I’ve read the federal complaint filed by former WTKA morning host Dave Shand against Michigan AD Bill Martin. The MVictors legal team consulted on the matter over a few beers at Fraser’s Pub in Ann Arbor & here’s the assessment: One of the factors that makes this case difficult is that Shand’s employment relationship with WTKA presumably was at-will, meaning he could have quit, or WTKA could have fired him, at any time for no reason. There is somewhat of a split in Michigan over whether a former employee can sue another person for interfering with an at-will employment relationship, but recent case law suggests that the at-will nature alone does not invalidate a claim – that is, we have an expectation that our at-will employment relationship with our employer will not be wrongfully undermined by an outsider. More importantly, the at-will nature of the relationship makes it difficult to prove damages and this issue would likely be hotly contested by the parties just to determine whether the case should even go to a jury. Martin would argue that the damages are overly speculative so the case shouldn’t go to a jury, while Shand would have to argue that there is a reasonable basis to compute his damages. Another point that Martin’s side might argue is that he had a…
-
-
Shand vs. Bill Martin: Complete Federal Complaint
MVictors obtained a copy of the complaint filed yesterday in federal court against Michigan athletic director Bill Martin. Here’s a full version of the complaint in .pdf format we requested and received from Shand’s legal team. MVictors.com exclusive legal correspondent from the firm of Charleys, Ricks and Frasers is reviewing the complaint right now and we’ll be posting a few comments soon. Here’s an excerpt from the complaint, where things get interesting: 19. This relationship [between WTKA and Michigan athletics] became threatened when defendant Martin became increasingly irritated with plaintiff’s occasional outspoken criticisms of the UM athletic program, and possibly other on-air comments. 20. On April 19, 2007, Martin communicated both indirectly and directly with 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. 22. Martin had no supervisory authority whatsoever over WTKA, Bolak, Cowen or plaintiff, and he and the UM Athletic Department were completely independent of the radio station except for the license to broadcast football games and related programming. 23. Martin’s interference…
-
Shand Won’t Surrender: Files Suit on Bill Martin
MVictors.com just learned that recently fired WTKA morning show host Dave Shand has decided to take on Bill Martin. Shand emailed the MVictors: “We filed a federal suit this morning against Bill Martin. Just wanted to let you know.” I guess Dave doesn’t plan on renewing his football or hockey tickets anytime in the next century. Developing. We requested more info on the suit, we’ll post updates here as we get them. For all the history on the Shand dismissal, including MVictors exclusive quotes from Shand, click here. UPDATE 6pm: The Ann Arbor News is on the story, just posted on MLive.com, more to come in tomorrow’s paper: Fired radio host sues Michigan athletic director Posted by Sports reporter John Heuser July 24, 2007 17:39PM Categories: Breaking News Former Ann Arbor sports radio host Dave Shand has sued University of Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, claiming that Martin “essentially used economic blackmail” to force his firing. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Ann Arbor, alleged that Martin told Shand’s bosses at WTKA-AM (1050) that station would lose its rights to broadcast Michigan football unless it dismissed Shand. “Either way you slice it, it’s illegal for Bill Martin to interfere in Dave’s private employment contract,” said Nicholas Roumel, Shand’s attorney. When Shand was fired in April, the…
-
Shand’s Former co-host chimes in
For those following the Dave Shand story, there’s not much going on. No major media source has mentioned the story. Recently Shand’s former co-host on WTKA 1050 Mike Wickett offered a few words on the situation here on MVictors.com. For those not closely monitoring the message board I thought I’d call it out: Sounds like a lot has happened since I’ve been gone. Dave has never been one to pull punches, especially on the air. I also know Dave understood what good radio was, and how close you sometimes needed to come to “that line”. I have no “inside info” on the situation, but I can only hope Dave and WTKA lands on its feet. Cheers from Milwaukee!! – Wickett Wickett left WTKA a few months before Shand’s firing to join former program manager Ryan Maguire in Milwaukee at station WSSP. He currently co-hosts The Doug Russell Show weekday mornings in Brew-town. Wickett and Shand hold the distinction of having the interview with Bo Schembechler just minutes before his death. Here’s all the posts related to the Dave Shand firing on MVictors.com.
