Nanci Donnellan, better known to local sports talk fans as the pioneering radio personality the Fabulous Sports Babe, said Monday she was let go by CBS Radio, just before she was to start her 7 p.m. shift at the Tampa Bay area’s first FM sports talker, reports The Tampa Bay Times.
But a CBS Radio official said Donnellan instead has been offered part-time work on the weekends, freeing up the timeslot for an effort to get better ratings. She’s expected to take this weekend off and start the following weekend.
Donnellan was part of the inaugural lineup of Sportsradio 98.7 the Fan (WHFS-FM), when it debuted on Aug. 2, 2012. Starting on the 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. weekday shift, Donnellan was later moved to 7 p.m., where more fans could hear the first woman to ever host a nationally syndicated sports talk program.
Once a national radio star, Donnellan seemed to believe she was out of a job Monday. “Whether or not I had any good ratings or bad ratings, they’ll always blame the talent,” she said, noting that her show was forced to compete against radio broadcasts of baseball games by the Tampa Bay Rays.
“For me to go against the Rays every day, that was tough,” she added, noting that she expected her audience reaction to improve once football season started. “With the Bucs, you have one game a week and five days to complain about it.”
Gabe Hobbs, a former Clear Channel Radio executive who now represents Donellan, said Monday he was surprised by the move, because the station had offered her a contract extension that they hadn’t finished negotiating.
Brian Thomas, the vice president of programming for CBS Radio in Tampa, said part time hosts will work in the timeslot until they pick a successor.
Back in the mid-‘90s, Donnellan was a national star, with a syndicated show on ESPN Radio and an in-your-face biography; Newsweek then called her “the hottest new voice in the airstream.” But health problems and declining ratings dimmed her star; in January 2012, she had a stroke.
See the Tampa Bat Times story here.
