Boston Shock Jock Fired

The Boston Globe reports:

Jay Severin, the highly paid radio talk show host whose provocative on-air comments twice resulted in suspensions, was fired by WTKK-FM (96.9) yesterday.

Severin was let go because he did not maintain an “appropriate level of civility and adhere to a standard that respects our listeners and the public at large,’’ according to a statement released by Greater Media Inc., which owns WTKK. “Unfortunately, it had become clear at several points in the past two years that Jay was either unwilling or unable to maintain our standards on the air.’’

Severin, who signed a seven-year contract in 2006 that pays him close to $1 million a year, was suspended last week for defending the idea of a boss sleeping with female staffers. He had done so himself, he said, “because I could.’’

Although his show had struggled in the ratings in recent years, Severin’s firing may signal a diminished appetite for incendiary talk. Michael Harrison, publisher of the radio industry magazine Talkers, said there has been a gradual change in the culture of talk radio.

“There’s less tolerance for frivolous, insulting, or offensive behavior,’’ Harrison said.

Boston has had its share of talk-show controversies over the years.

In 1998, the shock-talk duo Opie & Anthony was fired by WAAF after broadcasting a bogus April Fool’s report that Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino had been killed in a car accident. In 2003, WEEI’s highly rated morning hosts John Dennis and Gerry Callahan were suspended for two weeks after comparing a gorilla that had escaped from Franklin Park Zoo to a Metco student.

And in 2006, WRKO suspended former host John DePetro for using a slur for homosexual in reference to then-Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew Amorello.

Severin’s tenure had been particularly tumultuous. A self-described libertarian and “rock ‘n’ roll Republican,’’ he arrived on local airwaves in 2000 and immediately displayed his fondness for rhetorical bombshells. He used a crude epithet to refer to Hillary Rodham Clinton, called President Obama “demonstrably a racist,’’ and said that in his world “the poor and stupid would starve.’’

Severin was pulled off the radio in 2009 after he called Mexican immigrants “primitives,’’ “leeches,’’ and exporters of “women with mustaches and VD.’’ He returned to the air a month later, apologizing for his “hurtful, unkind, and wrong’’ commentary. Severin did not return calls yesterday, but his attorneys, George Tobia and Laura Studen, did.