RADIO WARS: Angelo Cataldi Alleges Age Discrimination in Departure of Longtime WIP Producer Joe Weachter

Howard Eskin had Angelo Cataldi on his Saturday morning podcast. The discussion was alright until almost the very end, when the pair started talking about the radio business and Cataldi totally came out of left field with this comment on the recent departure of his longtime producer, Joe Weachter:

Cataldi: “What happened to my producer, who was pretty much my producer for the whole time I was there – Joe Weachter – a great producer, and a terrific guy, was just wrong. It was awful. It was, in my estimation, age discrimination. He was let go because he was older, and on a ledger sheet he made a certain amount of money, and the corporate people couldn’t justify it. It’s a different world than what it was then. And frankly it’s not a world I’m happy about. I don’t think they treat people fairly, the way they used to. So many people now get caught because it’s better for the company not to have to pay them. It’s a money decision.” 

Eskin followed up by noting that Audacy recently came out of bankruptcy, which has had a significant impact on 94 WIP, 1210 WPHT, KYW News Radio, and all of the local stations in the cluster.

Last month, the Philadelphia-based company cut about 200 jobs, WIP veterans Weachter and Dave Breitmaier among them. Weachter’s departure was presented as retirement, and they did a really nice send off for him, though sources told Crossing Broad that Weachter was more or less given the wink wink, nudge nudge of “it’s time for you to retire,” management figuratively pointing to the bold and italicized writing on the wall. That’s not dissimilar to what was done with all of the old white guys at the Inquirer, who were herded towards the buyout door.

It is, of course, interesting to hear Cataldi outright allege age discrimination. Difficult to prove in most cases, if not totally impossible. Suffice to say, Audacy wouldn’t be the first company in the history of the world to move on from an older, higher-paid employee in order to bring through one younger and cheaper. The bankruptcy thing also provides impenetrable cover, kind of like COVID, when Audacy cut a number of six-figure mid-career employees under the (quite possibly justified) guise of global pandemic response.

In the case of the morning show specifically, James Seltzer produced Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie’s show before Cataldi retired and management shifted the daypart lineup. Audacy could have easily trimmed the staff from the beginning, citing the redundancy of having two producers on one show. That was, of course, pre-bankruptcy, and wiping out the entirety of the morning show staff and talent at that point would have been especially cutthroat in an already cutthroat world.

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