Our radio sources have just discovered that former radio jock DL Hughley may actually be coming back to radio, and we also hear that that HUGE lawsuit against Emmis may not happen at all!
All of this is a bit curious because four months after launching his radio show on Emmis urban AC “Kiss FM” WRKS, New York (98.7), Hughley has yet to collect all the money he and his production company believe they’re due from syndicator URBan Radio Communications (URC). Emmis has gone to court looking to dump the syndicator but keep the host.
Hughley’s attorneys told WRKS and URBan Radio that the actor-comedian had enough and he’d done his last show. His attorneys allege Hughley had only been paid for expenses and is due nearly $360,000 — including a $72,000 signing bonus. Emmis says it was able to quickly reach a deal with Hughley to keep him on WRKS while the pay dispute is ironed-out in an effort to limit its potential losses.
Emmis filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York asking a judge to declare its agreement with URBan Radio void, arguing the company failed to provide the promised programming. Under the terms of its three-year affiliation contract with Emmis, Hughley’s show was to get $200,000 of marketing support during the first 12 months paid for by URBan Radio. But Emmis alleged in its suit, the syndicator “has not provided any.” It’s another issue the company hopes to use to get out of the Hughley contract. Emmis was also seeking an unspecified amount of monetary damages.
Court documents showed Hughley had plans beyond the New York market, as many observers had believed. The affiliation agreement spells out how many days a week he’ll broadcast from WRKS “in an effort to enhance the local perception of the show.” It also says any network distribution or engineering costs “required to syndicate the program” would be covered by URBan Radio.
Now we hear that Emmis is actually trying to get DL Hughley BACK at the station in some capacity.
After all of this, the question is why?
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