Jay Severin

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Jay Severin (WTKK Publicity Photo)

Jay Severin is a conservative talk radio personality on Boston's WTKK-FM (96.9).

Severin, a former GOP political consultant, worked for the presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush (1980) and Pat Buchanan (1996) before becoming a radio talk show host and political analyst.

In 2005, Severin became a regular contributor to MSNBC program The Situation with Tucker Carlson. He quickly quit, and partly attributed his decision to displeasure over having to commute from Sag Harbor to the New Jersey-based MSNBC studio.

In September of 2005, it was announced that Severin would be joining CBS Radio with a new show called "Jay Severin Has Issues". The status of his show at WTKK, "Extreme Games", was left in doubt, but ultimately both parties agreed he would return to the station with his new syndicated show.

On November 14, 2005, Michael Graham took over Severin's slot at WTKK; days later, any mention of Severin vanished from the WTKK web page.

In December 2005, WTKK ([1]) announced on their website that Severin would be broadcast following Michael Graham, silencing rumors that he would be moving to a competing station.

As of Summer 2006, Severin's syndicated radio program was heard in 48 cities across the country.

On October 9, 2006, Severin returned to his former timeslot, ending his syndication deal with Westwood One. WTKK owner, Greater Media, bought out Severin's remaining syndication contract. The current contract will last seven years.

1 Controversies
- 1.1 Radio Program
- 1.2 Pulitzer reference
2 External links and citations

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Radio Program

His radio program Extreme Games (on WTKK-FM Boston) has been criticized by Boston-area media, especially The Boston Globe, on numerous occasions for his harsh comments towards minorities and liberals. However, his choice of topics and on-air persona of libertine sportsman and blues enthusiast has made "Extreme Games" the most popular political radio talk show in New England.

[edit] Pulitzer reference

On September 9, 2005, during a discussion of journalistic standards, Severin described himself as the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for online journalism. "But since journalism began, and up until the time at least that I took my master's degree at Boston University -- and may I add without being obnoxious, up till and including the time that I received a Pulitzer Prize for my columns for excellence in online journalism from the Columbia School of Journalism, the highest possible award for writing on the Web --right up to and including that in 1998, you still had to practice journalism to be a journalist."^{[citation needed]}

Severin was not a recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, nor does it have a category for online journalism. In an article on September 16, 2005, the Boston Globe reporter Scot Lehigh confirmed with Pulitzer Prize administrator Sig Gissler, that Severin had never received a Pulitzer ([2]).

It was MSNBC.com that won an Online News Association award in 2000, which was administered by Columbia University, but completely unrelated to the Pulitzer Prize. Severin had a column that ran in MSNBC.com, but the award was given for the entire site.

In his radio show on January 17, 2006, he refuted the accusation, saying "I never said that I won the Pulitzer Prize. I never said that ever in my life... If I was in a business of suing people, and if I had a time and money to sue the Boston Globe in particular, I will be a very rich man."^{[citation needed]}