Former KNBR radio personality Ralph Barbieri spent over 28 years of his life working for the Bay Area's staple sports radio station, but after being hastily let go from the network on Wednesday, Barbieri presented a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, telling a bit of his side of the story.
Make the jump to see what he had to say.
Here is Barbieri's statement in full
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"First of all I want to say that I was flattered and humbled by what Tom had to say at the beginning of the show today. I've never seen him anywhere close to that emotional and I was genuinely touched by his words. At this point, all that I can say - cliche-ish though it may be - is that I'm weighing my options, which are considerable, before I want to say anything further.
I've heard it said that this was an amicable parting. That is not exactly the case. I came to work (Tuesday) morning, totally unaware that anything of this nature was afoot, especially since my contract didn't end until Nov. 1.
As soon as I walked in, I was told that the General Manager wanted to see me. I went into his office. He and the program director were there. I was told that I was being terminated and that today, April 10, would be my last day at KNBR.
They presented me with about 100 pages of legal documents and told me to get to them after I had read them. I was told to gather my belongings and turn in my card key, at which point I was "escorted" out of the building by a KNBR management person.
The whole process took about 7 minutes. Twenty-eight years and change at KNBR they had neatly wrapped up for me in 7 minutes. Let's see: Four years for every minute. You got to admit that's pretty darn time efficient - not to mention incredibly classy. Oh, and when I got to my car and tried to access my voicemail, which contained about 20 messages, I found that the station had cut off access to my voicemail. I'll have more to say later."
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Seems like Barbieri got a raw deal, but then again, you never really know what goes on behind close doors, and business is business. What do you thnk? Leave you comments below.
