An Open Letter to Bob Matthews. RE: A Debate with......

  






August 22, 2018
　

Mr. Matthews:

I have been an off-and-on listener to your show since it premiered in 1985.

You are a rarity in talk-radio: someone who, regardless of one's opinion, argues in a reasonable manner, with evidence to support your claims.

You are also willing to let callers contribute without talking over them.

I listened to the segment on your August 15 show, in which you and several callers discussed a potential on-air debate between you and Alan "Brother Wease" Levin, the morning shock-jock on WHAM 1180's sister station, Radio 95.1 (WAIO FM).

I respectfully ask that you reconsider pursuing such a venture.

It is not because you can't score points in a debate with Levin.

It is because Levin is an insufferable, intolerant bully who is not willing to debate.

Ask Bob Lonsberry.


The same Bob Lonsberry who, in 2003, questioned then-Mayor-For-Life Bill Johnson's fitness to run Monroe County during his race against Maggie Brooks for County Executive.

What did he say?

"A monkey's loose up at the zoo again--and he's running for county executive."

No mention was made of Johnson.

Lonsberry simply intimated that neither Brooks nor Johnson were great shakes as candidates.

Hence, the monkey remark.

A group of civil-rights busy-bodies accused him or racism and scared WHAM-1180's managers into firing him.

Oh, he did come back when the bosses noticed that ratings in his old time slot were crashing.

He just had to go through programming (a.k.a.: sensitivity training) before returning to the airwaves

About eight years or so ago, not long after IHeart Rochester hired Levin, Levin and Lonsberry were paired in a regular debate segment on Levin's show called " 'Bobbin' and Weasin.' "

During one of these segments, Levin called Lonsberry a slang term for the male reproductive organ.

They may have been called to the station manager's office, and were told to cool it.

Over the last 30-plus years, Levin has been notorious for verbally abusing callers who disagreed with him.

He has also been known, on countless occasions, to make accusations without providing supporting evidence, a practice commonly associated with people of his ilk.

I, along with a local blogger, who has asked for anonymity, have been blocked by Levin after realizing that can't stand being called out on his statements.

Don't take my word for it.
Go to his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/alan.levin.10), and see for yourself.
He has also had a long history objectifying women as sexual objects.

For example: last year, he ran a contest to coincide with the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, which he called "NCTnA."

I don't think the term "NCTnA" lends itself to one's imagination.

He has often mimicked the dialogue of black people in his speech (e.g.: "peoples," "you is").

He has frequently used racial slurs, like the n-word for blacks.

He has used slurs against gays, like the f-word, during his career.

He has repeatedly said he uses them "in context" whenever, or before, he is called out on them.

He has also used variations of two words that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has banned from the public airwaves: the slang terms for "breasts" and "urinate."

Google "George Carlin/Seven Dirty Words."

He recently has added a new word to his on-air vocabulary: the slang term for "anal passage."

In July 2017, he bragged on-air about feeding his under-aged son, Sammy, and several of his under-aged friends, alcohol while they were staying at his Sodus Point retreat (audio link @ https://www.iheart.com/podcast/471-Brother-Wease-Show-28229881/episode/underrage-drinking-party-7-25-17-28333838/).

 
IHeart managers have long since pulled the audio clip from its Radio 95.1 Facebook page.

He said at the beginning of the segment, "I know it's illegal, but I don't care, because it was once legal, so it can't be that bad."

In my August 1, 2017 e-mail to several businesses, including Seabreeze Amusement Park, and the Rochester Red Wings, I wrote ......
 
"..... unless or until Mr. Alan "Brother Wease" Levin is dismissed from IHeart Rochester's staff, (I) will not patronize businesses that, through their underwriting of "The Brother Wease Show," condone this type of abusive behavior and wanton disregard for the law."

If anyone else on IHeart Rochester's on-air staff has committed any of the acts described in this letter, that person would have been fired.

However, his bosses, Joseph Bonnadano........

 
 
....  and Robert Morgan, have seen fit to let things slide with Levin.

Levin has friends in high places besides station management: I would dare say the mayor-for-life, Lovely Warren, a good number of local media personalities, and several of this city's struggling hack comics (as a former open-mike comic, I know about his connections with comics at the local and national level).

Even this area's self-styled pizza maven and struggling soccer promoter, Sal Fauntuzzo, is an ally, regardless of whether Levin bragged about committing a Class-A Misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail (Unlawful Dealing with a Minor).

　

"I personally don't respond to threats and I don't appreciate you threatening me and trying to get a Rochester icon fired," he replied.
 
What is so threatening about refusing to do business with someone who advertises on a show hosted by a Howard Stern wannabe, whom, despite bragging about having more listeners than Stern OVER 20 YEARS AGO, cannot break into larger markets outside Rochester, NY?

Levin's behavior, at least, on the air, belies his daily sign-off: "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

His charitable activities, including his role with his own children's charity, are only tools of self-aggrandizement and publicity.

I would, in conclusion, advise you not to enter an on-air debate with Levin, as it would very likely, in a fiasco similar to the aforementioned episode with Lonsberry.


Thank you.

Sincerely,

Bill Franklin

　

P.S.: no mention was made in this letter of the sexual harassment lawsuits filed against Levin by the late Jodi Strata and Cindy Pierce in the late-1990s, while Levin was employed at a rival station. Both were eventually settled out of court. Levin was later sued by Pierce for violating a gag order related to this case.