Tony Bruno: WIP Owes Me $30,000

The sports talk host left his show with Josh Innes in July.

Has 94 WIP stiffed former host Tony Bruno? The sports talk host said on Twitter yesterday that Andy Bloom, WIP operations manager, still owes him $30,000 after Bruno’s show with Josh Innes hit No. 1 in the radio ratings.

Bruno spoke to Crossing Broad about the incident, claiming that he didn’t have a contract promising a bonus for hitting No. 1, but did have a letter of intent with such language. Bloom “claims I had no deal, yet paid me everything agreed in letter of intent except ratings bonus,” Bruno said. “I warned Bloom my next move was taking this public. He defers to CBS legal. Tired of taking the high road to help others succeed… guy is protecting his own butt at my expense.”

The squabble now seems to hinge on a contract-signing deadline. Bruno claims WIP is saying that he had until March 1 to sign, or else his letter of intent is null. Bruno claims he never got a contract until March 31, and it was still not what the two sides had verbally agreed on.

Bruno quit working at WIP back in July, even though his show with Innes had done well in the ratings. After a reported rift between the two co-hosts, Bruno was suddenly off the air, prompting questions from listeners and an epic rant by Innes. Bruno later explained that he quit because “the modern world of radio and social media has sucked the fun out of doing this due to ‘factions’ whose sole attempt is to provoke ‘wars’ or have listeners ‘take sides’ to anger or distract the process of doing radio every day,” he said on his website.

Both Bruno and Innes insisted that they liked each other and that there were no arguments or confrontations. “I enjoyed being around Tony,” said Innes on the air. “I respected him.”

Bruno has since been replaced by Hollis Thomas and Spike Eskin.