Dan Gross: Q102 pulls the plug on Booker's morning show

Q102 morning jock

Chris Booker

was fired from his broadcasting duties after his show yesterday, as were co-host

Angi Taylor

and show producer

Blaire Galaton.

"This was not a reflection on anybody's performance," a Clear Channel/Q102 spokeswoman told us yesterday.

"We're looking at more programming options but in the meantime we're playing more music," said Morrill.

Taylor and Galaton are no longer Clear Channel employees, but Morrill says Booker is still on staff. He just won't be on-air.

"So he'll be paid through his contract?" we asked. Morrill said she couldn't discuss that, but that he remains an employee.

"Will his position be to play golf and not show up at the station?" we asked. "That depends on if he likes to play golf," Morrill said.

Booker joined Q102 in May 2006 and had about a year left on his contract. Typically in radio, if a host is fired due to a format change or a management whim and not for a particular offense or incident, he is paid through his contract.

The station recently demanded that Booker play more music during the show, which upset some listeners. Booker sidekick Diego Ramos, who has been at the radio station since the mid-1990s, was not fired yesterday, and will serve in an unknown capacity at the station.

Booker did not return a request for comment yesterday. All references to the Booker Show were removed from Q102's Web site yesterday morning.

Meanwhile Booker's girlfriend, Alycia Lane, fired by CBS3 in January, is on a national search for a television job. With Booker's firing, the couple, who are quite serious, could end up leaving town if one or both land a job in another market.

Booker, 37, who previously worked at New York's K-ROCK, has also been a contributor to the TV Guide Channel and Entertainment Tonight. He is also occasionally seen on VH1's "I Love the . . . " series.

A Los Angeles production company recently sent a camera crew to shoot the Booker Show in action for a potential reality TV pilot about a morning radio show.

Angi Taylor, who broadcast on the show by an Internet feed from her home in Chicago, told us yesterday she was shocked that "after bringing in the numbers this show achieved that we were all let go. I love Philly and I love Q.

"I also know it wasn't about us and I have to keep that in mind. I wish we had the chance to say goodbye to our listeners who are such a part of our lives, but I know that's not how it's done. I'll miss this job like crazy," Taylor said in an e-mail. *

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