Matty’s Back, And Still Angry

• So, Matt Siegel returned to his morning show on WXKS (Kiss 108)/Boston Thursday morning, 24 hours after making national news when he went off on an ill-advised riff castigating Demi Lovato over their announcement to come out as non-binary, and then signing off mid-show after being told by management to change the subject.

Siegel explained that he had spoken to his wife and the company about the incident, saying, “The company basically said ‘please don’t quit.’ And they said that I have total support from them and freedom to say what I want. So I kind of won that battle. My wife said I’m not ending my career blaming Demi Lovato. So I’m here.” He added, “I want to make it pretty clear — I meant what I said. I mean, if the company pushed back, I wouldn’t be here today. That’s a fact. The company made a decision to encourage me to stay. They could have said, ‘Well, we’ll let you back on the air if you better watch what you say,’ I would have absolutely retired. That’s a fact. So I do appreciate the company handling it that way, and I really don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

Later in the show, things took a decidedly ugly turn — an audio excerpt, posted by Boston Radio Watch, Part 2 (retweeted from listener Becca Canavan), captured Siegel berating his Executive Producer/co-host Rebekah “Bex” Maroun (left) on air over his claim that she had failed to post the audio of Wednesday’s show and didn’t call him to tell him. For Bex’s part, she replied that 1) the decision to not post the show came from well above her pay grade, and 2) she did call him, even offering the exact time.

Siegel said to Bex, “I was told that I could not poke fun at Demi Lovato, because she might be at our Jingle Ball or something, and I said I’ll quit before I stop doing that. And you wouldn’t post it?” Bex replied, “That was not my decision… that decision comes from way above me. I’m just doing my job.” Siegel replied, “Guess what, iHeart… we got another problem again. That makes me furious. Really. Here we go again. I guess maybe iHeart doesn’t have my back. Maybe I was right yesterday.”

Siegel then turned his ire back onto Bex, saying, “This is real. Don’t you ever do that… you work for me… or you don’t work for me. I wanted to do everything on this show to not do this. Everything today was about ‘keep it light, keep it light.’ And now I find out the company is doing it to me again. Holy cow! And thanks a lot for your call that I didn’t get. You didn’t think to call me?” When Bex attempted to explain that she had, in fact called Siegel, even telling him the exact time, he interrupted her, saying, “You need to stop. Turn your mic off. Turn it off. Turn it off.” RAMP is still waiting for a response from iHeartMedia management about this situation.