Dave Palet was fired from his job at XTRA Sports 1360 last week just hours after the station's corporate owner issued a memo admitting three Arbitron diaries used to calculate San Diego's radio ratings came from the home of a local media member.
Clear Channel San Diego, which owns the station, did not identify the media member but said in a memo to advertisers that the “household in question has been directly linked to the household of an on-air personality on KLSD-AM” – the call letters for XTRA Sports 1360.
The memo, which was sent out Friday, also states the “on-air personality in question has been removed from the on-air shift and will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.” Palet was fired late Friday afternoon.
Palet, who co-hosted a talk show with Jeff Dotseth at the all-sports station since its debut in November and at three other San Diego stations in the past decade, declined comment yesterday. According to his agent, David Brody of Birmingham, Ala., Palet “denies all claims by Clear Channel and will pursue legal action for defamation of professional reputation.”
Bob Bolinger, president and market manager for Clear Channel San Diego, said in the memo to “Valued Clients” that the company “agrees with the Arbitron policy” prohibiting media-affiliated households from filling out diaries.
Bolinger, who is out of town and has not responded to messages seeking comment, said in the memo that Clear Channel “moved swiftly to correct the situation.”
Arbitron announced yesterday it “learned that three Summer 2008 Week 2 San Diego metro diaries were returned from a media-affiliated household.” The company, which did not identify the household, said it would release revised ratings Friday for the past two “Arbitrends” ratings periods covering May-July and June-August.
XTRA Sports showed improvement in those trends, but Arbitron said in a statement, “Audience estimates for KLSD-AM may be substantially affected in particular demos and dayparts.”
An Arbitron spokeswoman said the company asks all prospective participants in the diary process whether they live in a “media-affiliated household.” No diaries are sent to a home if the answer is yes, she said.
Jay Posner: (619) 293-1834; jay.posner@uniontrib.com
