Thursday morning, it emerged that Pirates president Frank Coonelly had been arrested and charged with four counts related to drunken driving. But if you’ve been listening to Pittsburgh’s sports talk radio station 93.7 The Fan, you may not have heard much about it.
The Fan will be broadcasting the Pirates’ games this summer. And in the meantime, they’re telling their hosts to stay quiet on the topic of Coonelly’s DUI.
The Pittsburgh sports-talk station that reached an agreement in September to broadcast the Pirates’ games has now told its hosts they may not discuss the situation, or to field calls on the air from listeners interested in talking about it. The topic apparently may only be discussed on the station in news updates. The decision by station management at 93.7 KDKA-FM, The Fan—a CBS Radio-owned property—is currently being tossed around Yinzer circles on Twitter, and a source has just confirmed it to me directly.
Yikes. Coonelly’s arrest is pretty clearly worthy of discussion. If this is how The Fan is going to cover the Pirates this season, that’s a problem. At my blog, Bucs Dugout, I’m generally perceived as being pro-Pirates management, but Coonelly’s arrest deserves discussion, and any responsible news outlet should be covering the negatives as well as the positives.