-
Exclusive: Dave Shand Responds to Questions
Recently fired WTKA morning host Dave Shand addressed a few questions via email today. I’ll comment later but I wanted to get these out there: MVictors: Did you have any indication at all (prior to last week) that there were a group of folks looking for you to be fired? Shand: No indications anything was wrong. The show was going great. MVictors: Any guess what comments struck the nerve? I heard you go hard at the deans of the U-M schools a week or so ago. And you called out one by name. Do you think this had anything to do with it? Shand: Three things were brought up in the meeting with Ryan Curtis our special promotions director and Brian Cowen, our program director. 1. My ex wife in an associate athletic director at Michigan. Bill Martin thought talking about our divorce on the air was disrespectful. 2. I criticized [named omitted] the Dean of Kinesiology for being incompetent. I taught Sports Law there for 6 years. She never even knew who I was or what I taught. And there are only 12 people teaching. This [was said] was in the context of what makes Michigan great. It’s not the leadership or the deans but the great teachers and students. 3. The last thing was when I made fun…
-
Shand Quoted Again
Finally some more from Shand on the firing, since he gave his first statement on the matter to MVictors.com on Saturday. Dave reached out to daveshandfans.com yesterday and provided another quote, and a little more detail. daveshandfans.com also provided some commentary, but here’s Shand’s quote: “Thanks for all your support. It has been a fun ride. Apparently the Michigan athletic department and some older alum and ann arborites did not appreciate my brand of humor and threatened the station. Nothing I could do.” Nice work. We still have a bunch of questions.
-
More Questions On Shand Dismissal
Since we posted Dave Shand’s comments on his firing from WTKA this site has been getting peppered. I think this is a testament to the loyal fan base Shand developed in the area. While there are two sides to every story you can bet without an inquiry from a legitimate media source we won’t be hearing from Bill Martin’s office. While Shand is certainly one to rattle some cages, I don’t believe anyone questions his character: he’s an unquestioned ‘Michigan Man’, a former M player, coach, NHL’er, an attorney, and of all things, on the current payroll as a lecturer on sports law within the department of Kinesiology on campus. Not convinced? Check out this piece that ran in the Michigan Daily last summer. This whole situation begs so many questions. I’ll start with Shand’s ties to the athletic department. You have to assume Shand has a strong relationship with Red Berenson. What does Coach Red think about this? I gathered from listening to the morning show that Lloyd Carr is supposedly listed as a reference on Dave’s resume – what does Carr think? Remember the kind words Coach Carr had for former WTKA afternoon host Dennis Fithian when he was let go? I’m sure Carr’s intent was also a blast at WTKA. With so many close direct ties to…
-
“Bill Martin Had Me Fired”
UPDATE Monday 4/30: Shand responds to MVictors questions, click here Original Post: An effort to reach out to recently fired WTKA 1050AM talk show host Dave Shand paid off. I asked Shand for his understanding of what happened. Shand replied, “Bill Martin had me fired. [Martin] did not like some of the things I said on the show and threatened to pull Michigan football if I stayed. The station caved.” I asked Shand if he had any issue with posting these comments on MVictors.com. He wrote back, “Not at all. It’s true and was confirmed by our program director.” Oh boy. I reached out to a source (which we’ll leave unnamed) from the local media to comment on the situation and whether this crosses the line of censorship. Here are the thoughts that were shared: WTKA and Michigan have a business relationship. WTKA pays Michigan for the right to broadcast Michigan sports. Michigan has the right to approve the broadcasters who do the coaches shows, as well as the play-by-play broadcasts that appear only on WTKA (such as women’s basketball, baseball, etc.) Now, that doesn’t give Martin the right to hire and fire morning hosts, but it certainly gives him leverage with station management. One could argue that Michigan sports is integral to WTKA’s very existence, which gives Martin even…
