Fired Radio Host Mike Siegel Gets New Show Lost Job After Airing Rumors About Seattle Mayor Norm Rice

Radio talk-show host Mike Siegel, fired earlier this week from Seattle’s KVI, has been hired at KRKO Radio.

The station said Friday that Siegel will have a show from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. to discuss regional and national issues.

KRKO, with the slogan “News Too Hot for Seattle,” has a news talk format.

Siegel was fired from the Seattle station on Wednesday. He earlier aired derogatory rumors about Seattle Mayor Norm Rice.

Siegel told The Associated Press on Friday that he has received other offers and plans to stay at KRKO about a month while he ponders his future.

“I’ve never been so humbled, receiving all these expressions of support, literally hundreds of letters and calls flooding the comment line (at KVI),” he said.

Siegel, who attended the state Republican convention in Bellevue on Friday, said he has “great respect” for KVI owner Fisher Broadcasting and understands why the company fired him.

“I don’t want to get into all of that (Rice) business, but it makes any establishment uncomfortable if you are assertively uncovering things,” he said. “I think I was treated fairly and I respect management. I believe that when you have philosophical differences, it is best to part ways.”

Siegel declined to say if he regrets the Rice rumor incident, but said “the beauty of talk radio is its spontaneity.”

He was suspended May 20 while Fisher Broadcasting reviewed the circumstances surrounding the airing of the rumor on his program.

The rumor was raised by KGA radioshow host Richard Clear of Spokane in an April simulcast of his show and the Siegel show. Clear wasn’t punished.

At a May 13 news conference, Rice, a Democratic candidate for governor, condemned what he called “hate-talk” radio and denounced the airing of the rumor, which he said was a “vicious lie.”

Siegel subsequently apologized.