A San Francisco based sports-talk station is engaged in a messy and public dispute with a former longtime on-air personality. Ralph “The Razor” Barbieri, 66, has both type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. He claims that those conditions, as well as his age, were responsible for his dismissal from KNBR in April, 2012.
Barbieri has announced that he will file a suit seeking $10 million in damages. His lawyer argues that Barbieri’s dismissal was wrongful termination due to “Age Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, Breach of Good Faith And Fair Dealing, and Breach of Contract.” His attorney further commented, “Barbieri is 66 years old and has a slow-developing form of Parkinson’s disease, which he spoke publicly about for the first time last October, 2011. As a result of this wrongful termination, Barbieri has lost his entire salary and all health benefits.”
Baribieri says he was terminated with no notice for a pretextual cause of “being late.”
Cumulus Media, owner of KNBR, has also been publicly airing its version of events. Bill Bungeroth, a vice president with Cumulus, told The San Francisco Examiner, “The simple fact is that Ralph refused to honor some of the most basic terms of his contract.” Bungeroth added, “It is completely implausible that the termination of Ralph’s contract had anything to do with his age or the fact he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”’
Read the full article: Ralph Barbieri, Cumulus Media square off in the San Francisco Chronicle.
