thetorgshow.com

Outside of Ohio State football, one of the big stories to come out of Columbus this week is the firing of Scott Torgerson, former co-host of “The Common Man and The Torg”, on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus.

On October 13, “The Torg” tweeted from his account that he wished that College GameDay analyst Desmond Howard would either be fired or die before he watched the show again. Needless to say, that tweet stirred up a lot of controversy. That following Monday, the radio station announced that it was indefinitely suspending Torgerson. On that same day, analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who hosts a one-hour show on Mondays for The Fan, took a few minutes out of his time to criticize Torgerson for his tweet, even though he did not mention Torg specifically in his message.

Advance to Wednesday and the station announced that it was letting go of Scott Torgerson. Their statement:

Scott Torgerson is no longer employed by our company as of today. We appreciate his contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors.

— 97.1 The Fan (@971thefan) October 24, 2012

The Fan has taken a lot of criticism for its decision, considering the show was one of the most popular shows not only in Columbus, but also the country. Since the decision, “Save the Torg” Facebook and Twitter pages have been created. In fact, the Facebook page has more likes than the 97.1 The Fan page. Clearly, there’s a lot of support for him.

That being said, there’s blame to go around on all sides. On Torgerson’s side, what he tweeted was not acceptable. His listeners will argue that he was only joking. Torgerson and his co-host, Mike Ricordati, are both known for pushing the envelope with their humor. That being said, there’s a line that Torgerson crossed and it was not in his best judgement to hit “send” on that particular tweet.

In my opinion, the punishment does not fit the crime. While I do believe that there should have been some disciplinary action taken (a suspension and a fine would have been acceptable), the rush to get rid one of the station’s most popular personalities was surprising.

Since then, “The Torg” is back on Twitter (@TheRealTheTorg) and now has his own website, giving his side of the story. He has taken responsibility for the tweet and has apologized to Desmond Howard and his family. He has stated that he plans to take legal action against the station, so it will be interesting to see how this situation develops going forward.