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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesMARIO MISSING FROM AIRWAVES AGAIN

MARIO MISSING FROM AIRWAVES AGAIN

Fans of St. Croix radio talk show personality Mario Moorhead are again facing mornings without him.
In May, Moorhead took his popular daily show to WVIQ 99.5 FM after leaving his long-time morning slot on WSTX AM in March. But earlier this week, Moorhead resigned from his new station.
WVIQ owner Jonathan Cohen didn’t return calls but a station employee confirmed Moorhead had resigned. Moorhead couldn’t be reached to comment on the reason for his departure.
According to Barbara James-Petersen, WSTX general manager, Moorhead walked out of the studio in March after she asked him to set ground rules regarding his high-profile support for a fledgling political organization on St. Croix, the Crucian Coalition. The organization seeks to bolster St. Croix’s power in the Legislature and Moorhead’s show often featured discussions about the new group.
Soon after Moorhead left WSTX, James-Petersen said that by and large the radio station has an open-format policy but that ground rules were needed to keep the station from becoming a "free-for-all."
Moorhead’s move to Cohen’s station came as a surprise to some because of a flurry of controversy in February surrounding Cohen’s effort to hire a mainland talk host for one of his other stations. Many of Moorhead’s supporters blasted Cohen for signing a contract with Doug Tracht, also known by his on-air name of the Greaseman, who was fired from his last job in Washington, D.C., for making racist remarks.
In the wake of the whirlwind of controversy surrounding Tracht’s possible hiring, in which Cohen was called a bigot and reportedly threatened, the offer to Tracht was rescinded.
Cohen said in a statement soon after the debacle, "To those of you who sat in arrogant judgment of (Tracht’s) motives and mine, I reject your moral posturing and your incitement to bad behavior."

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