After numerous motions and delays, a judge has thrown out the case of former Michigan hockey player and coach, NHL’er, and WTKA 1050AM morning host Dave Shand against U-M athletic director Bill Martin. Shand claimed he was wrongfully terminated in April 2007 from WTKA at the order of Martin, who, they argued, pressured station brass to remove the outspoken host. The gist of the complaint: 20. On April 19, 2007, Martin communicated both indirectly and directly with [WTKA station brass] Bolak and Cowen, and informed them that he would not allow WTKA to participate in a planned coverage of a UM charity golf event if they permitted plaintiff to broadcast it. 21. Martin further indicated that he wanted the station to fire the plaintiff, and stated that if they did not, he would no longer allow WTKA to carry University of Michigan football games. It appears as though Shand’s team was never able to present smoking gun evidence of Martin’s direct involvement in the firing. Shand’s attorney Nick Roumel explained via email, “Some of our evidence was hearsay because we never actually had anyone who heard Martin himself make the statements we alleged he said. We argued that the hearsay was nonetheless admissible under certain hearsay exceptions.” Roumel added, “I’m proud of Dave for standing up for his rights.” We…
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$6.6M and a dope with a Calculator
John Heuser’s piece in the Ann Arbor News, discussing this week that Rich Rodriguez’s compensation tallied up to $6.6M, was thoroughly blasted in the blogosphere– see Brian Cook’s posts on mgoblog and AOL, and the gang at Wolverine Liberation Army. Heuser was defended by his former colleague Jim Carty on his blog. JC called it a “meaty little story” and after acknowledging Brian Cook’s greatness took a few shots across the virtual bow. If you read this site regularly you might recall my October 2008 interview with Dave Shand where he reveals the scuttlebutt that Michigan was going to pay the taxes on the buy-out: Shand:…So it cost Michigan, they say $2.5 million. But I’ve heard, through back sources, that Rich Rodriguez did not realize that the $2.5 million that Michigan is paying on his behalf is taxable, so Rodriquez is going to have to pay taxes on that. Plus there’s the million and a half out of his own pocket. That was indeed scuttlebutt at the time, but then a couple weeks later Rodriguez’s contract was FOIA’d and the terms of the buy-out were revealed. Those terms included the language on the tax neutralization [from my post on October 27, 2008]: Thanks to the contract being available via FOIA, we know that this is true (here’s the full contract),…
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Carty Interview Part II: Critics, Kolarik and Barnacle Bill
Continuing the interview with former News columnist Jim Carty. In Part I we talked about his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription, and his feud with Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. In Part II we talk about some of his critics and its impact on his personal life, on his access to the team at the Capital One Bowl, on the accusations the News misled some student-athletes during the athademics series, and finally, on dubbing Michigan athletic director Bill Martin ‘Barnacle Bill’ during the coaching search: MVictors: How big of a concern was some of the criticism of your work at the News reaching your family?Jim Carty: My kids I think are too little at this point, my oldest daughter is eight and I don’t think she’s ever been aware of the controversy I create. She just sort of thinks it’s cool that I worked for the newspaper and didn’t understand why I would go back to school. At one point during the Bernard Robinson thing, when I was writing that he should be kicked out of U-M, there were some phone calls to the house that really freaked my wife out. And in general, during the backlash from the project [academic series] I think that was very disturbing to my wife.…
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Rodriguez Contract and Tax neutralization: Shand was right
Thanks for the comments, emails and the feedback on the Dave Shand interview. The Blog that Yost Built called it “one of the best things I’ve read on the blogosphere. Ever.” And there’s been all kinds of discussion on various parts of the interviews on blogs and on all the major message boards. It’s always fun to see how people react to things you post, this was a thrill. Anyway, with Coach Rodriguez signing his contract last week we’ve got some specifics on the deal and at least part of what Shand revealed in the interview is confirmed. Recall that Shand said he heard that Rodriguez didn’t realize that the buy-out portion that Michigan paid to West Virginia was taxable, here’s part of the interview: So it cost Michigan, they say $2.5 million. But I’ve heard, through back sources, that Rich Rodriguez did not realize that the $2.5 million that Michigan is paying on his behalf is taxable, so Rodriquez is going to have to pay taxes on that. Michigan… has paid taxes on the [buy-out funds] it paid on his behalf which is all taxable income… Thanks to the contract being available via FOIA, we know that this is true (here’s the full contract), see section 3.02, part (g): Shand also said he heard that the University paid all…
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Shand Uncensored: Part IV, The Rodriguez hire
The final segment of my four-part interview with former WTKA morning show host Dave Shand. In Part I, we discussed what Shand is up to these days, his lawsuit with Bill Martin, and his thoughts on the current morning crew at WTKA. In Part II, we looked at Jim Carty and the Ann Arbors News series on academics and athletics. Part III discussed Red Berenson, the future of the hockey program, and we got some of Shand’s candid feelings on how the University handled the Ed Martin mess. Wrapping things up, we turn to the Rodriguez hire. We talk about the hiring process, the deal that was allegedly struck in Toledo, the ensuing lawsuit, and finally, we get Shand’s thoughts on what Rodriguez’s system will bring on the field. Achtung! Shand uses some spicy language in this one (again). FWIW. MVictors: Michigan landed a big-name football coach in Rich Rodriguez. You’ve got a lawsuit with Bill Martin right now and of course, it was Martin who spearheaded the coaching search. What were your thoughts as you watched the coaching search unfold?: Shand: [laughing]It was a complete clusterfuck. It was an absolute disaster. And Bill Martin’s excuses, ‘I was at sea’ or whatever, I have no idea, he couldn’t contact Les Miles because he didn’t get permission from the athletic…
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Shand Uncensored: Part III, Coach Red and the Fab Five
Continuing the interview with Dave Shand. on, the future of the hockey program, and get some of Shand's thoughts on Steve Fisher and how the University handled the Ed Martin mess.
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Shand Uncensored: Part II, Jim Carty and the News Series
Continuing the interview with former WTKA morning show host Dave Shand. In Part I, we discussed what Shand is up to these days, his lawsuit with Bill Martin and his thoughts on the current morning crew at WTKA. In this installment, I serve up a few discussion topics--this time on Jim Carty and on the News athletics and academics scandal, and Shand does what he does best.
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Shand Uncensored: Part I
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with former WTKA morning show host and former NHL and Michigan hockey player Dave Shand. The 90-minute interview was held at Mac’s in downtown Saline a couple of days after Michigan’s stunning loss to Illinois. Shand is in the middle of a lawsuit with Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, who Shand claims directly caused his dismissal from the Ann Arbor radio station. The interview is broken into a few parts, first, we’ll start with the basics: What he’s up to, the status of the lawsuit, and his thoughts on his old show and the new hosts at WTKA: MVictors: It’s been a year and a half since you were fired from WTKA, what have you been up to?Shand: Right after I was fired it took me a while to absorb it because we had just received the highest ratings that any show had ever gotten in the history of the radio station. I had just received a 50% raise in pay. Literally within a month, and we were right in the middle of the spring rating period, I was fired in April 23rd. No one ever gets fired in the middle of the rating period because you want to wait until the Arbitron ratings come out to make personnel decisions. If…
