MICHAELS’S CLEAR CHANNEL COHORTS AXED AT TRIBUNE

Several of ousted Tribune CEO Randy Michaels’s former colleagues from his radio days at Jacor and Clear Channel Communications are following him out the door of the media company. The Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday that they include John Phillips, a former traffic reporter for Clear Channel, whom Michaels had brought on board as director of facilities at the company’s headquarters in Chicago. It was Phillips who posted on Facebook photographs taken at a poker party hosted in what was once the office of Col. Robert R. McCormick, the conservative publisher of the Tribune, who opposed America’s entry into World War II. A caption on one of the Facebook photos noted that the poker players “pretty much desecrated [the office] with gambling, booze and cigars.” Phillips’s wife Betsy, who also worked for Clear Channel, is also reportedly out at Tribune, as are Marc Chase, a longtime friend of Michaels from his radio days, who had been appointed head of Tribune Interactive; COO Jeff Kapugi, a former programming VP for Clear Channel; and Tribune Executive Vice President Carolyn Gilbert, who had previously held the title of “Critical Mass Media President” at Clear Channel.