McGreevey inactive on radio offer

TRENTON - Jim McGreevey says he is turning down an offer from New Jersey 101.5 to host a talk show.

The former governor's tongue-in-cheek response yesterday to the politically controversial Trenton station: "Thanks for the gracious offer, but I don't want to destroy your image."

The state's top-rated talk-radio outlet made its offer after an expert witness in McGreevey's bitter divorce trial described him as "radioactive" in the work world since a gay sex scandal toppled his administration four years ago.

"Gov. McGreevey has claimed that he is 'unemployable,' and the management of New Jersey 101.5 simply does not believe this to be true," the station said in statement.

McGreevey, 50, has testified in state Superior Court in Elizabeth that he is too poor to pay alimony to his estranged wife, Dina Matos McGreevey, 41.

He is a seminary student who says he has borrowed more than $200,000 from boyfriend Mark O'Donnell to pay legal bills and other expenses.

Andy Santoro, chief operating officer at Millennium Radio New Jersey, insisted the offer was legitimate, saying McGreevey remains "one of the most intriguing political figures in New Jersey's history."

He said McGreevey had turned down a previous offer because of "bad timing."

The station, formally WKXW-FM, would not say what it would have paid McGreevey, but said it was willing to negotiate.

McGreevey is to take the stand when his divorce trial resumes today after a one-day recess.