Several familiar voices among South Florida sports radio dismissals this week
Entercom, which owns South Florida sports stations WQAM-560 and 790 The Ticket and five local FM stations, dropped three on-air sports radio personalities as part of at least 17 layoffs locally over the past several days, according to industry sources.
The layoffs included talk show hosts Zack Duarte, Kevin Rogers and Rashad Butler, as well as multiple sports producers.
Entercom, whose revenues have taken a hit amid the coronavirus pandemic, administered mass layoffs and pay cuts nationally this week. The nationwide cuts, beyond on-air talent, also included salespeople, managers and part-time employees, among others.
Also, employees at both the South Florida stations and nationally have been given pay cuts from 10 to 20 percent, depending on their salary, according to a station staffer.
Duarte, who was let go on Thursday, was named 790 The Ticket’s evening host last year. He also works as a personal trainer.
“No one knows what the future holds but I am proud of what I have achieved and excited for what I will do next,” Duarte said in a post on Facebook.
790 The Ticket has gone to national programming at night in recent days instead of the usual mix of live games and Duarte’s talk show. Even before all college and pro sports went on hiatus, WQAM already had been airing national programming on nights without Miami Hurricanes or Florida Panthers games.
Butler, a former Miami Hurricanes and NFL offensive lineman, had been making several weekly appearances on The Ticket over the past two years in a part-time role. He appeared in 51 NFL regular-season games, for Carolina, Houston and Texas.
Butler said the station indicated there’s a possibility he could be brought back eventually when normalcy returns. “I enjoyed my time at Entercom, would love to be brought back,” he said.
Rogers, who was let go on Tuesday, has worked as a talk show host and a studio host on WQAM’s Panthers and Hurricanes basketball games and filled in on basketball play-by-play when Hurricanes voice Joe Zagacki was working conflicting UM football games.
Like Butler, it’s possible Duarte and Rogers also could be brought back when sports resume.
The departures of that troika were the latest in a series of financially-motivated dismissals at WQAM and The Ticket over the past nine months.
Others dropped since last July include Josh Friedman, Curtis Stevenson and Brian London. Greg Likens left a part-time role last year for a job in another industry. Former UM All-American center Brett Romberg left The Ticket last July for reasons that were never explained and now works for 1210 AM The Man.
Alex Donno was dropped from his full-time WQAM midday talk show job last August but re-joined the stations in a part-time capacity a few months ago and remained with Entercom as of Thursday afternoon.
Here’s my Thursday piece on how Don Shula and the 1972 Dolphins are dealing with coronavirus.
Here’s my Thursday Hurricanes 6-pack.
Here’s my Thursday Tua Tagovailoa update, including a warning from a former Dolphins executive and a look at his injury history.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 5:59 PM.
