NYC Radio: Dan Taylor OUT At WCBS-FM

Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor, a longtime personality at Classic Hits WCBS 101.1 FM, has abruptly left the company amid a broadening investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James into the legacy brands of the CBS media empire, The NYPost is reporting.

The New York AG’s office is investigating CBS Radio for workplace misconduct, including explosive harassment allegations against Taylor and other hosts that were documented last year, according to one person familiar with the investigation.

Those included accusations that Taylor, a 40-year veteran who read the news and spun oldies during weekday afternoons at CBS Radio, referred to another radio host as a “f–king Jew bastard,” called a marketing manager a “dyke” and described a potential co-worker as “faggy,” according to an HR complaint to CBS Radio.

The CBS Radio probe appears to be an outgrowth of the sexual misconduct investigation into former CBS CEO Les Moonves, who was ousted last year amid accusations that he sexually harassed female employees, sources said. Moonves has denied the allegations.

The New York AG’s investigation appears to be looking into problems not only at CBS Corp. itself, but also at brands that it previously owned including CBS Radio, which it spun off two years ago to Entercom Communications, according to a source close to the situation.

The New York AG’s CBS investigation is “not just TV,” according to the source.

CBS Radio, which was started in 1926, was under the CBS Corp. umbrella until 2017, when radio giant Entercom finalized its acquisition of the station, making it the second-largest radio company in the US.

The exit ends Taylor's third tour of duty at the famed oldies/classic hits station. Fresh out of high school, Taylor began his career at the CBS-FM in 1976 when he was 21. After a brief stint, he was named afternoon personality at WHN 1050 AM. Prominent shifts continued at WNBC 660 AM and WNSR Mix 105, before he had a homecoming at CBS-FM in the late 1990s.  Taylor returned to WCBS-FM in 2007 when the station dropped its flirtation with the Jack-FM format and returned to a classic hits format.

The WCBS-FM website has been scrubbed of all references to Taylor.