Goliath vs. Plaster
What does Gaylord have to gain by keeping George Plaster off the air?
by Matt Pulle
Former SportsNight host George Plaster helped rescue WWTN-99.7 from the verge of bankruptcy, turning it into one of the highest rated radio stations in the city. But as a token of appreciation, Gaylord Entertainment Co., continues to do all it can to keep him off the air.
Why Gaylord would stick it to its former media wonder boy is a confounding bit of corporate behavior. Plaster’s show was more than a ratings juggernaut—it was a refreshing, civil outpost in a loud and often savage sports talk world where every host wants to be the next Jim Rome.
A little recap: In the spring, Gaylord sold WTN and WSM-FM to Cumulus Broadcasting for $65 million. It held on to WSM-AM, the venerable traditional country station. During the changeover, SportsNight remained on the air, but Plaster and Cumulus couldn’t negotiate a new agreement. So he left the show, where he was reported to be squabbling with co-hosts Blake Fulton and The Tennessean’s Joe Biddle. Plaster was ready to enlist in WGFX-FM’s new all-talk format and go head-to-head with his old station, but right before he was to start work for his new employer, Gaylord filed an injunction to keep Plaster off the air, saying that his contract was still valid. In fact, Gaylord has continued to pay Plaster to stay at home and plans to for the duration of his contract. But Plaster wants free of it—and wants to do what he loves, which is talk sports. So, Last week, he filed a countersuit, claiming that Gaylord has misinterpreted the “pay or play” clause in his contract.
Contract law can be counterintuitive and, for all we know, Gaylord’s case against Plaster might be legally sound. In fact, in issuing an injunction last August, Chancellor Irvin Kilcrease said as much, noting that Gaylord could suffer “irreparable harm” if Plaster goes on the air for a competing radio station. So we’re not going to quibble with Gaylord’s legal grievances, strategy or motivation.
But the company’s PR instincts are screwy. Kilcrease’s opinion aside, it makes little sense for a company reeling from a series of image-tarnishing imbroglios—including, most notably, the Predators lawsuit—to keep a popular broadcaster from hosting a sports show that doesn’t in any real way compete with an AM country station. Why does Gaylord even care about Plaster?
Gaylord tried to suggest a reason for muzzling the broadcaster. In an August hearing, its lawyers suggested that WSM-AM hasn’t completely abandoned the thought of dropping its country format in favor of an all-sports lineup. In that scenario, Plaster could either be a valuable contributor or a competitor. That might be a mere excuse to justify the lawsuit. Last year, Gaylord provoked community outrage when it hinted at the possibility of switching WSM’s format. It’s unlikely the company will want to deal with all of that again.
“Could there be a small sports segment on 650 WSM one day? It’s possible,” says Jim Brown, the company’s spokesman. “But make no mistake: WSM-AM is and will continue to be Nashville’s country legend.”
No one really knows what Gaylord’s doing. But if it wants to dispel the long-held image as Nashville’s 800-pound gorrilla, suing a sports geek from Bellevue is probably not the way to go.
Give it up for Phil
WTVF-Channel 5’s Phil Williams is the one reporter in town who breaks news again and again. He’s simply a machine. Even after a misfire or two, he comes back with another scoop, forcing the rest of the city’s press corps to either catch up or pretend that his latest reportorial coup wasn’t news. On Tuesday, both The Tennessean and the The City Paper struggled to explain why Gov. Phil Bredesen issued death row inmate Philip Workman a four-month reprieve. Both reported that it was related to a pending federal investigation without too much more detail.
But Monday, Williams and colleague Ben Hall reported that the federal investigation involves Shelby County medical examiner O.C. Smith. “Fifteen months ago, Smith claimed he was tied up with barbed wire and left with what appeared to be a bomb strapped to his body,” they reported. “Investigators questioned whether the whole thing was staged.”
What does that have to do with the Workman case? Well, Smith was the same guy who testified at Workman’s clemency hearing that, according to his own tests, Workman’s bullet, not friendly fire, killed a Memphis police officer. Smith contradicted the testimony of a nationally recognized pathologist, who claimed that Workman probably didn’t fire the fatal bullet. If O.C. Smith is lying about being attacked, then who’s to say his testimony about who killed the police officer isn’t fabricated too? That’s why Bredesen had no choice but to grant Workman at least a temporary reprieve.
The Tennessean and The City Paper have stricter rules than Channel 5 about using unattributed sources, so maybe that’s why their accounts lacked the kind of key details Channel 5 managed to confirm. But, then again, Williams keeps beating his peers in print—from the questionable judgement of former UT President John Shumaker to how former Gov. Don Sundquist’s allies received generous state contracts.
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