According to local blogger Rich Lieberman, the battle between KNBR and Ralph Barbieri is only about to begin, and the court room could be the next destination:
Take a three-decade guy with a ton of local juice who comes out of the closet to disclose he's got early-stages Parkinson's disease and go fire that! That's what Barbieri was thinking. Beyond that, Ralph was thinking one last contract until he could retire at age 70. One last payday. Only the Bungeroth boys wanted no more of the Razor and that was evident last fall when they wanted to fire the feisty Italian, but held off for temporary pr purposes, underline temporary.
The biggest question is whether or not he was fired with cause, which will be a huge factor when it comes to this issue.
Was Barbieri fired with cause? Huge question. If so, and I do believe he was, then we have issues to be resolved and those issues can only be resolved in the legal dept. A source speculated that Cumulus "probably paid him off after they 'terminated him, gave him a little more severance and told him not to talk or he'd lose his last golden parachute." And knowing Ralph, he probably told them to stuff it on his way out the door before getting on the phone to his lawyer, Bob Moore.
This is certainly long from over, that's for sure.
