Bitter Contract Fight Killed Hedgecock Show

A demand by former Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s representative for a one-page agreement committing KGTV (Channel 10) to 13 weeks of Hedgecock’s talk show led to the show’s sudden demise, station officials said Friday.

The talk show was canceled Wednesday after the first and only episode had aired the previous Sunday.

According to Channel 10 program manager Don Lundy, he and Mel Buxbaum, Hedgecock’s former press secretary and the show’s producer, had reached an agreement on a contract calling for 13 weeks of the show. The contract included provisions giving the station the right to review the show’s subject matter before production and to cancel the show if it did not attract ratings.

On Wednesday, however, Lundy said Buxbaum called and said that Hedgecock would not do the next show, scheduled to be taped Thursday, unless the station signed a one-page agreement committing the station to 13 weeks.

“I didn’t want to get stuck with a show that was a loser,” Lundy said. “It is something we do with every show.”

Buxbaum said Friday that he never made any demands, that he only sought to further negotiate the contract the station had sent him. The deal fell through, Buxbaum said, when Channel 10 refused to negotiate. Quinn and Lundy had promised to supply the one-page agreement, he added.

On his KSDO-AM (1130) talk show Thursday morning, several callers suggested that the show had been canceled because Channel 10 wanted to avoid controversial subjects. Hedgecock encouraged listeners to call the station to complain.

“I find it inconceivable that viewers and listeners would make that assumption and Hedgecock, knowing the truth, would play along with it,” Channel 10 general manager Ed Quinn said Friday, noting that Channel 10 airs such “controversial” personalities as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Tuck and Morton Downey Jr.

“We’re certainly not afraid of controversy,” Quinn said. “That’s simply ridiculous.”

According to Lundy, the agreed-upon contract gave control of the show to Buxbaum’s production company, with only a few standard content “review” stipulations. However, the agreement that Hedgecock wanted would have given the ex-mayor “carte blanche” to put anything on the air, Quinn said.

“All he wanted was a one-page agreement that essentially said ‘We love Roger and we will do 13 weeks,’ ” Quinn said. “As a businessman I just couldn’t do that.”

Buxbaum said several provisions in the contract he received Wednesday, including the subject review clause, were never discussed in his negotiations with Lundy.

According to Hedgecock, Channel 10 was seeking control of the content.

“The contract that came back basically said they could cancel the show at any time,” Hedgecock said, noting that he was not involved in the contract negotiations. He refused to comment further.

Channel 10 officials said the subject review clause was only an attempt to keep the show lively. A first attempt at a show was shelved after both Channel 10 and Hedgecock agreed it was not up to expected levels. After the first taping, most of Buxbaum’s production staff either quit or was fired.

“We were having so much trouble with Mel, we weren’t going to get into a situation with a loosey-goosey, open-ended deal from one show to the next,” Quinn said.