OUSTED TRIBUNE CHIEF PREDICTS HE’LL REBOUND

Former Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels insists that he has been receiving numerous job offers since he was ousted last week but hasn’t made any decision as yet. “My phone’s been ringing,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “There are a lot of people who look past noise and emotions and look at results.” He blamed his downfall on the “indefensible” memo sent out by former executive Lee Abrams — whom he had hired — saying that it occurred after “synaptic connections” between himself and Abrams were established in the minds of the board. Nevertheless, he insisted that he was not asked to step down. “The fact is I decided to resign because I thought this had become an issue that was distracting, that my ability to continue to lead the company was in serious question,” he told the Journal. He apparently made no mention of a front-page New York Times article last month that described the executive ranks of Tribune as a sexist frat house populated by Michaels’s former radio-industry cohorts. Michaels had risen to the top position at Tribune after a lengthy career in broadcasting, starting out as a disc jockey in Buffalo and Cincinnati and eventually rising to the top post at media giant Clear Channel Communications. However, he attracted as much criticism for his decisions as praise. Last week legendary radio programmer Ron Jacobs reprinted on his blog, whodaguyhawaiicom.blogspot.com, an article that he wrote following Michaels’s departure from Clear Channel in 2002. In it, he maintained that during his tenure at the company, Michaels had “stepped over, bullied, cheated and lied to smarter and more talented people, ones who actually loved and cared about radio, to achieve his egotistical and self-serving goals.”