Cap Cities/ABC Fires Top Talk Show Personality at N.Y. Radio Station

Capital Cities/ABC Inc. fired the biggest personality at its radio station in New York on Wednesday after the conservative talk show host came under harsh criticism for remarks he had made on the air about the death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.

Several sources said that Capital Cities Chairman Robert Iger had ordered the firing of Bob Grant, for many years a controversial figure in broadcasting because of his racially tinged remarks. Sources said Iger had given Grant several warnings in recent years about his comments.

The decision also may reflect the direction of ABC under the ownership of Walt Disney Co., which is notoriously uncomfortable with controversy. On Tuesday the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote a letter to Disney President Michael Ovitz calling for Grant to be fired for “spewing ugly hate talk.”

Grant, 66, is one of New York’s most popular radio personalities and brings in an estimated $7 million in advertising each year for WABC, a source said. But he has been criticized by minority groups and avoided by some advertisers, including Dodge and AT&T.;

In his most recent controversy, after reports of a possible survivor in the plane crash that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Grant said: “My hunch is that he is the one survivor. Maybe it’s because, at heart, I’m a pessimist.” He later apologized for the remark and said: “I did not wish him dead.”

Grant previously labeled former New York Mayor David Dinkins as “the men’s room attendant,” Jackson as “jerkson,” welfare mothers as “maggots” and suggested that Haitian boat people should be allowed to drown.

The timing of the ouster led several people at ABC radio to speculate that Disney had a hand in the decision.

The top ABC radio executive recently retired and sources said new radio head Robert Callahan talked repeatedly this week about Grant’s remarks during a retreat for the management of ABC’s 21 stations in Florida that was attended by Iger.

A Disney spokesman declined comment and referred calls to ABC, which released a statement saying the relationship between Grant and ABC had been terminated by “mutual agreement.”