Rochester NY Radio: Co-Host EXITS WPXY Over Pay Disparity

Whitney Young

Whitney Young, morning radio show host at Entercom's WPXY 97.9 FM, has announced her departure from the station. 

At issue, pay disparity.

Young, who teamed with Corey James from 5:30 to 10 a.m. weekdays to host #TeamPXY, said, "I choose to leave my position as morning show host, because my male co-host's salary was nearly double my own, and I was unable to negotiate a raise that would reduce the pay disparity."

She continued, "This inequality is in conflict with my most deeply held beliefs."

Young co-hosted the show with James on 97.9 WPXY for the past year. She cited other examples of pay inequality in her statement, including Hoda Kotb who was brought in to replace Matt Lauer on NBC's Today Show.

I no longer work for 98PXY. This is my official statement. #EqualPayNow pic.twitter.com/6mEId7nDb1

— WHITNEY YOUNG (@whitneyyoung) July 11, 2019

Young reiterated that she has "no bad blood with my co-host. He's a good friend, a talented showman, a dependable colleague, and fully deserving of his salary. I do not believe he was overpaid, but rather that I was underpaid. We had fun doing the show, and I will miss that."

Young said she has no job lined up at this point and added that walking away from a "stable paycheck is risky at best and stupid at worst. But for me, it was necessary."

References to her and her biography have been scrubbed from the PXY website.