Friday, October 11, 2013

Talker Tantaros Sues As TRN Woes Mount

Andrea Tantaros
Fox News’ “The Five” host Andrea Tantaros has sued Talk Radio Network, the home of her radio talk show, accusing the company of fraud and breaching its contract with the conservative media star, leaving her with a nearly staff-less show that could only book “‘C-list’ quality guests.”

Tantaros also sent a letter to TRN terminating her employment agreement on Wednesday, the suit said.

“This is a situation entirely of TRN’s own making,” Tantaros’ lawyer, Joseph Cane, told TheWrap.

“TRN’s dire financial troubles have unfortunately affected its ability to uphold multiple contact responsibilities to Ms. Tantaros. Andrea loves doing radio, values her affiliates and has fulfilled the duties of her contract for the past two months while TRN has kept her in the dark, fired her staff, and the staff at TRN necessary to sell the show to advertisers.”

In the suit, Tantaros said that TRN’s president and CEO Mark Masters made several false statements to recruit her for a radio show, including that Laura Ingraham, whose show Tantaros replaced, “was a nightmare, difficult to deal with, and an impossible and unfair negotiator and that is why Defendant TRN was planning to part ways with Ms. Ingraham and why her coveted time slot would be available.”

TRN also promised to invest millions of dollars into promoting Tantaros’ new show to the approximately 300 local stations with which it had syndication deals. Tantaros’ decision to enter into a contract with TRN was based on those statements; as her salary was determined by a combination of a fixed rate ($300,000) and a percentage of revenue, TRN’s ability to earn that revenue was important.

“TRN induced Andrea into the contract based on a set of material misrepresentations of fact,” Cane said.

Making matters worse, the suit says, TRN “laid off most of its staff and many others simultaneously ‘resigned’ from their positions, including, and critically, most of Defendant TRN’s sales team.” Some of those staffers worked on Tantaros’ show and were replaced by members of Mark Masters’ family.

TRN’s “implosion,” the suit said, has caused Tantaros’ own brand and reputation to suffer. Her Fox News employer has “repeatedly expressed its concern at the implosion of Defendant TRN.”

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