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SUNDAY, MARCH 21 THE 71ST ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS WABC...
...Grant's phone anymore. Last week radio's Brahmin of bullies, 66, was disconnected from his audience on New York City's WABC. The apparent provocation: his speculation, on hearing of the crash of a plane carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, that Brown would be the one survivor--"because, at heart, I'm a pessimist...
Such an ad-lib might have been only mildly sociopathic for Grant--or, with a different target, for Howard Stern or Don Imus. But WABC is owned by Capital Cities/ABC, which is owned by Disney, a company sensitive to image befoulers and potential boycotts. After the Brown joke, Jesse Jackson wrote Disney president Michael Ovitz urging Grant's swift dismissal. Ovitz replied that "we have already determined how we will handle the situation." The next day, before air time, Grant was told he was through...
...Christine Whitman declaring she would no longer appear on Grant's show and citizens calling for the host's scalp and other body parts. But all the heat didn't hurt him. Whitman was soon back on the show. Grant achieved his highest ratings in a quarter-century. And WABC now proclaims itself the No. 1 radio station in America...
Other talk-show hosts also know what their fans like: to be flattered with a few minutes in which to say their piece on the air, then insulted into oblivion. Tangle with WABC's hosts, and you risk the sharp end of their shtick. Grant: "Ah, get off the phone, you sick degenerate!" Lyn Samuels: "Oh, shut up!" Jay Diamond: "Are you on anything? How do I know you're not poppin' speedballs?" And so it goes on politically perplexing insult radio. "A lot of talk-show hosts are opportunistic twits," says David Brudnoy, the gay libertarian (with AIDS...