Matt Siegel abruptly signed off of his “Matty in the Morning” radio show Wednesday after he was told to stop commenting on pop star Demi Lovato’s announcement that they identify as non-binary. Siegel, a fixture on Boston radio for more than 40 years, hosts the Kiss 108 FM morning show alongside cohosts Billy Costa and Lisa Donovan.
The following is a partial transcript of Siegel’s rant, according to an audio clip posted to YouTube:
“I was basically told to stop because there are a lot of people who like Trump and it’s hurting the ratings, and I dropped it. Remember I stopped talking politics when I got a lot of heat? And I agreed to that because I wasn’t really funny, I’m a comedian, I wasn’t funny about Donald Trump. I was more nasty and that was bad radio so I stopped. Today I had the exact opposite. I was going against the ‘woke thing,’ OK? Against the Demi Lovatos of the world and all that kind of stuff.
“Well, I was just told, and there’s nothing personal because I like my boss personally, but he just called and said, I have to stop talking about what I’ve been talking about this morning. And I love the radio show this morning. I’m totally dead serious. I felt like I was back. We were laughing and having fun. We put people who are mad at me. We talked about that. And we acknowledged that I was making people mad. You know, but it was living, breathing radio. This is why I got rich.
“Okay, because I told it like it is to my listeners, for 40 bleepin’ years and they pulled the plug on me, and they said, ‘you can not talk about what you’re talking about.’ Again, I like my boss personally. I do. I’m very fond of him. He’s been very nice to me. It’s not personal. It’s professional. He said, he doesn’t want me talking about this, or basically, if I talk about right-wing pop, if I’m left-wing, and I go anti-Trump, I get in trouble. And today, I was anti-quote-unquote wokeness. And I can’t do that either.
“So basically what I’m told is I can talk about light, funny things, and where the Jonas Brothers are going to be, but I can’t do what I really want to do which is just be a funny comic who tells it like it is and says what he’s thinking. So I’m ending my portion of the radio show right now and I don’t know, I really don’t know.
“I just want to say to all my listeners, I love you and it has been a hell of a run. But I think it’s coming to an end. Bill and Lisa and Bex and Dom, I hate putting you in this position, but I was told by my boss I cannot talk about what I want to talk about. By the way, it’s a joke the whole binary thing. I don’t care what Demi Lovato does, but now we have to worry about you might offend someone. So I basically offended right-wing people. And today I offended left-wing people.
“So basically, what they want you to do is to be, you know, a lightweight show. We have that in the market. We have Magic ... we have [inaudible]. We have radio stations that don’t offend anybody. This was the ‘Matty in the Morning’ show, the number one radio show in the history of Boston radio. Okay? Bigger than Jess Cain, and Dave Maynard, and Charles Laquidara, and all of the radio giants in Boston. I am the biggest of all time. And they said shut up, Matt. Stop talking. Well, I hope you’re happy because I just stopped talking. Matty out.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at charlie.mckenna@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @charliemckenna9.