Syndicator Takes Stephanie Miller’s Show Off the Air

Stephanie Miller, whose radio talk show is syndicated in about 20 markets by ABC Radio Today, learned late Monday that the syndicator was pulling the show at least temporarily, if not indefinitely. The action, according to sources close to the show, was taken so that ABC’s legal department could investigate whether recent comments she made on her Web site and to various print and television media put her in breach of contract.

Geoff Rich, executive vice president of ABC Radio Today, would only say the show is not technically off the air, as “best of” reruns are being broadcast, until some decision is made on the future of the show. Miller’s current contract is up July 1. Calls to ABC’s legal department were not returned.

The comments under scrutiny represent Miller’s reaction to last Thursday’s decision by KABC-AM (790) to cancel “The Stephanie Miller Show” in Los Angeles, where it was broadcast weeknights from 7-9 p.m. On her Web site writing under “Why I Got Fired,” Miller contended she was taken off of the L.A. station due to everything from conflict over what she said KABC deemed the “racy content” of her show to a KABC management style in which she “was screamed at in front of my staff,” rather than the low ratings now cited by KABC.

Miller outlined the latest developments when phoned at her home Tuesday.

According to Miller, she first became aware that the situation had escalated when longtime producer, Faith Beth Lamont, showed up at KABC’s building on South La Cienega Boulevard late Monday afternoon to prepare for the syndicated show and a guard told her that she would not be allowed on the property. Miller added that she then got a phone call from her lawyer, who told her of ABC’s move.

While Miller fully expected not to be able to continue broadcasting from KABC’s facility, she said Monday that she understood from Rich that a studio would be provided for her at another ABC facility in Los Angeles.

In the posting on her Web site, https://stephaniemiller.com, that is at issue, Miller wrote: “I have never in my career been treated with such a lack of respect and common human decency, or outright hostility as by the current management of KABC. . . . “

“I have been screamed at in front of my staff minutes before I was to go on the air, told that perhaps a host on a competing station was funnier than me, and begun my show in tears,” she wrote.

“The major reason for my firing was the somewhat racy content of my show,” she continued. “ . . . There was literally a new rule almost every week for words or sounds I could not use. I was threatened with being fired so many times, I lost count. It’s like someone holding a gun to your head for two years until you finally beg them to pull the trigger.”

KABC President and General Manager Bill Sommers, noting “a Web site is a Web site and nobody polices or controls it,” said Tuesday, “We did not fire her. She works for ABC Network.” He said he would have no other comment on its contents.

Asked why KABC decided to cancel her, Sommers said, “Because of ratings.”

Until Tuesday, KABC had chosen, for the record, to talk only about “Mr. KABC,” or Marc Germain, who is Miller’s replacement. His show now runs from 7-10 p.m.

Miller’s radio show began in the summer of 1997 on sister station KTZN, the female-driven station otherwise known as “The Zone,” and then moved over to the primary station that September after the Zone segued to KDIS-AM (710). She noted that her Web site comments were directed against Sommers and Program Director Drew Hayes, not syndicator ABC Radio Today.

On Monday ABC’s Rich asked Miller to remove one specific reference on the Web site that came as she was commenting on the general disapproval of her show’s content: “This from the people that brought you the ‘black hoe’ promotion,” referring to the 1998 promotion on Disney-owned KLOS-FM (95.5)’s “Mark & Brian Show” in which black gardening tools were distributed to advertisers and listeners. “Hoe” was a play on the slang pronunciation of the word “whore,” and community leaders quickly reacted to get the station to stop the campaign.

Miller, whose show presented comic sketches and commentary on political and other topical issues from a liberal point of view, is the daughter of the late William E. Miller, who was conservative GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s running mate in 1964.

“This is kind of stunning,” Miller said Tuesday of the unfolding events. “My thought was not to bring harm to ABC or Disney. They gave me my late-night television show in 1995 and treated me very well.” Her TV show, also called “The Stephanie Miller Show” lasted three months.