Earlier this afternoon, Terry Foster announced that he was retiring from his radio gig at 97.1 after unsuccessfully returning to the airwaves following two strokes he had suffered last year. It was a shock to many, but not to those who had been reading either this website or my Twitter feed since Foster’s return in January.
I predicted this outcome back in early February after being deluged with emails, Tweets and Facebook messages from fans of the Mike Valenti and Foster program. I received literally over 100 messages from listeners bombing Valenti for his treatment of Foster while the former Detroit News writer tried to ease his way back into the show he had co-hosted for over a decade.
I even wrote an article detailing Foster’s struggles with reading live advertising copy and wondered if CBS Radio was being dishonest with their clients regarding what they were actually purchasing. I am not just writing this to pat myself on the back — although I love doing that — but to let you know I’ve been pretty dialed in on this story for months now. Just in case you want to question what I am going to write next.
Terry Foster can see and write whatever he wants about Valenti now that he has “retired”, but it is Valenti’s behavior which expedited this process. Just look back at what I wrote on February 6th regarding Valenti’s treatment of his longtime broadcast partner …..
Speculation among industry insiders is that Valenti is trying to make a point with 97.1 management with his treatment of Foster. (3)
— Jeffrey Moss (@JeffMossDSR) February 7, 2017
If Valenti pushes Foster out, the thinking is a national search will commence to find his replacement. Not in-house. (6)
— Jeffrey Moss (@JeffMossDSR) February 7, 2017
Valenti and the show’s producer (Mike Sullivan) were horrendous to Foster upon his return. They were abusive, denigrating and had zero patience for the fight Foster was waging. As I wrote back in January, even I had laid off Foster after warring with him for years. It became quite obvious that Valenti viewed this as his opportunity to rid himself of Foster once and for all. Look, I would have had no problem if Valenti had used his clout PRE-STROKE to get rid of Foster, either because the New York Studio Gangsta thought T-Fos wasn’t doing enough show prep or that he was diverting the show to areas Valenti didn’t want it to go.
But waiting until AFTER the guy had two brain episodes to make his power move? Well, it’s the story of Valenti’s life. From originally wanting to work with a punching bag in Foster, to how he ended his longtime relationship with his ex-girlfriend when he met his current wife, to refusing to leave the comfort of his 97.1 studio and his 14-second delay button in order to burnish his tough guy act. And of course, abandoning Twitter because of some real meanies.
It’s his legacy. All of this is his typical modus operandi. He is a devout coward and this latest move is his Mona Lisa.
I spoke to someone in the radio business who advised me that mundane tasks like opening a door had become an issue for Foster and that it was “sad to see.” So when Valenti states that Foster didn’t want to be treated differently on the air — as he stated today on the air — just remember the thought of Foster struggling to hold a door open. Yeah, maybe Foster made that comment, but where the fuck is your humanity, Mike?
On an almost a daily basis, I would receive alerts from my followers that either Valenti or his handpicked, bitch boy producer Sullivan was tormenting Foster over issues that CLEARLY were related to the strokes. One would have to wonder if the show’s former producer Jim Bentley would have stood by while the pair treated Foster so horribly.
Valenti actually stated on 97.1 this afternoon that he wasn’t patient enough with Foster post-stroke. Is that your guilty conscious speaking? Are you going through a 12-step program? Maybe the next person with whom you should make amends is your ex-girlfriend. Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense AFTER you got your way. You might be fooling your listeners, but ya ain’t fooling me.
I am sure some of you are surprised that I am defending Foster. It’s no secret that this websight™ (Terry Foster) has a long, sordid history with the Central Michigan University grad going back to the days when I was a fan of the “Sports Doctors” program on WDFN with Art Regner and Foster. The first local notoriety the DSR received was when Foster wrote an article about this site for the Detroit News.
And of course there was the time that Foster tried to go partners with us and join our venture by suggesting we supplement the website with a paper version. A sports version of the Metro Times. He even once wrote an article for the DSR that his News’ bosses immediately made us take down.
But everything changed when Foster discovered Twitter. His Tweets were so terrible that I couldn’t refrain from bombing him. This led to an all-out, ugly Twat War while Foster was on the air one afternoon that culminated with him calling me a racist. You can call me a lot of things (many of them deserved) but a racist is not one of them. I am a bleeding heart, Bernie Sanders supporting liberal who stopped doing my weekly appearances with Ryan Schuilling because I refused to appear on a show with a Donald Trump supporter. I am to the left of Ta-Nehisi Coates when it comes to African-Americans receiving reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.
Calling me a racist was the end of any civil relationship between the two of us and I declared a Fatwah that didn’t end until Foster’s first stroke. I was vicious in retaliation over his false label and I constantly destroyed Foster over his awful sports takes and many failed restaurant ventures. It’s true. You can even Google it.
But even I felt bad about the stroke and how it hindered Foster from him doing his job. It could not have come at a worse time as less than a year prior, Foster had been forced out by the News. They had given him an ultimatum that he either take the Pistons beat gig or accept a buyout. Of course, Foster couldn’t follow the Pistons on the road 41 times a year AND do the 97.1 show so he picked radio. And then approximately seven months later he had the first stroke.
If that timing wasn’t bad enough, Foster’s oldest daughter is on the verge of entering college. Foster recently proudly announced that his first-born got into Stanford and I am pretty sure that’s not a cheap school to attend.
It’s all very sad as the media personality is only 58 years old. He went from two lucrative media jobs to none and whatever buyout he allegedly received from CBS Radio or Entercom or whatever it’s called these days surely isn’t sufficient for a man of his age.
But I am sure that deep down Valenti is extremely happy with this turn of events. He got rid of Foster and now he can do the show alone with his “Yes Man” Sullivan chiming in with brilliant takes such as the Michigan basketball team plane crash being an overblown story.
People are already speculating over who will replace Foster, but I don’t see anyone filling that chair until football season at the earliest. I am guessing they will conduct a national search but at the end of the day Valenti and his agent Mort Meisner will probably demand that Jeff Riger get that cushy spot. Riger was the fill-in when Foster was rehabilitating and is a client of Meisner as well.
And Kermit the Riger is a good fit for both 97.1 and Valenti. He will come cheap and the Ass Clown Coward will get another dopey punching bag to battle.
Only Alan Colmes could fill that job any better.
And he is dead.
I kind of get why Valenti hates humanity so much. He owns a mirror.