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Steve Corbett was planning to sign off for good at the end of the year from his afternoon radio talk show, but he said his politics forced an earlier-than-anticipated exit.

”I got fired,” Corbett said Thursday in an exclusive interview with the Times Leader. He suspected it was because of his unwavering opposition to Republican candidate and now President Donald Trump.

His “separation” — the official term he said management at WILK Newsradio used — occurred last week as he was going on a planned vacation. Ryan Flynn, vice president and general manager with Entercom Communications Corp., owner of the 101.3 FM Avoca-based station, declined comment.

Corbett, 65, worked at WILK for 10 years and filled the 3 p.m.-to-6 p.m. weekday time slot with a mix of opinion, humor and hard news, often skewering Northeastern Pennsylvania power brokers and politicians. The former Times Leader newspaper columnist was a hector to some and a hero to others and encouraged his audience daily with his signature sendoff: “Don’t let them scare you. Don’t let them buy you. Find your voice and use it. You better listen.”

He used his voice and the airwaves to support Democrat Hillary Clinton during the presidential election and took every opportunity to criticize Trump, a stance that rankled listeners who complained to management, attacked him on the station’s Facebook page and threatened to boycott advertisers. There was even an online petition to have Entercom take him off the air, he said.

“The presidential election played a big part of turning a lot of people against me,” Corbett said.

None of that was brought up during his brief meeting with Flynn, Corbett said. Instead, he said he was told his ratings had been low for the past two years and the company was making some changes.

He said he sent Flynn an email asking for a more detailed explanation of his firing but did not get a reply. What he’d been told on his way out didn’t match with how he’d been treated the past few years.

“If things weren’t looking good, I certainly had no indication,” Corbett said.

He thought the company was pleased with his work. He signed a three-year contract in 2015 and got a raise. The consultant Entercom hired to review its talk radio across the country paid a visit and after listening in gave him a rave review, he said.

“What does seem to jell is that I do have evidence to show for two years I probably led the anti-Trump charge more than any person in Northeastern Pennsylvania, ” Corbett said. “Even after the election, I continued to fight.”

He would not take the job back if it was offered, but defended his work at the station.

“It was a good 10 years. I stood on principle and never wavered,” Corbett said, adding he stood against racism and anti-Semitism. “I was the person who stood on those principles for fighting for what is right.”

In June, he turns 66 and is eligible for full Social Security benefits. His plan was to work until the end of the year and ask to be released from the final six months of his contract. Without a job, he has plenty of work to do and retirement is not in his future.

He’s writing a book about the presidential campaign. He’s 175 pages into his 250-page goal. Someone’s interested in the piece he’s described as a memoir with the working title, “When Hillary’s President (Hard Coal Politics and Cheap Journalism).” It chronicles the time period between November 2015 through November 2016 and covers Clinton and former Vice President Joe Biden’s Scranton connection. Interwoven in the work is Corbett’s experience as a journalist.

There’s even a chapter on Trump from when Corbett met him in New Hampshire during primary season. They met face-to-face in a hotel and Trump, unlike Clinton, had no security detail to prevent Corbett from walking right up to him at a breakfast buffet.

Trump didn’t have much to say other than to ask Corbett what media outlet he worked for. Corbett said he asked Trump, “How do you expect to secure the Southern border when you can’t even secure the scrambled eggs on the buffet?”

Steve Corbett, formerly of WILK, is seen hosting his talk radio show.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_corbett-3.jpg.optimal.jpgSteve Corbett, formerly of WILK, is seen hosting his talk radio show. Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader file photo

By Jerry Lynott

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Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.