riding in a car to the WFNY-FM studios in Manhattan.

His replacements, in a hiring fraught with bizarre subplots, will be shock jocks Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia — currently available only to the 6.5 million listeners on XM satellite radio.

"Apparently we can talk about it now. So much for keeping a lid on this," the pair said Friday on their show's Web site. "'The Opie and Anthony Show' will be replacing David Lee Roth in several markets on CBS Radio Free-FM stations."

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