Michael Graham Taking WSPD/Toledo PM Drive?

RUMOR ALERT: A Radio-Info Cleveland board regular with his ears close to the Toledo rumor mill drops this little bombshell: He says he hears deposed WMAL/Washington host Michael Graham will officially take the WSPD/1370 Toledo afternoon drive position, starting tomorrow. This is still a rumor, as we have not confirmed it, but the original message was posted by someone we believe would be in a position to hear about it, even second-hand.

Graham was suspended, and later fired, from the ABC-owned DC news/talk outlet for controversial remarks. He's been doing fill-in on a number of stations, from Clear Channel talk powerhouse KFI/Los Angeles to even WSPD itself, in a recent stint in the slot opened by the departure of Denny Schaffer to WGST/Atlanta.

And to bring this full circle, Schaffer's new program director in Atlanta is none other than Randall Bloomquist, who was Graham's immediate boss in Washington, and who left the station a few weeks after Graham was let go. We speculated, when Graham was doing the WSPD fill-in, that he was waiting to join Bloomquist in Atlanta. But for now, if this is true, it appears he'll be headed for the Glass City as opposed to the Peachtree City...at least, for now.

If Graham is indeed headed for WSPD as a permanent, local host, he won't have a popular politician on his side. Former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who's running again in an attempt to unseat current mayor Jack Ford, expressed his displeasure with Graham's fill-in stint in a Toledo Blade article a few weeks ago. For his part, Ford wasn't all that welcoming to Graham either, saying through a spokesman - "I do not welcome anyone to this community who is divisive."

Graham's entrance at the Toledo news/talker would shortly follow an exit - program director Al Brady Law, a radio veteran, has left the building to program talker KTRS in St. Louis.