Randi Kirshbaum’s Legal Saga Continues
• Veteran Triple A programmer and air personality Randi Kirshbaum is awaiting the outcome of a wrongful termination lawsuit she brought against her former employer, Saga Communications. As The Bangor Daily News reports, the case was initially filed in May in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland, and Saga’s attorney last Thursday moved it to U.S. District Court in Portland.
You may recall that in May 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, Kirshbaum, a four-decade mainstay of Saga’s Portland Radio Group, serving in the multiple roles of Program Director of AC WMGX (Coast 93.1)and Triple A WCLZ, afternoon talent on WCLZ and middays on Country WPOR, was terminated for what she believed were medical reasons.
Kirshbaum’s complaint states that she had sought an accommodation to continue to work from home on her doctor’s advice rather than in the office in the early months of the pandemic due to her age and family history of pulmonary disease. Saga, at the time, denied that Kirshbaum has been terminated for health reasons; in fact, the company insisted that Kirshbaum had not been “terminated” at all, but instead “placed on layoff,” stating, “When we started to allow people to work remotely it was our intent to have Randi work on site due to the nature of her supervisory position.” Kirshbaum claims her unscheduled departure violated the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, a component of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, both passed by Congress in response to the pandemic.
Kirshbaum’s attorney, David Webbert says that the complaint Kirshbaum filed against Saga with the Maine Human Rights Commission in late 2020 is still pending. Once the commission’s investigator has filed a report, discrimination claims will be added to the complaint, he said. Saga, through its attorney, Shiloh Theberge, has denied Kirshbaum’s allegations, stating “Saga will not comment on this ongoing litigation, except to deny Plaintiff’s claims and state that it is planning to vigorously defend itself against those claims.”
Since late last year Kirshbaum (pictured here with her faithful canine producer, Grady) has been tracking middays for Triple A WRNR/Annapolis, MD, owned by Steve Kingston‘s Empire Broadcasting, and for Northeast Broadcasting Triple A WNCS (The Point)/Montpelier-Burlington, VT and the Point Network of simulcast partners across the state of Vermont.
While Kirshbaum is understandably unable to comment on the pending legal action, she did tell RAMP, “I’m grateful to get to do what I love on the radio in Baltimore and Vermont, working for companies that appreciate how well I can entertain listeners remotely.” An answer to the complaint is due Thursday.
