Booted

Our pal Peter Werbe has found himself smack in the middle of an interesting little controversy. Host of one of the few left-wing talk shows in the country, Werbe’s program on the IEAmerica network was booted from a radio station in Santa Cruz, Calif., three weeks ago after Werbe had the audacity to swim against the awesome tide of prevailing public opinion by questioning the bombing of Afghanistan.

According to the network’s Web site, Werbe’s show was yanked from KOMY-AM with no notification. Werbe — a longtime Metro Times contributor who has hosted a call-in show on WRIF in Detroit for 30 years — told News Hits that the Santa Cruz station owner went so far as to call him an “asshole” on the air, and “apologized” to the people of Santa Cruz for having broadcast his program.

But the station owner, a guy by the name of Michael Zwerling, might not have realized how many people he was pissing off. We’re told that hundreds of e-mails supporting Werbe have been flooding in — not just the lefties in the decidedly lefty town of Santa Cruz, but from as far away as Korea, Britain and France. Alice Nutter, lead singer of the group Chumbawamba, has also weighed in on behalf of Werbe, releasing info about the station’s action to her group’s extensive mailing list. According to Werbe, a couple of California alternative papers are running stories this week.

We say, way to go, P.W.

Anyone interested in promoting political diversity on the AM dial is encouraged by News Hits to contact Zwerling by calling 831-475-1080 or e-mailing him at [email protected].