Marty Thompson Fired By WUBE-FM

Marty Thompson confirms that he has been fired by Bonneville International Corp. owners of WUBE-FM, WKRQ-FM, WYGY-FM and WSWD-FM (The Sound). But he won't say any more than that, and neither will market manager Jim Bryant.

Bryant confirms that "Marty is gone." After he was dismissed Monday, Q102 program director marketing director Patti Marshall was promoted to operations director for all four stations. "We are looking for a new PD for WUBE-FM and WYGY-FM," he said. When asked why Thompson was canned, despite a #2 ranking in most recent ratings trends for B105, Bryant says: "I can't go there."

Thompson had been program director at country B105 for 2-1/2 years. He added the Wolf country station in November, when Bonneville acquired WYGY-FM (96.5) and The Sounds (94.9). Thompson had been out of the office for six weeks to go to the Ukraine and adopt a 6 year old boy with Down's syndrome. He was fired Monday, his first day back at work.

B105 was No. 2 in the winter ratings released in May for all listeners and the important 25-54 demographic. B105 usually has been a top 3 station in 25-54.

Known as "Marty with the Party" on old WDJO-AM, Thompson has worked for oldies WGRR-FM, WLW-AM and other stations here.