Houston sports radio station SportsTalk 790 has reportedly fired one of its hosts and suspended another, and it’s not exactly clear why.
The two guys involved were morning yakker Josh Innes, best known for getting into a shouting match with a rival station at this year’s Radio Row, as well as somehow getting fired from Philly station WIP for making fun of a rival station’s racist gag; and afternoon yakker Adam Clanton, who isn’t really known at all but picked a weird fight last month with ESPNer Sarah Spain.
Houston sports forum Clutch Fans delivered the news Monday, and Clanton confirmed his firing to the Houston Chronicle.
The beef seemed to stem from last Saturday, when Clanton retweeted Innes’s bad opinion from 2011 about the Texans’ draft selection of J.J. Watt, delivered back when Innes was working for another station, Houston’s SportsRadio 610. On Monday’s show, Innes spent nine minutes talking about his coworker, mocking him with an impression, and saying Clanton was “bought off” by the Rockets to stop criticizing the team and James Harden. Houston Media Watch has the audio, but here’s a partial transcript:
At least he took a break with fighting with the gal from ESPN or something—he loves to fight with ESPN people. That’s a fascinating thing I’ve noticed.
[Cohost: Well, it’s worked for Clay (Travis).]
Yeah, so let’s go fight with the ESPN people because they’re not giving the Rockets their just due or something like that.
[...]
My take was stupid. J.J. Watt’s maybe the best defensive player of the last decade. It’s a stupid opinion. I acknowledge it was a dumb opinion from a 23-year-old dope.
[Co-host: And that’s the difference, you’re not denying that you said this.]
No. Well, I don’t work for the Texans. So I wasn’t bought off by a team and then randomly become the biggest fanboy ever. Funny how that works when people who talk a big game about being hard, right? That’s like, a big thing. [Does an impression of Clanton] I put on for my city. In my leather jacket. I’m so hard. I’m like Fonz, but really hard, and not from that ass place Milwaukee. Terrible fans, worst fans ever.
That’s the extent of the public-facing feud, as far as we can tell. Bryan Erickson, director of AM programming for iHeartMedia Houston, didn’t respond for comment. Innes, Clanton, and iHeartMedia Houston President Eddie Martiny were all silent, too. If you know what the hell happened, drop a line.